Wedding Videographer and Doug Blocks

Doug Blocks: 112 Weddings: Like many marriages, it seems great at the outset: wedding videographer Doug Blocks plan to revisit the 112 couples hes lensed over 20 years. The problem is, hes not a great interviewer. He talks to just 11 couples of his 112, and doesnt get much out of them. The usual marital stresses are mentioned dashed careers and hopes, money problems, child illnesses but most of the couples seem to be making the best of it. You compromise and you work it out, one husband says. The very first wedding that Block shot ended in divorce. He talks to both ex-spouses, but such candour is rare in the film. Peter Howell, according to The Star. Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case: Picks up where 2012s Never Sorry left off with the aftermath of Ai Weiweis release, after months of captivity on trumped-up charges of tax evasion and his subsequent legal challenge to the Chinese authorities who jailed him. Ruling Communists want to quiet the worlds most famous dissident, but the film lionizes him unbowed and once more into the fray, this time of legal quagmire. Its meandering eye the filmmaker is equally seduced by Ais cosy domestic life, his artmaking, his celebrity and his humanistic protests strays too far from the case to produce anything coherent. Still, Ai is compelling enough for even a middling film to be enthralling. Murray Whyte The Hot Docs film festival kicks off on Thursday April 24 and runs until May 4. How do you decide what to see from the record 205 films in 11 programs? Star writers have pre-screened some of the most buzzed-about offerings. Recommended films are marked with an asterisk. For screening times, ticket information and details, go to hotdocs.ca/highlights . Advanced Style: These fabulous, fashionable women made famous by New York street photographer Ari Seth Cohens Advanced Style blog pump out a blinding level of glamour, chutzpah and enthusiasm even if the film itself occasionally lets them down with less-than polished looks and sound. These game Manhattan gals may complain about aches and pains, but they preach age is only a number. Their deep closets and flamboyant, colourful, manic passion for fashion make them irresistible and unstoppable. Linda Barnard (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.