Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

At Hot Docs, we are proud of our mandate to advance the creative imprint of documentary film. We achieve this by facilitating the development of and public access to non-fiction media through an annual 11-day Festival, and also by facilitating production and networking opportunities for filmmakers.

History of Organization

Hot Docs is North America's largest documentary festival, conference and market. We started off with no full-time staff, one computer, one phone, and a calling to find, screen, develop, launch, and support the best docs and their makers. Ten years ago we showed screenings at cafés in the city, drawing audiences of 4,000 people. Today, Hot Docs engages 151,000 people with over 360 screenings on sixteen screens across Toronto, and reaches 2,000 emerging and established documentary professionals, as well as more than 60,000 students. Hot Docs has an incredibly diverse audience, in part due to our programming of an incredible range of films of diverse subject matter and filmmaker orientation. We also take pride in collaborating with other organizations and events noted for their specializations in servicing specific communities and increasing community access to documentaries that advance their work. Working within a lean budget to organize our activities, Hot Docs is proud to have created a distinct role for ourselves within the documentary world, and have established ourselves as a key cultural event. The 2012 Hot Docs Festival will take place from April 26 to May 6, 2012.

Accolades and Accomplishments

Hot Docs has developed a strong reputation for quality in film presentation and audience development, a high level of professionalism, solid financial and administrative infrastructure, and a loyal audience and filmmaker following. Other accomplishments include:

• Audience attendance having doubled within the last three years, now reaching 151,000 film enthusiasts.
• Youth participation in our Docs for Schools program increasing 674 per cent in five years, now engaging 60,000 students from 314 schools.  
• The Doc Library, a free online cultural resource that is home to over 400 Canadian docs, interviews and education resources.  
• The Shaw Media-Hot Docs Funds, which to date has supported 55 Canadian documentary projects with $1,010,000 in completion grants and $359,000 in no-interest loans.
• Helping to facilitate more than $50 million in financing for filmmakers.
• Establishing a $1-million Hot Docs-Blue Ice Film Documentary Fund providing financial support to independent documentary filmmakers based in emerging African markets.
• A new partnership with Blue Ice Film to operate the recently acquired Bloor Cinema. Currently undergoing renovation, the Bloor Cinema will reopen this fall under Hot Docs’ management, revitalized and ready to welcome Toronto’s film-loving public.
• Being named a finalist of the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (2007 and 2011).

Programs

>Docs for Schools
>Doc Camp
>Crowd Funding Micro Site

Hot Docs provides the following services to the Toronto public:

• More than 360 screenings of 199 cutting-edge documentaries during the 11-day Festival.
• Quality artistic and educational opportunities, via documentary screenings and talks, which often address social, political, or cultural concerns.
• Addressing issues relevant to diverse constituencies (ethnocultural & community groups, as well as young audiences).
• Facilitating the participation of more than 60,000 students and teachers in programs which support the Ontario curriculum.
• Doc Soup, a monthly screening and discussion series, which offers audiences with year-round opportunities to view and discuss outstanding contemporary documentaries.

Hot Docs provides the following services to the film community:

• A critical public exhibition venue for showcasing creative, point-of-view documentaries that represent a broad range of subjects and lengths, and employ diverse aesthetic strategies.
• Locating the most innovative and diverse works through submissions processes as well as through direct contact with an extensive national network of filmmakers, production companies and distributors.
• Raising public visibility and appreciation for innovative documentary pieces through sustained marketing, publicity and outreach activities and providing filmmakers with valuable media attention.
• Offering creative and professional development opportunities for filmmakers at all levels of their careers.
• Offering a wide range of stimulating lecture series, panels, workshops and symposia that promote critical discussion and debate on contemporary documentary works and address creative and production concerns.
• Creating expanded networking and production opportunities for documentary filmmakers, buyers and programmers.
• Assisting Canadian producers with development and completion financing through the Shaw Media–Hot Docs Funds.
• Offering prominent awards that recognize filmmakers’ outstanding work and achievements, including cash prizes.

