Recipients Named for Canwest-Hot Docs Funds

TORONTO: Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Canwest have selected 11 projects to receive a total of C$279,500 in grants and no-interest loans from the Canwest-Hot Docs Funds. 

The funds consist of a C$3 million completion fund and a C$1 million development fund that aim to provide documentary filmmakers with financial support at critical stages in their projects. This year’s roster selected to receive assistance for completion are Behind the Scenes at Kinngait Studios, which provides a first-hand account of how the remote settlement of Cape Dorset, Nunavut, has become the capital of the Inuit art world; Grinder, looking at the underground world of those who play poker for a living; Raw Opium, about a commodity that has gone from being a “gift of the gods” to a scourge on society; The Real M*A*S*H, which traces the original stories and the people behind them that inspired the fictional TV series and feature film about the Korean War; and A Strange Brew: The End of Addiction, about the secrets of plants that could play an important role in our common future.

Projects selected to receive funding for development are 9.79: The Rise and Fall of Ben Johnson, about Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson; Ariel, centered on a man who decides to design and build his own prosthetic legs; Green to the End, taking an in-depth look at the legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail and those who endured eight years of continuous U.S. saturation bombing; Operation Soap, which examines raids on four gay bathhouses in Canada; and Taxi School, exploring the lives of recent immigrants to Canada through the window of a taxi school.

The next deadline for Canwest-Hot Docs Funds will be in May 2010.