Hot Docs Live!, a program featuring the Canadian premiere screenings of two high-profile Hot Docs Festival films, INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE (D: James Swirsky, Lisanne Pajot; Canada) and CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT (D: Yung Chang; Canada, China).

Hot Docs Live! can be seen at 35 Cineplex Entertainment theatres across the country. CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT and INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE premiere on May 2 and 3, respectively, at 9:00 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. CT, 7 p.m. MT, 6 p.m. PT. These screenings and special interactive discussions with the filmmakers and special guests will be simulcast live from the newly opened Bloor Hot Docs Cinema via Cineplex Entertainment’s Front Row Centre Events to participating theatres across Canada.

“Hot Docs is one of the first festivals in the world to present live cross-country screenings and filmmaker discussions,” says Chris McDonald, Hot Docs executive director. “Festivals are about creating communities and this is a fantastic opportunity to share the unique Hot Docs Festival experience in real-time in communities across Canada. We are thrilled to multiply the impact of these great Canadian documentary films and to introduce these talented filmmakers to a wider audience.”

“We are honoured to partner with Hot Docs and Cineplex Entertainment in this groundbreaking collaboration to bring documentary films to audiences across the country,” says Anne Frank, Telefilm Canada’s Interim Regional Director of Industry Promotion, Ontario & Nunavut Region. “Our participation underlines our objective to stimulate demand for Canadian screen-based content, including in the regions where the appetite for homegrown cinema is strong. Hot Docs Live! is also a unique opportunity to promote our talented filmmakers.”

CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT, directed by award-winning Yung Chang (UP THE YANGTZE), follows a master coach in central China as he recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions. The top students face dramatic choices as they graduate: should they fight for the collective glory of their county or for themselves? A metaphor for the choices everyone now faces in the new China.

INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE, directed by James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, looks at the underdogs of the video game industry, indie game developers, who sacrifice money, health and sanity to realize their lifelong dreams of sharing their creative visions with the world. The directors capture the tension and drama by focusing on these artists’ vulnerability and obsessive quest to express themselves through a 21st-century art form.

Both CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT and INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE received their world premieres at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Cineplex Odeon Eau Claire Cinemas (Calgary)
Cineplex Odeon Westhills Cinemas (Calgary)

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