The HotDocs film festival is just around the corner, and we are happy to announce that we have two films selected for the main competition this year.
‘The Killing of a Journalist,’ directed by Matt Sarnecki and produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen, will have its world premiere on May 1st 2022. The film explores the brutal murder of a young Slovakian investigative journalist and his fiancée. Their deaths inspire the biggest protests in Slovakia since the fall of communism. The story takes an unexpected turn when a source leaks the secret murder case file to the murdered journalist’s colleagues which includes the computers and encrypted communications of the assassination’s alleged mastermind, a businessman closely connected to the country’s ruling party. Trawling these encrypted messages, journalists discover that their country has been captured by corrupt oligarchs, judges and law enforcement officials. A reckoning awaits.
Also screening in the main competition is ‘Outside’, directed by Olha Zhurba, and produced by Darya Bassell and Viktoria Khomenko for Moon Man. Anne Köhncke and Monica Hellström have co-produced for Final Cut for Real. In ‘Outside’, Roma, a 13-year old street kid neglected by his family and the state, becomes a poster boy for the Ukrainian Revolution in 2014. His story traverses the years he spent on the streets of revolutionary Kyiv and after his release from the orphanage, left to face the outside world with nothing. As Roma sets out to build an adult life, it seems that his future has already been decided. Through a series of phone calls with the film’s director he reflects on one main question: can you ever escape your childhood?
Outside had its world premiere at CPH:DOX in March, where it was selected for the main competition.
Hot Docs was founded in 1993 by the Documentary Organization of Canada, a national association of independent documentary filmmakers and continues to be one of the most prestigious documentary film festivals, always focusing on promoting excellence in documentary production. Each year, Hot Docs presents over 200 cutting edge films from around the world.
To read more about the HotDocs 2022 programme click here.