We used to be really big Hot Docs goers, but in recent years our attendance has dwindled. Between travel and work we’re finding it hard even to fit in five screenings the way we used to. This year we only booked two, and couldn’t even be bothered to go to the first — Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere as we’d had a long week and just wanted to watch the Raptors play game 6.

We did manage to get ourselves to one though: the final screening of The Great Invisible, about the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It focused less on the environmental impact and more on the people involved, from the families of the 11 people killed in the explosion, to survivors suffering from guilt and PTSD, to workers in decimated coastal industries, to oil executives growing rich off the once-again booming oil industry. Because it was the third screening the director wasn’t around to answer questions. Too bad; I wanted to find out more about the highly entertaining and admirable gentleman named Roosevelt.

.:.

Cover photo by John Amos, used under Creative Commons license