The Toronto Film Festival gets underway Thursday with a couple of world premiere documentaries: John Candy: I Like Me, directed by Colin Hanks, and The Eyes of Ghana, directed by two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot.
This is the 50th edition of TIFF, and it’s a big anniversary too for documentary programmer Thom Powers, who is celebrating his 20th anniversary with the festival. On the new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we welcome Powers for an in-depth discussion of the TIFF nonfiction lineup. A contingent of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmakers will unveil new work at the festival – along with Proudfoot, there’s Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin with Love+War; Laura Poitras with Cover-Up, the film she co-directed with Mark Obenhaus about investigative journalist Seymour Hersh; Raoul Peck, who brings his Orwell: 2+2=5 to Toronto after a Cannes world premiere; Tamara Kotevska heads to TIFF for the North American premiere of The Tale of Silyan, while Gianfranco Rosi dips Below the Clouds for the International premiere of his film exploring “the populace living in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.”
Speaking of volcanic films, one that could trigger a dynamic reaction in Toronto is The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, directed by Barry Avrich. It recounts the story of retired Israeli Gen. Noam Tibon, who sprang into action on October 7 to save his family from the Hamas terrorist attack. Powers tells us what he knows about the behind-the-scenes drama at TIFF that saw the film invited, then disinvited, then reinvited.
Paula Deen, who became a Food Network star but then got the boot after a past use of a racial slur came to light, will be in Toronto for the world premiere of Canceled: The Paula Deen Story. Powers offers insights about the film directed by Billy Corben, who came to TIFF last year with Men of War.
Powers wrote the TIFF program description for Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, as well as thumbnails for many other documentaries in the lineup. Over his 20 years at TIFF, he has composed more than 350 of them, a process that requires a deft touch – summarizing the documentary, providing necessary background and engaging the interest of festivalgoers while not giving away too much. He has collected much of that writing in the new book Mondo Documentary, which releases Wednesday from Pure Nonfiction. Powers shares details with us and reads from one of his favorite pieces – a description of Corben’s Men of War.
That’s on the latest edition of the Doc Talk podcast, hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor. The pod is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.