Hot Docs adds films about Holocaust humour, US gun culture to lineup

TORONTO – Films featuring activist Bobby Sands, musicians David Byrne, Nelly Furtado, Shad and Grandmaster Flash, and comics Mel Brooks and Sarah Silverman are heading to the Hot Docs festival.

Organizers said 14 documentary features have been added to the lineup, including “Under the Gun,” in which Stephanie Soechtig and Katie Couric investigate U.S. gun culture.

Also added are the Ireland-U.K. film “Bobby Sands: 66 Days,” based on the diary of the Irish Republican Army fighter who died during a hunger strike in 1981, and “Contemporary Color” with Byrne, Furtado and others performing alongside student pep rallies.

“The Squid and the Whale” director Noah Baumbach and filmmaker Jake Paltrow team up for “De Palma,” a portrait of “Scarface” and “Carrie” director Brian de Palma. “The Last Laugh” features Brooks, Silverman, Carl Reiner and others debating how — and whether — to joke about the Holocaust.

In Canada’s “Hip-Hop Evolution,” homegrown rapper Shad travels to the Bronx and Harlem to talk to hip-hop originators including Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash, while the U.S.’ “Gleason” profiles former NFLer Steve Gleason after he was diagnosed with ALS.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival runs April 28 to May 8. The complete program will be announced March 22.