Anthony Kaufman writes for The Wall Street Journal and Variety among other publications; and blogs at Indiewire. Here are his TIFF doc picks:

1. Chris Smith makes great, underappreciated movies (from his 1996 debut American Job to his more recent The Pool), so I have little doubt that  his latest Collapse will be a superbly crafted portrait. And personally prone to enjoy stories of apocalypse, I'm particularly biased towards this latest  subject.

2. When fiction filmmakers try out nonfiction, the results don't always hold  up, but Iceland director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's latest project The Sunshine Boy (pictured) seems like it has a delicacy and simplicity that might be well  suited to the filmmaker, and humanist, compelling subject matter--the quest to understand autism--that would be hard to muck up.

3. What's currently happening in both China and contemporary Chinese documentary film is often fascinating to behold - see recent Toronto standout  Still Life. That makes me curious about Guo Xiaolu's Once Upon a Time  Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country. Descriptives such as "dark, poetic, existentialist" usually catch my eye. Plus, the filmmaker--whom I never  heard of until now--was just awarded a Golden Leopard at Locarno, so Toronto  would be a good place to catch up on a new world talent.

 On Day Two of soliciting TIFF doc picks, we turn to Guy Dixon, arts writer for The Globe and Mail, who tried to stay in the bounds of 3 picks, but couldn't help squeezing in more:

1. L'Enfer de Henri-Georges Clouzot (pictured), about the lost film of actress Romy Schneider found by a film archivist. The risk is that a little may go a long way, in terms of the mood lighting and modernist pastiche of the lost (and now found) footage. But curiosity by far gets the better of me.

2. Colony, about the collapse of bee colonies. The subtle, quiet trailer looks hugely promising. If the world is dying, best to see it soberly and for all its beauty. (Similarly, I'd gladly stand in line for Peter Mettler's Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives of the Alberta Tar Sands, even if in the case of that film, it promises to be the Ed Burtynsky-like beauty/devastation of environmental decline.)

3. Cordao Verde, in TIFF's more experimental Wavelengths program, about the links of Portugese farmers to the land. Knowing nothing about the film, apart from hints of potentially stunning photography and an artier tone than a typical documentary, I'm hoping to see it purely for the pleasure of discovery.

And if I can cop a fourth, it'd be The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, about the band's Canadian tour, chosen for obvious reasons.

If you're a lucky holder of a TIFF press & industry pass, here's an insider's tip sheet on how to maximize your doc experience at the festival. Make sure to double check times and venues ahead of time for last minute changes (or in case I screwed up).

Most of the screenings below are marked P&I and require a press or industry pass to attend. Screenings marked "public" require a ticket. Check with press or industry office on how to obtain. Doc Conference can be accessed with a press or industry badge; Doc Roundtables are for industry only. Events at Yonge Dundas Square are free and open to everyone.

(Pictured: Jonathan Demme who will be appearing at Doc Conference on Sept 13 and for NEIL YOUNG TRUNK SHOW on Sept 14).

Friday 9/11

9:15 am P&I Varsity 5 - L'ENFER DE HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT

9:30 am - P&I Varsity VIP 1 - IRENE

10 am P&I Varsity 2 - PETROPOLIS

11:30 am P&I Varsity 2 - HUGH HEFNER (note: repeat p&i on Sept 17)

5:00 pm PUBLIC Scotiabank 4 - HOW TO FOLD A FLAG - it will be worth trying to snag a public ticket to see the Q&A with former soldiers from GUNNER PALACE

5:30 pm - P&I AMC 10 - SUNSHINE BOY

7:15 pm PUBLIC Varsity 3 - MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA - here's another public screening worth the effort to see the Q&A with Daniel & Patricia Ellsberg

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Sky Sitney is the Artistic Director for Silverdocs, the venerable festival held outside Washington, DC in June. She'll be missing TIFF this year, but that didn't stop her from picking the docs she looks forward to seeing later:

From the description, CLEANFLIX seems to have all the fixings for a fascinating documentary: a real life BE KIND REWIND with a religious twist and a good ol' sex scandal. Really, who could ask for more?

