If you’re wondering what to do in Toronto over the next couple of weeks, the answer is watch documentary films.  Opening this week, the annual Hot Docs film festival offers plenty for the development-interested.  Highlights from this year’s lineup include AIDS activism, high profile humanitarians, questions about who owns poverty, migrant journeys, analysis of neoliberalism, overcoming compassion fatigue in Congo, and feisty caregivers in South Africa.

Encirclement-Neoliberalism Ensnares Democracy
Neo-liberalism’s battle cry is famous: deregulate, privatize and let markets rule. Thirteen renowned intellectuals, including Noam Chomsky, rigorously analyze the mechanisms that enforce this ideology and deliver our democracies into the hands of multinational financiers. More>>

Enjoy Poverty
Starting with the compelling thesis that poverty is Africa’s most significant export, artist provocateur Renzo Martens journeys through the Congo, attempting to make its citizens aware of their primary resource. A blunt, biting satire. More>>

Fig Trees
Opera, documentary, and surrealist fantasy converge in this heartrending, joyous, outrageous and outraged tribute to the activist-hero-saints of the HIV/AIDS movement who fought billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies and apathetic governments for access to life-saving drugs. More>>

Reporter
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof delves into the horrific humanitarian atrocities in the Congo, searching for the story that will galvanize an increasingly jaded and detached Western reader. More>>

Rough Aunties
Fearless and feisty, a resolute group of remarkable women protect and care for abused, neglected and forgotten children in Durban, South Africa, confronting their nation’s social strife while battling their own personal tragedies.  More>>

Sergio
A dashing James Bond figure, Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello was known in the UN as “Mr. Fix It” for his ability to diffuse the most dangerous of crises. A riveting account of his remarkable life and tragic final mission. More>>

Which Way Home
Award-winning filmmaker Rebecca Cammisa wistfully captures the determination, innocence and longing of child migrants travelling alone through Mexico to the United States, where they hope to be reunited with their parents.  More>>

For the dates and times of these films and more events, check out the Unpacking Development Events Calender