The Toronto International Film Festival is less than a month away, and the fest is dropping announcements almost daily. Today marks the unveiling of the fest’s Documentary and Midnight Madness programs.
Of 27 titles screening in the doc slate, eight are directed or co-directed by women, amounting to 30 percent of the lineup. Among the features being screened is “Quincy,” a portrait of music legend Quincy Jones that marks Rashida Jones’ feature debut. The “Angie Tribeca” star and helmer — who is Quincy’s daughter — co-directed the doc with Alan Hicks. Other films include Naziha Arebi’s “Freedom Fields,” a look into a Libyan women’s football team, and Alexis Bloom’s (“Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds”) “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” an exploration of the late Fox news mogul’s rise and fall. Ailes resigned from Fox in 2016 following reports accusing him of sexual harassment and misconduct. “Searching for Ingmar Bergman,” Margarethe von Trotta’s (“Hannah Arendt”) portrait of the iconic filmmaker, has been named TIFF Docs’ closing film.
“This year’s lineup includes well-established women directors like Margarethe Von Trotta, Alexis Bloom, Rashida Jones, Astra Taylor, and E. Chai Vasarhelyi, but also throws a spotlight on directors who will be new to most audiences including Victoria Stone, Shannon Service, Sine Plambech and Naziha Arebi” TIFF Docs Programmer Thomas Powers told Women and Hollywood. “Their work spans multiple genres of non-fiction: biography, politics, adventure, philosophy, anthropology, and more. Women have pushed the boundaries of the documentary form to the thriving place it is today and this exciting group of women have continued on with the baton.”
Last year’s doc program was 43 percent women-directed or co-directed . The 2018 slate includes Tom Donahue’s (“Casting By”) “This Changes Everything,” an investigation of of gender dynamics in Hollywood, and Mark Cousins’ (“Stockholm, My Love”) “Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema,” which he’s described as “a film school, where all the teachers are female.” The program isn’t shying away from the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, but this engagement would be all the more meaningful if the number of women-directed films screening marked an increase from last year as opposed to a decrease.
Just one of 10 features screening in Midnight Madness is helmed by a woman, Emma Tammi’s (“Election Day: Lens Across America”) “The Wind,” a horror pic about a woman who moves to the American frontier.
TIFF’s Platform program was announced yesterday and includes Karyn Kusama’s Nicole Kidman-starrer “Destroyer.”
TIFF runs from September 6-16. All of the women-directed and co-directed titles screening in the Documentary and Midnight Madness sections can be found below.
Documentary Program
Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, Alexis Bloom | USA
World Premiere
The Elephant Queen, Victoria Stone, Mark Deeble | United Kingdom/Kenya
World Premiere
Free Solo, E. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin | USA
International Premiere
Freedom Fields, Naziha Arebi | Libya/United Kingdom/Netherlands/USA/Qatar/Lebanon/Canada
World Premiere
Heartbound ( Hjertelandet), Janus Metz, Sine Plambech | Denmark/Netherlands/Sweden
World Premiere
Quincy, Rashida Jones, Alan Hicks | USA
World Premiere
*TIFF Docs Closing Film*
Searching for Ingmar Bergman, Margarethe von Trotta | Germany/France
North American Premiere
What is Democracy?, Astra Taylor | Canada
North American Premiere
Midnight Madness Program
The Wind, Emma Tammi | USA
World Premiere