COLLAPSE. I have been a steadfast admirer of Chris Smith's documentary work, from his sharp and humorous portrait of a DIY filmmaker making his Magnum opus in the horror genre, to the hysterical and inspiring THE YES MEN.  Smith has demonstrated a keen eye for social observation and I am eager to see what he reveals in his latest portrait of radical thinker, Michael Ruppert.

PRESUMED GUILTY. (pictured) Geoffrey Smith's prior film, THE ENGLISH SURGEON was a spectacular triumph. I have seen the poignancy and artistry that Smith can capture when training his eye on the medical establishment, and I am very eager to see what he and his collaborator, Roberto Hernandez, do when they focus their lens on the Mexican judicial system.

LA DANSE: LE BALLET DE L'OPERA DE PARIS. It's Frederick Wiseman. Need I say more? No one is a more insightful observer of American institutions - whether it is High School, Welfare, the State Legislature or Public Housing. I am interested in seeing how these observations translate overseas when Wiseman focuses on the Paris Opera Ballet. I have no doubt that it will be 160 minutes well spent.

Toronto's NOW Magazine has always been a valued resource for getting an early opinion on TIFF films. The new issue contains numerous capsule reviews including these highly praised docs:

INFERNO (aka L'ENFER DE HENRI GEORGE-CLOUZOT) (dirs. Serge Bromberg & Ruxandra Medrea) - Critic Paul Ennis writes that the film proves Clouzot "was pushing the boundaries of psychological narrative. The cumulative effect of the repetition of the found footage is mesmerizing."

IRENE (dir. Alain Cavalier) - Ennis writes: "Using the most minimal means, Cavalier looks back at himself at half his present age, recounting his vivid present-day thoughts, questions and memories and calmly reading words once written in passion. It adds up to a moving, universal account of love and loss."

THE ART OF THE STEAL (dir. Don Argott) - Critic Norman Wilner writes, "the legal finagling required to subvert Barnes's wishes is brought fully to light in Argott's muckraking documentary, which reframes the complicated history as an engrossing, infuriating investigation, powered by righteous outrage."

REEL INJUN (dir. Neil Diamond) (pictured) - Critic Andrew Dowler writes, "with much humour and insight, [Diamond] delivers excellent footage from 1920s movies onward, some fascinating oddities like the camp for wannabe Indians and good interviews..."

Harris Dew is Director of Programs and Promotions at the IFC Center in New York and a treasured colleague for my Stranger Than Fiction series, based at the theater. He shares his great taste in documentaries with these 3 TIFF doc picks:

As a New Yorker by choice, I'm especially partial to stories of societies that obliterate the past to radically remake themselves. The titanic political, economic and social transformations of contemporary China have yielded an amazing body of films, from fiction to docs to Jia Zhang-ke's peerless hybrids, so I'm very excited to catch ONCE UPON A TIME PROLETARIAN: 12 TALES OF A COUNTRY (pictured). If there's a XIAO WU-style lighter that plays a tinkly, inappropriate version of the Internationale, I'll be in heaven.

LA DANSE: LE BALLET DE L'OPERA DE PARIS - It's Wiseman. If he made the Idaho state government compelling, imagine the Paris ballet in his hands.

And, because the personal is political, GOOD HAIR. ‘Nuff said.

Milton Tabbot is Senior Director of Programming at IFP New York, where he oversees all documentary programs. Through his work at IFP's Independent Film Week, he winds up supporting many films as works-in-progress before they make their way to TIFF. Here are his TIFF doc picks:

Whenever I'm able to see a doc just for myself, I gravitate to those that are original and envelope-pushing or - at the other end of the spectrum - traditional but superbly done. At Toronto I'd look forward to seeing a bit of both with:

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (dirs. Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith) - When I first saw a segment of this two years ago for our Project Forum at IFP, I was excited by how good it promised to be, but also kind of shocked that a film had never been done on the subject - still very much relevant to our more recent history. Very much looking forward to seeing the finished work.

L'Enfer de Henri-Georges Clouzot (dirs. Serge Bromberg & Ruxandra Medrea) - Unseen cinema from a master is always a draw, so with L'Enfer's history as a film maudit and film perdu, this is a doc I won't miss.

