{"id":63003,"date":"2025-08-06T16:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T16:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/63003\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T16:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T16:37:13","slug":"documentaries-about-paula-deen-clergy-abuse-and-whistling-contests-headed-to-toronto-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/63003\/","title":{"rendered":"Documentaries About Paula Deen, Clergy Abuse and Whistling Contests Headed to Toronto Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-three documentaries, including new works from the Oscar-winning directors Ben Proudfoot, Laura Poitras and Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, have been added to the lineup of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The TIFF Docs program will include 16 world premieres, beginning with \u201cThe Eyes of Ghana,\u201d directed by Proudfoot, who has won Oscars for his short docs \u201cThe Queen of Basketball\u201d and \u201cThe Last Repair Shop.\u201d The film is executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama. Other world premieres include \u201cLove+War\u201d from Vasarhelyi and Chin, who won the doc-feature Oscar for 2019\u2019s \u201cFree Solo\u201d; \u201cNuns vs. the Vatican,\u201d an examination of new abuse allegations inside the Catholic Church that was directed by Lorena Luciano and executive produced by Mariska Hargitay; \u201cCanceled: The Paula Deen Story,\u201d directed by Billy Corben; and \u201cWhistle,\u201d a Christopher Nelius film about a whistling competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cCover-Up,\u201d a film about investigative reporter Seymour Hersh from Oscar-winning director Poitras and from Mark Obenhaus, will have its Canadian premiere at TIFF after premiering at the Venice International Film Festival and likely screening at the Telluride Film Festival.<\/p>\n

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According to TIFF Docs programmer Thom Powers, the films were chosen from more than 1,000 submissions, a record for the festival. Powers told TheWrap that this year\u2019s lineup was particularly strong on sales titles that are represented by top agencies, with the films looking for distribution including \u201cCover-Up,\u201d \u201cWhistle,\u201d \u201cCanceled,\u201d John Dower\u2019s \u201cThe Balloonists,\u201d Nicole Bazuin\u2019s \u201cModern Whore\u201d and Tasha Van Zandt\u2019s \u201cA Life Illuminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Films that will be coming to TIFF after playing other festivals include Gianfranco Rosi\u2019s \u201cBelow the Clouds,\u201d Lucrecia Martel\u2019s \u201cNuestra Tierra\u201d and Tamara Kotevska\u2019s \u201cThe Tale of Silyan,\u201d all of which will play Venice. Docs that premiered in Cannes and are coming to Toronto include Raoul Peck\u2019s \u201cOrwell: 2+2=5\u201d and Sepideh Farsi\u2019s \u201cPut Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,\u201d whose protagonist, Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, was killed in Gaza shortly after the film premiered in May. <\/p>\n

Previously, the festival announced that a number of other nonfiction films would play in different sections of TIFF, among them Colin Hanks\u2019 opening-night film \u201cJohn Candy: I Like Me\u201d and Baz Luhrmann\u2019s \u201cEPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The 50th Toronto International Film Festival will begin on Sept. 4 and run through Sept. 14.<\/p>\n

TIFF Docs<\/p>\n

\u201cA Life Illuminated,\u201d Tasha Van Zandt | USA (World Premiere)
\u201cA Simple Soldier,\u201d Juan Camilo Cruz, Artem Ryzhykov | Ukraine (North American Premiere)
\u201cAki,\u201d Darlene Naponse | Canada (World Premiere)
\u201cBelow the Clouds,\u201d Gianfranco Rosi | Italy (International Premiere)
\u201cCanceled: The Paula Deen Story,\u201dBilly Corben | USA (World Premiere)
\u201cCover-Up,\u201dLaura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus | USA (Canadian Premiere)
\u201cFlana,\u201d Zahraa Ghandour | Iraq\/France\/Qatar (World Premiere)
\u201cLove+War,\u201d Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin | USA (World Premiere)
\u201cModern Whore,\u201dNicole Bazuin | Canada (World Premiere)
\u201cNi-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising,\u201dShane Belcourt | Canada (World Premiere)
\u201cNuestra Tierra,\u201dLucrecia Martel | Argentina\/USA\/Mexico\/France\/Denmark\/Netherlands (North American Premiere)
\u201cNuns vs. The Vatican,\u201dLorena Luciano | USA (World Premiere)
\u201cOrwell: 2+2=5,\u201d Raoul Peck | USA\/France (North American Premiere)
\u201cPowwow People,\u201d Sky Hopinka | USA (World Premiere)
\u201cPut Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,\u201d Sepideh Farsi | France\/Palestine\/Iran (North American Premiere)
\u201cStill Single,\u201d Jamal Burger, Jukan Tateisi | Canada (World Premiere)
\u201cThe Balloonists,\u201d John Dower | USA\/UK\/Austria (World Premiere)
\u201cThe Eyes of Ghana,\u201d Ben Proudfoot | USA (World Premiere)
\u201cThe Tale of Silyan,\u201d Tamara Kotevska | North Macedonia (North American Premiere)
\u201cThere Are No Words,\u201d Min Sook Lee | Canada (World Premiere)
\u201cTrue North,\u201d Mich\u00e8le Stephenson | USA\/Canada (World Premiere)
\u201cWhile the Green Grass Grows: A Diary in Seven Parts,\u201d Peter Mettler | Canada\/Switzerland (World Premiere)
\u201cWhistle,\u201d Christopher Nelius | Australia (World Premiere)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-three documentaries, including new works from the Oscar-winning directors Ben Proudfoot, Laura Poitras and Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206,46686,46687],"class_list":["post-63003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-tiff","tag-toronto-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}