Should documentaries have their own home?
The Hot Docs Bloor cinema, Toronto
Words: David Kirkpatrick
Since this is the week that the Hot Docs festival open their own dedicated documentary cinema in Toronto, I’ve been asking myself - why do docs need their own home?
Media outlets throughout Toronto have been racking up the column inches this week in anticipation of its long awaited opening (http://www.toronto.com/article/715106), but the idea of a doc-only cinema raises a number of questions around the nature of the doc movie and its relationship with mainstream cinema. Will this venture be a long-term success? Torontonians are ridiculously eager when it comes to Doc Soup monthly screenings but will this be translated into day-in day-out sustained sales?
If the hunger for docs really does exist - and from what I have seen over the last year, there very much is the demand - why have the existing network of cinemas not seen the gap and fulfilled the need? Maybe it has just been an oversight or a closed view on their part, but docs have been propelled into the mainstream both in Britain and North America over the recent months. The outstanding Senna was victorious to much acclaim in this year’s reinstated doc category at the BAFTA awards. The Academy Awards were awash this year with talk of the docs that didn’t make it under Michael Moore and friends’ new doc applicability rules. Among the waves of Hollywood sequels and comic book action pictures with ludicrous budgets, people seem to have turned to the documentary in search of something more challenging, something with more depth of character.
Personally, I hope and believe that the refurbished Hot Doc cinema will be a success, particularly in the coming months, with opening week buzz quickly followed by the Hot Docs festival at the end of April. Although, keeping the schedule fresh and ushering the patio worshipers in from the sun over the summer months will the acid test for this great venture.