Irène (pictured) (dir. Alain Cavalier) - as cited in the program note, Cavalier's narrative feature Thérèse is an exquisite film, and although I've seen little of his other work, the description of this personal diary film positions it near the top of my list.

How to Fold a Flag (dirs. Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein) - There have been a good number of war vet docs, but Tucker and Epperlein always have a unique take whatever their subject.

La Danse - Le Ballet de L'Opera de Paris (dir. Frederick Wiseman) - I'm never as at peace while watching a doc as when it's classic verité, so a new film by Wiseman is always a must-attend.

Genna Terranova is Senior Programmer for the Tribeca Film Festival and Doha Tribeca Festival; and curates year round initiatives for Tribeca Enterprises. You might as well call her Genna Tribeca. Here are her TIFF (as opposed to TFF) doc picks:

First off, I look forward to trying to see many more of the documentaries playing at TIFF but these are just a few to mention after a quick glance.

Colony (Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell, Ireland) - Bees in themselves hold their own mystery for me. With all the buzz surrounding organic farming industry these days and having just finished "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan, I am looking forward to this documentary for its subject matter and also for its Irish perspective.
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Peter Knegt is the associate editor of the invaluable news source Indiewire. Here are his TIFF doc picks:

STOLEN (pictured): When I first heard about this film after it premiered in Sydney, I hoped it would quickly end up at a festival near me.  The fact that the filmmakers initially set out to film a human interest doc on refugee camps and stumbled into a controversial story about modern slavery in North Africa speaks loudly and clearly to the power and possibility of documentary filmmaking.

THE SUNSHINE BOY: I'm a big fan of Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's work - always deeply personal and strongly visual - and I'm really excited to see what he's does with his first documentary in over 25 years.  From what I've read about "The Sunshine Boy," it seems to continue themes from Fridriksson's narrative work - difficulties of interpersonal communication - through a personal account of a mother's struggle with her son's autism (and the stills suggest his stunning, trademark imagery). Like any Fridikssson film, I'm expecting to be greatly moved.

WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY: As a child of the late 1980s and early 1990s, I grew up on the renaissance of Disney animation that was "The Little Mermaid" through "The Lion King."  As a film journalist of today, the idea of revisiting some of my childhood's greatest cinematic pleasures  through what reads like both a juicy, gossipy account of what went down at the Mouse House in negotiating this return to form stirs up, well, childlike anticipation for former Disney producer Don Hahn's doc  "Waking Sleeping Beauty."

Mike Maggiore programs the premieres at New York's Film Forum with Director Karen Cooper. That theater has long been a prime launching pad for docs post-TIFF including this year's hits VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR and FOOD, INC. Here is Mike's response to our call for 2009 doc picks:

I get the sense that Documentary Programmer Thom Powers is carving out something of a wildlife theme this year: loggerhead turtles, bees, sleigh dogs, owls, Richard Nixon. (Pictured: TURTLE: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY). It may play like Mutual of Toronto's Wild Kingdom - but I'll certainly want to see every one of them. In all seriousness, we're very happy to see two of Film Forum's fall engagements premiering in Toronto - Frederick Wiseman's LA DANSE: LE BALLET DE L'OPERA DE PARIS (in the Mavericks section) and THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS.

Now that the shameless self-promotion has been put to rest, three documentaries I'm most excited to see are:

1) THE ART OF THE STEAL (Dir. by Don Argott) This is based on a fascinating case of art plundering involving the Barnes collection, which boasts a trove of world-class paintings yet continues to be the subject of a thorny legal dispute. The excellent art reporter / critic David D'Arcy is an authority on this case and is apparently interviewed in the film.

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Last year, attending my first TIFF in decades, I had the most satisfying experience. I was able to see films deeply nourishing to me as a moviegoer, while also getting a tremendous amount of work done.

Three docs I'm looking forward to?

Frederick Wiseman presents La Danse (the director pictured) - Can't miss this!  Wiseman's films are always uniquely fascinating and an immersion into the Paris ballet environment? Sounds divine. I also love that he'll be speaking publicly.  I had the good fortune of seeing him in person at the University of Texas - RTF Master Class two years ago, and he was brilliant.

