It’s our third year attending the Hot Docs Film Festival at Short Ends Collective! Juan Ospina and Elya Myers have gathered a short compilation of our time at the 32nd edition of the festival.
King’s Court Dir. Serville Poblete (Canada)
King’s Court follows long-time friends SK and Marley on their life journeys, with basketball being an integral part of their lives as they grow from boyhood to manhood. Capturing their intimate moments of vulnerability, self-love, and survival in Toronto’s Bleecker neighbourhood, that visibily renders the hardship and struggle that is often preceded by Black boy joy. In this short documentary, Poblete serves up dripped-out, dazzling action shots of SK and Marley on the court that raised them, alongside a stylish moving camera bouncing into the atmosphere to a wide-eyed cityscape. King’s Court presents a genuinely affectionate portrait of brotherhood that fosters heartwarming, yet difficult conversations around dreams, disappointments, mental health, grief, and the value of sustaining a tight-knit community and lifelong connections.
Saints and Warriors Dir. Patrick Shannon (Canada)
Saints and Warriors spotlights the Skidegate Saints at the 2024 Haida Gwaii Nations’ All Native Basketball Tournament, where basketball, also known as village ball, has become deeply rooted in the local Indigenous culture and traditions, bridging the past to the present. The documentary ties team legacy, from rival basketball teams, the players, and tribe leaders, to the region’s histories of oppression, resilience, and healing within the community. Shannon succeeds in characterizing the sincere charm of the communities and teams, effortlessly weaving in the long-lasting effects of the Indian Act, residential schools, and land back rights movements into their present-day lives in Saints and Warriors.
The Black Stain Dir. Yareni Velazquez Mendoza (Mexico)
The Black Stain is an introspective short animated documentary film that contends with the deep wounds of childhood trauma as Marlene recounts her experiences as a young girl, abused and neglected by her family, and reflects on the lasting scars endured in her lifetime that dramatically alter her view of life. Made by the collective Cartographies of Incarceration (CartografÃas de la reclusión), The Black Stain transmutes pain to empowerment in this textured multimedia composition.
Koutekout (At All Kosts) Dir. Joseph Hillel (Canada)
At All Kosts depicts the 20th anniversary of the Festival Quatre Chemins, following a theatre troupe performing, despite the escalating regional conflict, run by poverty, gang violence, and colonial oppression that continues to pervade every aspect of life. From Port-au-Prince to Montreal, Hillel shadows the theatre troupe as they rehearse in preparation for the festival, where the actors share their experiences, passion for theatre, and convictions on art as a form of resistance. Guy Regis Jr., a celebrated pillar of Haiti’s contemporary theatre and arts culture, and the many talented actors in the troupe, rally together to put on the show at all costs to create space for community and rekindle cultural memory.
Ultras Dir. Ragnhild Ekner (Sweden, Denmark, Finland)
Although Ekner’s approach is ambitious in scope, Ultras successfully encapsulates the many layers that make up the homonym subculture that the documentary follows around the globe. Earnest to its core, Ultras ultimately offers a plethora of engaging and enthralling images taken in football stadiums around the world that are elevated by its personal yet faceless narrations. Touching upon subjects of police brutality, grassroots community building, misogyny, gender violence, and collective joy, Ekner’s documentary stands out as a tableau vivant of contemporary society.
Before presenting the next three documentaries, it is important to highlight that each year that I have been covering Hot Docs, I have noticed more and more a steady presence of Latin American films being featured on the festival. As a member of the Latin American diaspora in Canada, not only is this refreshing but also important, as the presence of these voices validates, in many ways, being part of this festival’s audience. This year, Hot Docs’ programme offered an extensive variety of documentaries focusing on Latin American experiences, such as Casas Muertas, Spare My Bones Coyote, and I Dreamed His Name. However, the next three documentaries (coincidentally, all from Mexico) stood out thanks to their bold approaches to the form and the subject.
Como si la Tierra se las hubiera Tragado Dir. Natalia León (France)
Beautifully animated, interplaying between black and white and colour images, León’s short documentary follows a woman returning to Mexico as she duels with the rampant normalization of feminicide in her native country. Intercutting between the present and the past, Como si la Tierra se las hubiera Tragado, vibrantly documents how violence, when left untreated, expands and infects every corner of our world, even behind closed doors.
Voices from the Abyss Dir. Irving Serrano, Victor Rejón (Mexico)
A dark shadow soars through a rugged seaside cliff. Serrano and Rejón capture dreamlike images as they follow the free divers of La Quebrada in western Mexico. Fearless, like its subjects, the camera flies and submerges itself with a fluidity that is rarely seen in documentary form. Complemented by impeccable black and white photography, Voices from the Abyss is a feast for the senses, a celebration of the cinematic and the brave, a proud union of the form and the theme in a sensorial free fall.
La MayordomÃa Dir. Martin Edralin (Canada)
It is rare for a documentary film to exude so much tenderness without an ounce of cynicism. Edralin’s portrait of a somewhat bizarre tradition in a small borough in Mexico City does just that. With a keen and loving eye, the filmmaker depicts the ritual known as la mayordomÃa (hence the title), where three figurines of Baby Jesus are each allocated to a family in the neighbourhood. Spawning from a religious affair, Edralin masterfully weaves and navigates folkloric traditions and the emotional impact they have on the inhabitants of the borough by separating the dogmatic and the personal. La MayordomÃa is a high-spirited document of resilience and joy, one you will not want to stop watching.
Night Watches Us Dir. Stefan Verna (Canada)
Special mention to Stefan Verna’s film Night Watches Us, which focuses on the aftermath of the August 21st, 2018, police murder of Nicholas Gibbs. The documentary traces the impact of his death, from the surviving Gibbs family, the community in Notre-Dame-de-Grace (NDG) neighbourhood, to the city of Montreal. A must-watch Canadian film that digs deeper into the legacies of Quebec’s police violence and the pursuit of justice for these affected communities across diasporas.
Short Ends 