Docs for Schools

Docs for Schools is a true Hot Docs success story – the program has exploded across Toronto and has become a key element of the school calendar each spring. The program provides FREE in-school and in-theatre screenings of Hot Docs selections, engages students with current issues, and provides a fresh perspective outside of the mainstream media and school textbooks. Filmmakers often tell us that one of their favourite experiences at Hot Docs is interacting with youth who have watched their films. We also develop detailed education kits for teachers. These kits feature discussion points, lesson plans, and background information on the filmmakers and subjects.

Funding and Program Partners

Docs for Schools is funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, The Hal Jackman Foundation, Dundee Wealth, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Humber College, and through contributions by individual donors. Hot Docs has also received support from the Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation, the Charles H. Ivey Foundation, the JP Bickell Foundation and the Sir Joseph Flavelle Foundation for our youth programs.

Program Impact

Documentary cinema is one of the most vibrant and engaging media in which we can galvanize discussion, solidarity, debate, and opinion on the key issues of our times. Documentaries tell us about the world, make the past come alive, are windows into hidden worlds, help humanize complex stories, and show what can’t be seen by the human eye. Since its inception in 2006, participation in the Docs for Schools program has increased 674 per cent, and the program now engages more than 60,000 students in Toronto and across Ontario. The program is a free educational resource and its rapid growth is true testament that this type of programming is needed.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

"Arts and culture inspire us, help fuel innovation and are critical components of a global city."

"The cultural sector is widely recognized as crucial to the economic life of a region – attracting talent and investment, and stimulating innovation."

(Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2010)

Participant Vignette

“This is our sixth year holding in school screenings here at Maple High School. The students and staff look forward to the event and have come to expect it. The in-school screenings have allowed us to show expose our students to films that they would normally never have a chance to see. It has also allowed us to shed light on important issues that are effective our world. On behalf of the staff and students here at Maple High I would like to thank you for this opportunity and give you our commitment to take part of the program again next year.”

Teacher, Maple High School

“Students and teachers had an excellent time attending the festival. Many teachers enjoyed the documentaries and were especially appreciative of the school packages that accompanied the docs, and some even came during their prep periods to watch whatever happened to be screening that day. Our Student Parliament ran the whole event, with ushers and MCs that introduced every documentary and left the student audience with a couple of questions to ponder throughout the film. Every viewing in the auditorium came along with popcorn and a chance to win door prizes (we bought hot docs T-shirts and water bottles). The Hot Docs film fest ended with our very own student film fest in which amateur documentarians/filmmakers directed and produced their own works.”

Teacher, Stephen Leacock CI

Doc Camp

Doc Camp is a free week-long introduction to documentary filmmaking for youth aged 14 to 18. The camp offers youth a dynamic combination of hands-on creativity and lively interaction. Through the program, Doc Camp participants learn how to plan, shoot and edit their own short doc while also taking part in exclusive sessions with guest speakers, including some of Canada’s leading documentarians. Mentoring is a key component of the program – youth seek inspirational support from artists in the community, while also engaging with youth who share similar interests. Artists will play a key role by speaking about documentary filmmaking to youth, help youth deconstruct the media they take in all the time, and show youth how to critically think about the issues of the films and how it applies to their lives.

Funding and Program Partners

Doc Camp received initial funding from the Laidlaw Foundation. The program is now supported by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, and George Brown College, School of Design.

Program Impact

Since its inception last year, Doc Camp has brought together 19 professional artists as mentors and guests speakers and 25 youth to focus on community building, the encouragement of critical thinking, and the fundamentals of leadership building.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

"After-school programs make a critical difference in safety and skill development." (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

"Toronto isamong the leading global regions in the art and culture sector - a sector vital to the generation of wealth and community vitality."

Participant Vignette

“It was great to participate in this week long camp, and I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for arranging this camp for us. I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and it was great to work with these people and the mentors.”

Avik, participant in Doc Camp

“Thank you so much for taking Avik into the camp this summer. He was waiting outside my classroom this morning with details about it. He was still so excited. I hope the rest of kids were as energized by the experience. He will give a presentation to the drama club, and we will watch his movie.”