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David Fear, the film editor of Time Out New York, serves up his TIFF doc picks:

La Danse: Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris
A new Frederick Wiseman movie is always a big deal. Hands down, he's my favorite fly-on-the-wall documentarian and one of the most consistently engaging verite filmmakers out there (to wit: This is a man who's made models at work, middle managers of big-name department stores, long city council meetings AND Aspen, Colorado seem equally compelling). I saw Ballet years ago during one of numerous stints in college; if this look at the the Paris Opera Dance troupe is half as good, then I'm clearing off a space on my year-end list now.

Collapse
I've been saying that we're neck-deep into a social apocalypse for years; finally, someone who is vastly smarter than me will back this notion up. The subject--author, political muckraker and professional chicken-little Michael Ruppert--is of personal interest, and I've always dug and Chris "American Movie" Smith's work even when the irony level is near-toxic. I'm also banking on footage of Dick Cheney coming off like the Prince of Darkness. You'd think I'd have vented all my anger out at people who raped our country for eight years, and yet...

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Karina Rotenstein is the Programming Manager at Hot Docs, and Manager of the Canwest-Hot Docs Documentary Funds. Here's her response to our call for TIFF doc picks:

Let's face it, 2009 is proving to be incredibly robust year in documentary! And so it's that time of the year where I get to cleanse my programming palette, put on my flats and spend 10 days running between theatres hoping to catch all the docs I can. Here are just a few to which I look forward:

Erik Gandini's VIDEOCRACY (pictured) is a must-see and talk about timing! Both Gandini's previous films SURPLUS and G.I.T.M.O., were incredibly insightful, thorough, provocative and ahead of their time. I'm a fan, and his work is delightfully subversive. So I can't wait to see his approach to Berlusconi's media empire...

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David D'Arcy wears multiple hats as a critic for Screen International, journalist for The National, and programmer for the Haifa International Film Festival in Israel. He always has something interesting to say, as viewers of Art of the Steal will discover (see below). Here are his TIFF doc picks:

Cleanflix - Scratch the heartland, and who knows what you'll find.  I'm fascinated by the premise of Cleanflix. In Utah, in the shadow of ardently-PC Sundance, some entrepreneurial young Mormons deliver their religiously acceptable version of Hollywood movies to meet demand from local youth by slicing out objectionable footage and distributing the bowdlerized films. Not even the Catholic Legion of Decency tried that gambit. Seems logical - an enterprising strategy to serve a higher power, and serve the civil religion of profit. It also sounds like a typical American dilemma - can you break the law and mutilate someone else's intellectual property to shield your customers from sin? Earnest religion faces off against Big Entertainment.

How to Fold A Flag (pictured) - Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein were in Toronto in September 2004 with Gunner Palace, a candid look inside one US Army unit performing the Sisyphean task of patrolling and searching for insurgents in Baghdad, before the most violent days of the US occupation.  Tucker and Epperlein, to their credit, have stayed with their subject - The Prisoner or How I Tried to Kill Tony Blair (2006), chronicling the confinement and mistreatment in Abu Ghraib of a wrongly arrested Iraqi, and Bulletproof Salesman (2008) profiling an arms dealer selling bombproof vehicles that the Defense Department won't buy for regular troops in Iraq. Now they've followed up on a Gunner Palace soldier's prediction that no one in the US will care much for grunts who fought in Iraq, given the minimal sacrifice by the general population. Was he right?  Could be a reality check on the rhetoric of the Bush administration.

Snowblind - Vikram Jayanti's new film about a legally-blind woman who is determined to race the Iditarod dogsled marathon across Alaska for a third time sounds like a motivational tale posing as screwball/suspense road movie - only there's no road. And you thought Sarah Palin was unusual. Be prepared for an industry hair-pull over the remake rights.

The Art of the Steal - Full disclosure - I was interviewed for this film in early 2008. I'm told that I am in it. I also wrote and narrated a film on this subject for the BBC in the early 1990s. (See recent articles about the unique Barnes Foundation outside Philadelphia in the LA Times, The American Prospect, and ArtNet). The Barnes Foundation's fate is an art-world twist on the perennial tale of the killing of the goose that laid the golden egg - an extraordinary art collection, greedy Pennsylvania politicians, power-seeking philanthropists, and a twenty-year scramble (as tawdry as *Chinatown*) to control and exploit what was founded as a contemplative place to study paintings. If you love the work of Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso, you'll worry about what's been called the worst art theft since World War II.

