#PantsWorthy: Hot Docs 2025Highlights

Hot Docs 2025 // #PantsWorthy // West Wing // UFOs // Basketball

Apr 24, 2025

I’m not particularly keen on this current "Buy Canada" social movement. It may work at the grocery store (at least for a brief time) but candidly: you can’t Second Cup culture.

You can’t Canadian substitute like…Russell Peters for Dave Chappelle. (And why would you?! Patriotism is great for voting and some sport events yet it totally sucks for pop culture.)

It’ll be an outright failure if this contemporary patriotic trend doesn’t directly inject loud support and cold cash money into our arts.

We can sit around debating if Tim Hortons is Canadian or…we can be protectively powerful by supporting The Arts. Right? That’s the good stuff…the galleries and the bookstores and the cinemas. Stirring locations that prompt dreams and allow us to consume spectacle. Politicians will come and go. Pop Culture is forever.

Verily you don’t need Valentine’s Day if you’re romantic all year long. It’s silly that a Trump Presidency is the spark of habits that we should be regularly doing. Hot Docs is a freshtastic appeal to support and to connect and to participate.

Even if the documentaries are not Canadian this is a Canadian festival that supports local business (i.e. after parties), hotels…all that staff and much more. (You are gonna buy snacks to sneak into the cinema, aren’t you?)

The 2025 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival runs from Thursday, April 24 to Sunday, May 4 in downtown Toronto. 113 documentaries are screening for your edification and pleasure.

This year Hot Docs is celebrating it’s 32nd anniversary. I’ve been gratefully media approved for about 10ish of those years. Magnificent festival.

Like, here’s a sample of 2023 and 2024 Hot Docs My Summer Lair interviews:

Satan Wants You
The Satanic Panic of the 1980s ignites when a psychiatrist and his patient write a memoir, in which recovered-memory therapy reveals the woman’s abduction by baby-stealing Satanists.

Lost in the Shuffle
Featuring two-time world champion magician Shawn Farquhar, this documentary explores the unique relationship between the art of magic and playing cards.

TR(ol)L: New Kids on the Block, Total Request Live & the Chain Letter That Changed the Internet
In 1999, the internet screwed with MTV’s Total Request Live with an old New Kids music video called Hangin’ Tough. What came from the campaign - and how TRL decided to deal with it - became a pioneering moment in online trolling.

I got a type.

Documentaries are fantastic because you can be a tourist in a strange world. You can visit scary worlds and encounter strange people; hear outlandish tales and puzzle over the weird. Odd people lead odd lives.

Below, I’m offering 7 #PantsWorthy recommendations for this year’s festival.

🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: MARLEE MATLIN: NOT ALONE ANYMORE

Director: Shoshannah Stern
Screenings: Sun April 27 6:00 pm & Wed April 30 8:30 pm & Sun May 4 11:15 am

Why Pants? “I like to play around with people who don’t know me,” says Matlin, who speaks vocally to others although she generally has her interpreter on hand. “Often I’m talking to people through my speaker phone. And after 10 minutes or so they say, ‘Wait at minute, Marlee, how can you hear me? They forget I have an interpreter there who is signing to me as they talk. So I say, ‘You know what? I can hear on Wednesdays.”

That’s funny. Anybody who mocks their own disability…doesn’t take themselves too seriously: those are good and often funny folks. I’m down with that.

You know Marlee Matlin as Stella, Peter Griffin’s coworker, in the Season 10 episode The Blind Side. Stella later became a recurring character on Family Guy.

She played Laura on the 70th Seinfeld episode: The Lip Reader. (George gets Jerry’s deaf girlfriend, Laura, to use her lip reading talent to eavesdrop on his own ex-girlfriend and find out the reason why she dumped him. Gold!)

And of course she was on The West Wing which is where I mainly know her from. For 17 episodes she played Joey Lucas a political consultant who often gave Josh Lyman the business.

So I know Marlee Matlin. But I don’t know Marlee Matlin.

I’m excited to check out this documentary about her: “Through candid and open dialogue, Matlin covers some of the difficult moments in her life while also unpacking the impact she has had in an industry that has made her carry the weight of an entire community.”

Bonus #PantsWorthy: Sunday, April 27, 6:00 pm:
“Join legendary actress Marlee Matlin and director Shoshannah Stern for an engaging post-screening conversation about Marlee’s rise to stardom, the challenges she faced and her advocacy for the Deaf community and women’s issues. They’ll share insights into the making of the film, which celebrates her groundbreaking career and activism. Guests: Director Shoshannah Stern and actress Marlee Matlin. Moderator: Journalist and television personality Johanna Schneller.”

Even More Bonus #PantsWorthy: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore will have a theatrical run starting June 20.

🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: THEY'RE HERE

Directors: Daniel Claridge & Pacho Velez
Screenings: Fri May 2 8:45 pm & Sun May 4 1:00 pm

Why Pants? Well…what makes a reliable UFO witness?

The documentary opens with a woman…an ordinary suburban woman sitting in her ordinary suburban living room. One of the directors asks her off-camera: “How many times have you been taken from this house?”

Taken…as in alien abduction.
Taken…as in beamed to the Mothership.

Looking directly at the camera and with no hesitation she reveals: “14 times.”

Now that’s how you open a documentary.
With more questions than answers.

