CBC partners with Hot Docs on ‘festival-at-home’ experience on CBC Gem

CBC has announced that will bring content from North American documentary festival Hot Docs to its CBC Gem streaming service starting April 16th.

The 2020 Hot Docs Festival was originally set to take place from April 30th to May 10th in Toronto, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through its partnership with Hot Docs, CBC will stream a selection of the first-run feature documentaries that would have debuted at the Festival on both CBC Gem and its documentary Channel. Accompanying Q&As with filmmakers will be livestreamed to further add to the “festival” experience.

Here is the Hot Docs schedule, as per CBC:

Thursday, April 16th: Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art
(Canada, documentary Channel Original, directed by Barry Avrich)
CBC and CBC Gem at 8pm ET and documentary Channel at 9pm
An entertaining and suspenseful look at the dark side of New York’s art scene, and the bizarre characters behind the largest art fraud in American history.

Thursday, April 23rd: 9/11 Kids
(Canada, documentary Channel Original, directed by Elizabeth St. Philip)
CBC and CBC Gem at 8pm and documentary Channel at 9pm
It’s the most famous whisper in American history. President Bush learns of the 9/11 attacks while sitting in front of 16 schoolchildren. Today those kids are in their mid-20s and offer a fascinating window into post 9/11 America.

Thursday, April 30th: Finding Sally
(Canada, documentary Channel Original, directed by Tamara Mariam Dawit)
CBC and CBC Gem at 8pm and documentary Channel at 9pm
A personal investigation into the mysterious life of the director’s aunt Sally, an Ethiopian aristocrat-turned-communist-rebel who disappeared during the Ethiopian Revolution.

Thursday, May 7th: Meat The Future
(Canada, documentary Channel Original, directed by Liz Marshall)
CBC and CBC Gem at 8pm and documentary Channel at 9pm ET
The prospect of meat consumption doubling by 2050 is a wake-up call for solutions. The planet’s future may lie with cell-based meat, a food science that grows meat from animal cells, without the need to slaughter animals.

Thursday, May 14th: They Call Me Dr. Miami
(Canada, documentary Channel Original, directed by Jean-Simon Chartier)
CBC and CBC Gem at 8pm and documentary Channel at 9pm
In a world obsessed with self-image Dr. Michael Salzhauer is a rising star. This in-demand plastic surgeon livestreams butt lifts and breast augmentations and is followed by millions on Snapchat. He’s also an Orthodox Jew, married for 20 years, with five children. The film explores both his family life and religious beliefs, along with his internet pop-culture fame and persona, Dr. Miami.

Thursday, May 21st: Influence
(Canada/South Africa, documentary Channel Original, directed by Richard Poplak and Diana Neille)
CBC and CBC Gem at 8pm and documentary Channel at 9pm
Investigating the rise and fall of the world’s most notorious public relations and reputation management firm, the film charts the recent advancements in weaponized communication.

Thursday, May 28th: The Walrus and The Whistleblower
(Canada, documentary Channel Original, directed by Nathalie Bibeau)
CBC and CBC Gem at 8pm and documentary Channel at 9pm
A whistleblower is sued for $1.5 million for plotting to steal a walrus and falls down the rabbit hole of a personal quest against the backdrop of a movement to end marine mammal captivity.

Additionally, CBC says it will stream a selection CBC Short Docs from the 2020 Festival on CBC Gem from April 16th to May 10th.