David Schwartz, the Chief Curator of the Museum of Moving Image and editor at large of the indispensible Moving Image Source, delivers his TIFF doc picks:

ONCE UPON A TIME PROLETARIAN: 12 TALES OF A COUNTRY - Looks like a fascinating attempt to fuse a literary, poetic approach to documentary to examine contemporary China, by a woman director and novelist who also has a fiction feature film, She, A Chinese, in the Festival.

IN COMPARISON - An experimental documentary, shot on beloved 16mm film, that looks at brick production around the world. Hopefully, it will be both an insightful look at the global economy and a rich cinematic experience.

GOOD HAIR (pictured) - It's still hard to believe what Chris Rock got away with as host of the Oscars-skewering celebrity worship and revealing racism in Hollywood's attitude towards black audiences. He's the most incisive, and of course funniest commentator on African-American life, so I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing him tackle this loaded cultural topic.

L'ENFER DE HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT - Film archivist extraordinaire Serge Bromberg opens a Pandora's Box of film footage from an unfinished movie by the director of Diabolique. By showing raw and edited footage, and interviewing crew members who talk about the project, this film may give us a very rare look at a great director's artistic process.

Every year when I send out the call for TIFF doc picks, I especially look forward to the response from film programmer Tom Hall because he always answers with the same care applied to his great blog Backrow Manifesto. Here's his reply:

The sun is starting to set a little bit earlier, the evenings have cooled down ever so slightly; I can almost smell the autumn in the air. Toronto beckons and I am more than ready. I am honored that Thom Powers has offered me the opportunity to once again share my excitement, not only for the festival as a whole (and for the documentary program in particular), but for a few select titles that seem to be right in my cinematic sweet spot.

The Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould (pictured) - One of the artists whose playing changed the way I thought about classical music, Glenn Gould remains something of an enigmatic figure for me; his death at the much-too-young age of 50 came well before I could truly appreciate him, but his commitment to recorded music (and his decision to abandon the concert stage) left us with a rich and mysterious body of performance, radio recordings and even wildlife documentaries. I am very interested to see how Peter Raymont and Michèle Hozer handle the delicate balance between the man and his music.

The Art Of The Steal - Albert Barnes is a fascinating character. An American physician and inventor of the once-popular antiseptic drug Argyrol, Barnes spent  much of his time and money collecting modern art. His collection, valued today in the billions of dollars, is kept in the Barnes Foundation, a gem of a museum in the Philadelphia area. There was a recent controversy surrounding the collection (I won't say more in case I might spoil things), so I am very interested to see where Don Argott takes the tale. Either way, the history of the collection itself, which features hundreds of works by Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne and Van Gogh among many others, promises to be thrilling.

Waking Sleeping Beauty - I love animation and I really love the work of both Disney and Pixar in recent years, so I am very much interested in seeing Don Hahn's behind the scenes look at how Disney's animation studio rebounded from a long, difficult spell as a backseat proposition to the slew of Disney live-action features that dominated the 1970's and 80's (The Apple Dumpling Gang, anyone?). It should be a lot of fun for fans of the movies and the studio. Not every film about the Disney brand has been flattering, and I am hoping for a warts-and-all history of the studio that shows what really went on behind closed doors.

John Greyson's Covered looks to be mandatory viewing. This short looks at an ugly moment in 2008 when the first-ever Sarajevo Queer Festival was the subject of violent attacks by members of the so-called Vehabi movement. Exposing intolerance is a powerful responsibility, and so I am determined to catch Greyson's take on this vital subject.

Finally, for anyone reading this thinking that Chris Rock's Good Hair is a film you might get away with not seeing, I cannot recommend it enough. It an absolutely hilarious, excellent piece of filmmaking that debunks much of what we think we know about African-America's self-image. It is warm and generous and at the same time deeply skeptical of the beauty myth, but Rock gets the balance just right and has made one of the most surprising movies of the year. A must see.