Educator, Parkdale Collegiate, Toronto

“Doc Camp was an amazing experience and so wonderful to meet many filmmakers who have the same passion and drive for visual-storytelling. The guest speakers were spectacular as well and really gave me an insight into the many different aspects of the industry and their own life experiences. They were tremendously enthusing as well. It's terrific that the program gives everyone access to great equipment, great people and a great environment in which we can all pursue the filmmaking process from start to finish. And best of all, it's free which I think everyone is grateful for. I'm especially excited to see what becomes of it in the future. For me, it sparked a brand new, refined interest in documentary filmmaking which I'm ever thankful for as well as the networks created between us all including the mentors.”

Kirk, Doc Camp participant

Crowd Funding Micro Site

Hot Docs’ crowd funding micro site will highlight domestic documentary projects in development, while encouraging collective cooperation amongst Torontonians to support film projects that resonate with them. It will be the first “Canadian-only” funding method that directly connects film artists with audiences. Based on a similar funding model in the United States called Kickstarter, this micro site is a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavours. The micro site is also unique in that it promotes civic engagement, and allows Torontonians to support local artists and issues that are relevant to them, accessible via an online, user friendly trackable system. Connecting our communities to makers of real-life stories of substance is an outcome we hope to better monitor through the site functionalities. Many of the projects that will be posted will highlight Toronto's vital signs including the gap between the rich and poor, health and wellness; housing; getting started; environment; belonging and leadership; safety; learning; getting around; arts and culture; and work. We are invested in developing ongoing connections between docmakers and the Canadian public.

Funding and Program Partners

Our partners include Ontario Media Development Corporation, Interactive Ontario, Centennial College, Canadian Film Centre Media Lab, nextMedia, KinoSmith, Documentary Organization of Canada - Toronto Chapter and George Brown College. In addition, we also received the Toronto Community Foundation's Vital Ideas Award grant for this project. Our joint keys to success include: our reputation for quality programming and extensive national and global networks; reliable event and project management leadership; excellent institutional and academic reputations; strong community and industry connections; and our ability to offer producers customized platforms for networking and accessing the latest in market intelligence.

Program Impact

Based on success of similar services, Hot Docs is confident that the crowd funding micro site will positively impact local filmmakers in helping them finance their projects quickly and efficiently, engaging Toronto citizens in a democratic and collective way that encourages civic participation. Our project is also unique in that the public's participation in the micro-site would not be limited to one segment of the Toronto population but would transcend citizens committed to independent media and all of the City's Vital Signs.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

"Toronto Region ranked first in a 2007 survey in attracting talent and investment in digial media againt comparable cities." "The City of Toronto has the highest number of artists in the country." (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2010)

Participant Vignette

"I view this as an opportunity to speak for many other filmmakers, similar to myself, who, thanks to Hot Docs, have witnessed a genre reborn and a level of support we never thought we would see in our lifetime! In the early days of my career, there was almost no significant independent doc community to speak of, not even as recently as 20 years ago. In those days, I was one of a handful of passionate non-fiction makers at the CBC Doc Unit. We have come full circle, and in an environment where there is, again, less global broadcast commissioning of point-of-view docs, Hot Docs becomes even more important. My recent film, Life with Murder, began its life in development with the assistance of the Shaw Media-Hot Docs Fund and was recently presented at Hot Docs 2010.

No other non-profit presenter has brought us an annual event focused so exclusively on expanding the public’s interest in the documentary form, a stunning renaissance for what was onceconsidered the “cod-liver oil" of Canadian culture. Spanning issues andgeographies, Hot Docs wants audiences to know there is much to be observed from the nouveau ethnographies, doc-thrillers, political exposes, beautifullyobserved verite, road movies, art films, personal essarys and diaries. I fervently hope the jury considers the impact Hot Docs has made. There is incredible community support for Hot Docs, the little engine that could"    

John Kastner, Filmmaker