Yo: make a seriously serious tea for this remarkable UFO documentary about “four quirky, relatable UFO witnesses from New York.”

🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: SHIFTING BASELINES

Director: Julien Elie
Screenings: Sat April 26 8:00 pm & Mon April 28 2:00 pm

Why Pants? Space exploration is mostly unregulated, giving humanity the leeway to create as much damage in space as it has on Earth.

The flawed premise that we can magically leave Earth and start over on Mars is a hard sell. We are who we are. Our habits…our humanity is baked into the DNA cake.

Thankfully one of our best habits is curiosity. We seek thrilling adventures. We have spent centuries gazing up at the stars. We have photographed and explored and been to space and back.

I really enjoy the Billionaire Space Race because it allows us to boldly dream and restores old hopes: Space Is The Place. It renews our romance with the cosmos.

Shifting Baselines focuses mostly around Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. It is a vivid mosaic of the romance and the hazards of space exploration. Which is one of the coolest human endeavours.

🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: AN AMERICAN PASTORAL

Director: Auberi Edler
Screenings: Mon April 28 8:15 pm & Sat May 3 4:45 pm

Why Pants? Reading is cool. So is reading whatever you want to read…

“An American Pastoral chronicles the struggle of engaged citizens to determine the future of their local public schools. In 2023, voters will choose between three slates: one endorsed by the Democratic party and two competing Republican lists.”

I only know Elizabethtown as a deeply flawed 2005 romantic tragicomedy movie written and directed by Cameron Crowe.

Turns out Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania is a political hot mess: “Following the resignation of four moderate Republicans, a vacuum emerges that far-right activists fill eagerly, targeting LGBTQ+ literature and championing white-supremacist ideologies beneath a veneer of upholding religious values.”

Oh boy. And yes this includes the by now American classic experience of death threats. (The irony of issuing death threats in defense of educational values.)

Pastoral depicts an idealized form of the shepherd’s lifestyle. But what if in America there are more wolves than sheep? Mookie threw a garbage can through Sal’s window, leading to the pizzeria getting burned down. A classic scene of protest from…Do The Right Thing. And that’s where we at all these years later.

Bonus #PantsWorthy: An American Pastoral will have a theatrical run later in 2025.

🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: CIRCUSBOY

Director: Julia Lemke & Anna Koch
Screenings: Fri May 2 5:00 pm & Sun May 4 10:30 am

Why Pants? I seek magic. In general…in my life but specifically at film festivals like Hot Docs.

This isn’t magic but it’s the circus so I’m willing to round up.

“Have you ever dreamed of joining the circus? Well, 11-year-old Santino and his family were born into it! Criss-crossing Germany and pitching their tent in every town, this multigenerational circus family is one of the last of their kind. Surrounded by aunts, uncles, cousins, ponies and camels, it’s time for Santino to find his role in the ring and join the long line of performers that have come before him.”

I find the mafia and the circus endlessly fascinating: once you get in; it’s not easy to get out. Show me the circus.

🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: SAINTS AND WARRIORS

Director: Patrick Shannon
Screenings: Mon Apr 28 5:00 pm & Wed Apr 30 2:00 pm

Why Pants? Figure with the NBA Playoffs rolling and rumbling a basketball documentary would be timely.

This is the latest documentary from producer Michael Grand. Previously he’s produced The Grizzlie Truth, 30 for 30: I’m Just Here For The Riot and Satan Wants You. I’ve covered all 3 documentaries in My Summer Lair.

In addition to the NBA Playoffs I’ve been watching BAL: the Basketball Africa League. Recently, Al Ittihad defeated FUS Rabat 98-74 to win the 2025 Kalahari Conference with a perfect 6-0 record. The Alexandria-based team is the second Egyptian and third African team to win the conference title undefeated. I don’t fully know what means other than we’re #1. Go Egypt!

Meet the “All Native Basketball Tournament, an event players have called modern-day warfare. For over 60 years, this tournament in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, has been a multi-generational gathering place for First Nations from Haida Gwaii to celebrate their culture and community.”

Basketball is a fascinating culture. When I watch BAL it’s different from the NBA and it’s difficult to fully articulate why. The experience is uniquely basketball and uniquely African.

This is another vital basketball window that isn’t the NBA. And also unique to that distinct culture. The evolution of basketball as a sport—as a culture—is surreal yet impressive.

🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: ALWAYS

Director: Deming Chen
Screenings: Sat April 26 1:45 pm & Tue April 29 5:15 pm

Why Pants? Poetry is dope and delightful.

Always/Never
They say “Always has never been here.
I argue. “Never” is always the wind.
This wind, where does it belong in time?

Meet Gong Youbin. “His solace and refuge comes by way of poetry. As we observe him learning the artform in his village school, we see how language has the power to contextualize the world around him.”

One of the best ways to escape poverty…hardship is through words. Just as you can basketball or rap your way out of dire circumstances you can Always poetry and write your way out, too.

There’s lots more documentaries to check out:
Apocalypse in the Tropics
Khartoum
A Stop Gap Measure

If none of these suggestions stand out, there’s comments below…hit me up with what you’re curious about and I can Tinder match you to a sexy documentary.

Stupid Spellchecker Keeps Writing Hot Docs As Hot Dogs…
Sammy Younan
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.

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