Brent Hoff, editor of the brilliant dvd anthology Wholphin, delivers his picks of TIFF docs:

Bassidji (dir, Mehran Tamadon) - I just feel like we practitioners of western culture still desperately need to better understand the mind of the Islamic extremist and documentaries like Bassidji are truly the best and often only way to get this kind of vital information.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (dir, Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith) - I think people like Daniel Ellsberg are among the most vital members of a democracy. A documentary on this "dangerous man" who put his life at risk to expose a far more dangerous lie is not only long overdue but goddamn timely indeed.

Night Mayor (dir, Guy Maddin) - It's like Guy's reading my mind! I too have always dreamt of harnessing the power of the Aurora Borealis in order to broadcast images from the depths of my psyche to unwitting countrymen! It's an obvious idea really. Ha! The man is a genius!

I should also admit I have a great dread of seeing Videocracy. A movie about Silvio Berlusconi and the media almost certainly has to deal with the infamous nose picking / eating scandal that nearly derailed his career and I just don't think I can handle seeing that video again.

 ALSO: How to Fold a Flag (dir, Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein) - Michael and Petra always show me a part of the world I never even knew I needed to see. 

[P.S. from Thom:  I should note that Guy Maddin's wonderful short Night Mayor is actually fiction; and, don't worry, Videocracy may be full of gross indecency, but nose-picking isn't featured.]

A couple months ago, Basil Tsiokos wrote a much-discussed list of Do and Don't for documentary filmmakers, drawing upon his experience as a programming associate for the Sundance Film Festival and other events. Here he highlights the docs he's most anticpating at TIFF:

There are so many documentaries in the TIFF line-up that I'm excited to see next month, but here are the ones that immediately leap out:

I'm very curious to see what did and didn't make the cut for the censors of the self-elected MMPAA (Mormon Motion Pictures Association of America) in Cleanflix - plus it's always nice to see hypocrisy exposed.

I love a good mystery, and by taking place in the domain of high art, The Art of the Steal sounds like it's rife with potential for exploring the intersections between greed and culture.

Unfinished films and their promise of what could have been hold an endless fascination for me, so L'Enfer de Henri-Georges Clouzot is definitely on my must-see list.

Also, though I have already seen it, I wanted to note that Ahead of Time (pictured) is an excellent portrait of a captivating subject whose story should be more widely known.

David Nugent, Director of Programming for the Hamptons Film Festival and a teacher at the New School, supplies us with these TIFF doc picks:

I am really looking forward to (in no particular order) seeing:

PETER BERG PRESENTS KINGS RANSOM (pictured) - As a huge fan of both Peter Berg's television show FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and "the great one" Wayne Gretzky himself, I'm very excited about this. Perhaps another trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame down the road in Toronto to get me in the mood...

LA DANSE: LE BALLET DE L'OPERA DE PARIS - While my passion for hockey is stronger than it is for dance, Frederick Wiseman can make anything interesting to watch. The delicate grace of the Paris Opera Ballet dancers and all that goes into such a venerable cultural institution would seem to add up to a fascinating film in Wiseman's hands.

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY - While the foolishness of the Bush administration, and our twisted health care system, certainly provided Michael Moore with rich material with which to work, last year's global financial crisis seems like the perfect topic for him to explore. I am hoping for the slightly more thoughtful and curious probing of BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE instead of FAHRENHEIT 911 and SICKO's overwhelmingly tendentious approach.

In answer to our call for TIFF doc picks, Karina Longworth of SpoutBlog writes:

I think there's a neat symmetry to the fact that TIFF 2009's highest-profile nonfiction selection is called Capitalism: A Love Story -- after all, with Valentino: The Last Emperor and Food Inc, TIFF 2008 launched two documentary hits dealing with contemporary patterns of commercial consumption. Several of the films I plan to see at this year's festival seem equally concerned with the intersection of capitalism and culture.  I'm fascinated with the crazy teflon reign of Silvio Berlusconi, so of course I'm excited about Videocracy, and also Cleanflix -- because between censorship, false piety, sex scandals and hypocrisy, what's not to love?

Once Upon a Time Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country sounds incredible. I read a statement from director Xiaolu Guo about how this project grew out of the production of her Locarno-winning fiction film She, A Chinese (pictured), and now I can't wait to see the two films together.

