#FIRSTLOOK: HOT DOCS NOVEMBER 2026 PROGRAMMING INCLUDING “YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING”

Hot Docs expands monthly screening slots, launches new series and welcomes some of the most celebrated new release and classic documentaries to the historic cinema in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood in November. As part of its November lineup, Hot Docs Cinema will welcome several special guests to introduce screenings or take part in post-screening discussions live on stage, including Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, Aaron Lishman, Carmen Lishman, Rebecca Mason, Habiba Nosheen, Brett Story, and Ana Maria Tremonti.

November welcomes the launch of new Friday late-night series Bloor After Dark, which will occupy the cinema’s new Friday night timeslot. The series is a nod to the cinema’s history as the Bloor Cinema from 1979-2011. The 80s, 90s and early 2000s saw Toronto’s Annex in full glory as one of the city’s most sought out destinations on a Friday night, and at the centre of it all was the Bloor Cinema. Before Hot Docs took over the cinema at 506 Bloor Street West, it operated for decades as the beloved Bloor Cinema, a rep house that showed cult classics, beloved art house films, midnight movies and more. We pay homage to “The Bloor” with Bloor After Dark, a new late-night series honouring the cinema’s long history, with titles that call back to laid back nights in the balcony taking in some of cinema’s most electrifying offerings. The series will launch on Friday, November 6 with Martin Scorsese’s 1985 Kafkaesque cult classic After Hours and will continue on November 13 with late-night cinema icon David Lynch’s 1977 debut Eraserhead. On November 20, the series will welcome Wattstax, Mel Stuart’s 1973 documentary about the legendary benefit concert organized by Stax Records to commemorate the Watts Rebellion in Los Angeles, and on November 28 the series will celebrate Bruce Lee’s birthday with Robert Clouse’s enduring 1973 classic Enter the Dragon. For more information and screening times, visit hotdocs.ca/whats-on/bloor-after-dark

November 2026 marks the centenary of Albert Maysles, who along with his brother David Maysles are among the most celebrated American documentarians. The Maysles were vanguards in the direct cinema movement of the late 50s and 60s, which prized observational cinema, capturing life as it unfolded before their camera. Hot Docs will celebrate these legendary filmmakers with Remembering the Maysles, two provocative and rich documentaries simultaneously showcasing and critiquing American culture. A cultural phenomenon and a slice of rock-n-roll history, Gimme Shelter (1970) is the landmark documentary about the tragically ill-fated Rolling Stones free concert at Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969. A masterpiece of direct cinema, Salesman (1968) follows four door-to-door Bible salesmen as they walk the line between hype and despair. The screening of Salesman will include an introduction by filmmaker Brett Story. For more information and screening times, visit hotdocs.ca/whats-on/remembering-the-maysles

Our Curious Minds Speaker Series returns on November 21 with the one-day only event, Curious Minds: The Odyssey. Join Homeric studies expert Jonathan Burgess for an in-depth exploration of Homer’s The Odyssey, recently reimagined by Hollywood as one of the year’s biggest box office successes. Burgess’s talk will explain the origins of the Homeric epics, The Odyssey’s main characters, major themes, and will compare Homer’s work with Christopher Nolan’s film. For more information and ticket info, visit hotdocs.ca/curiousminds

The 2026-27 season of Doc Soup, Hot Docs’ long-running monthly screening series, continues November 4-5 with the winner of the Sundance 2026 Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary, Nuisance Bear. When a polar bear is branded a nuisance in this stunningly filmed twist on the traditional nature doc, it becomes unclear who truly belongs in the shared landscape. For more info, tickets and screening details, or to subscribe to Doc Soup, visit http://go.pardot.com/e/463832/whats-on-doc-soup/lyj52/988590286/h/Y_-XQ22jhe4ZfUKK4nJucO9Az1fwvtSrbrhmLectyZo

On November 29, Canadian doc rewind series Stories We Told will mark the 20th anniversary of Manufactured Landscapes (2006) with a screening of the celebrated Canadian film followed by an insightful discussion on stage with special guests director Jennifer Baichwal and photographer Edward Burtynsky. Winner of the 2007 Genie Award for Best Documentary and named one of the “100 best Canadian films ever made” by The Globe & Mail’s Barry Hertz, Manufactured Landscapes is a feature length documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Shot in Super-16mm film, the film extends the narrative streams of Burtynsky’s photographs, allowing us to meditate on our profound impact on the planet and witness both the epicentres of industrial endeavour and the dumping grounds of its waste. For more information and screening times, visit hotdocs.ca/whats-on/stories-we-told

Cinema series Truth and Dare from curators Nick Armstrong, Adam Bovoletis, and Sacha Kingston-Wayne, celebrates the most mind-expanding, form-pushing works emerging from the documentary world. On November 6, the series brings a one-of-a-kind, interactive event, with the complete visual album of Magalena Bay’s Imaginal Disk, directed by Amanda Kramer: a wizard of artifice, whose film So Unreal screened at Truth and Dare in 2025. The film will be preceded by the Toronto premiere of Skeptics and Believers, a post-ironic tour de force by Toronto comedy trio The Big Three. The screening will include a Q&A with director Amanda Kramer, as well as a live performance from The Big Three. For more information, visit hotdocs.ca/whats-on/truth-and-dare

Hot Docs will also welcome additional special guests for screenings throughout November, including Carmen and Aaron Lishman, children of celebrated Canadian artist and inventor Bill Lishman, subject of the 1990 film Fly Away Home, which gets a special free 30th anniversary screening on November 15; Rebecca Mason, daughter of Bill Mason, whose 1984 classic NFB film Waterwalker comes to the cinema on November 15 with a stunning 4K restoration, including remastered 5.1 surround sound; and Habiba Nosheen, director of The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony, which will screen on November 28 with a post-screening discussion between Nosheen and journalist Ana Maria Tremonti.

Additional November titles include the documentary phenomenon You Can See Everything from Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, and 14th from Ava DuVernay, the follow-up to her Academy Award–nominated and Emmy Award–winning documentary 13th. The above films join the full line-up of screenings and events taking place in November at Hot Docs Cinema. For more of what’s on at Hot Docs Cinema, visit hotdocs.ca