Canwest, Hot Docs Award Doc Funds

TORONTO: Twelve projects will receive a total of C$251,000 in grants and no-interest loans from the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Canwest.

This is the fifth round of disbursements from the Canwest-Hot Docs Documentary Fund, founded in April 2008 with a C$3 million completion fund and a C$1-million development fund.

"I think what stands out across this funding round is the diversity of storytelling styles, from classical vérité to character-driven narratives and conceptual essays," said Sean Farnel, director of programming at Hot Docs. "Of those projects near completion the committee was privileged to see works that we expect to be embraced by audiences in Canada and beyond this year and next. Still, it is also clear that producers are facing a funding crisis for creative documentaries in this country, a shame given the incredible rise in the  popularity of the form that we’ve seen at Hot Docs over the past decade."

To date,  55 projects have received funding via Canwest-Hot Docs Funds to date, receiving a total of C$1.4 million. The application process for the second round of 2010 funding will open in the fall, with an application deadline of October 27.

In this latest round, six projects received completion grants totaling C$182,000. They are Les films du tricycle’s At Night, They Dance, about belly dancers in Cairo; Primitive Entertainment’s Beauty Day, a personal history of one-time cable television star Ralph Zavadil; High Definition Pictures’ Cuda; Family Portrait Productions’ Family Portrait in Black and White; Cave 7 Productions’ Recessionize! For Fun and Profit; and Primitive Thunder Productions’ Ron Hynes: Man of a Thousand Songs. Six additional projects received C$69,000 in development funds.