Finally, one of my biggest regrets at Cannes this year was missing Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno. I'm just a nerd for movies about movies.

David Courier, a programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, who takes a special interest in non-fiction film, offers up his TIFF doc picks. He writes:

There are so many docs that I'm looking forward to at TIFF but here are a few that I'm particularly curious about...

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (pictured) Having grown up during the Vietnam War, I've been fascinated with Daniel Ellsberg for decades.  The leaking of the Pentagon Papers turned the US government upside down.  As a child I would listen as my parents and aunts and uncles argued over Nixon, Vietnam and Daniel Ellsberg, who became a hero in my family of die-hard Democrats.

Stolen
I've been following the controversy around this film since it premiered in Sydney. Controversy spurs curiosity and it certainly has spurred mine.  I hope that actually seeing the film will shed light, not only on the subject of the Sahawari refugees, but also on the question of ethics in documentary filmmaking.

Colony
I saw at least three documentaries last year about colony collapse disorder. CCD is an incredibly frightening phenomenon from an environmental perspective and while all three films were compelling, they all, ultimately fell short. I wanted to take the best aspects of each of these films and make the penultimate documentary on the subject. My hope is that Colony by Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell will be the one.

Cleanflix
I'm a total film buff.  I fiercely oppose censorship. I'm a film festival programmer and my festival happens to be smack dab in the middle of Utah. These are just some of the reasons that I find the subject matter of Cleanflix absolutely irresistible.

Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out NY answers our call for TIFF doc picks and poses an interesting question: Has there ever been an anti-capitalist movie? Please discuss.

Rothkopf writes:

Unlike most Americans, I will be seeing Michael Moore's CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY for free. Should I be ashamed of that fact? Is this actually an anticapitalism movie? (It would be the first.)

End-of-the-world scenarios excite me. Sometimes I think I'd do okay as a hardy survivor. COLLAPSE  (pictured), from filmmaker Chris Smith, explores a bunch of scary what-ifs. Plus, it's a world premiere.

Come on: The doc is called SCHMATTA: RAGS TO RICHES TO RAGS. How could this not be mandatory viewing for my tribe? Seriously, the Garment District fascinates me; I walk through it daily to go to work.

[Speaking of SCHMATTA, see the Aug 20th New York Times article about the garment industry, reflecting what a timely film this is.- TP]

Today, Peter Howell published a glowing overview of the festival in today's Toronto Star. Here he names the TIFF docs that he's most keen to see:

Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore):
I've been disappointed with Moore's work over the past few years, as he's allowed his political agenda (i.e. anti-Republican) to overshadow his "common dude" approach to investigative journalism. He's back afflicting powerful capitalists once again, shades of Roger & Me, and  I'm curious to see whom he inflames amongst the robber bank barons.

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (pictured) (Brigitte Berman):
We already well know about the "playboy" part of nudie mag founder Hefner; the "activist" and "rebel" parts sound awfully intriguing. Let's hope Brigitte Berman digs deep enough to find the man inside the big bunny.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith):
I'm a sucker for historical exposes and I've always considered the Pentagon Papers incident to have been shoved aside by the greater notoriety of Watergate. Richard Nixon was up to no good long before his fumbling plumbers started the leaks that led to downfall.
 

Anne Thompson's blog Thompson on Hollywood - or TOH! - is an industry must-read, now residing within Indiewire.com. She graciously took time out from her beat to list her most-anticipated TIFF doc:

Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags (pictured), because Marc Levin (Slam) is an ace  filmmaker/reporter/provocateur with a political POV.

Capitalism: A Love Story, because Michael Moore never fails to provoke, educate and entertain. This movie about Wall Street greed  couldn't be more timely.

Videocracy, because Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is a fascinating global powermonger and I want to know more about his media empire. Is it evil?

Good Hair, because Jeff Stilson and Chris Rock explore the nitty-gritty of our culture's warped take on nappy hair.

Neil Young Trunk Show, because I never miss a Jonathan Demme music doc on Young. It's like butter. [This film will screen for free in Yonge Dundas Square on Monday, Sept 14 at 8 pm]