Hot Docs 2009 Festival Guide

Welcome to the Hot Docs screening schedule, where you can browse all of the films in this year’s festival.

Use the tabs below to browse films by title, program, or by date and time. And, you can use the MY HOT DOCS tab to build your own personal schedule.

You can purchase passes to the festival; and you can buy tickets to individual screenings here.

Twist

Dir(s): Ron Mann

Program: Focus On...

Run Time: 80 | Canada  | Language: English 

Like all good narratives, Twist has both text and subtext. On one level, Twist is all fun, an affectionate documentary about the evolution of a dance craze. It's the story of the underappreciated Hank Ballard, who wrote The Twist, and Chubby Checker, who rerecorded it and scored a hit on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. The archival footage is stunning: white youths stiffly ballroom dancing, black teenagers cutting a rug to early rhythm and blues, Christian preachers condemning popular dance, racists breaking records in protest. The Twist is so effortlessly engaging, it's almost easy to overlook just how serious a film it really is. It's about personal freedom, self-expression, and even feminism. But Twist is really about race relations in the late 20th century. When white dancers from American Bandstand reflect back on their experiences, they flippantly confess to taking credit for dances actually cribbed from black schoolmates. Whatever you do, don't sit this one out. Astra Taylor.

Media Coverage

Read these articles and interviews:

Credits

Director(s) : Ron Mann

Subjects

Twist deals with the following subjects: Music & Musicians, Popular Culture

Screenings

Twist will be presented at the following times and locations.

TimeFilmsVenueTicketsCalendar
9:45 pm Sat, May 9

Isabel Bader Theatre

Not Available

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More from Focus On...

The following titles are in the Focus On... category along with Twist.

From My Hot Docs

People who added Twist to their My Hot Docs calendar also added the following films.

Bookmarks

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On the day of the screening, tickets are available at the venue’s box office starting one hour before the first screening of the day.

For screenings that have sold out in advance, a limited number of rush tickets may be available at the screening venue’s box office ten minutes before the screening time, subject to availability.