The 15th Annual HotDocs Canadian International Documentary Festival starts this Thursday, and runs through next week. It is the largest documentary film festival in North America, showing more than 100 documentaries from around the world.

The films will be shown in theaters around Toronto, and tickets are available for individual shows, or as part of a package.

Here are some of their HotPics for this year's festival:

SATURDAY, APRIL 19TH:

GARBAGE! THE REVOLUTION STARTS AT HOME @ 1 p.m.
World Premiere
D: Andrew Nisker?Canada?76 min
What would happen if you kept every scrap of garbage for three months? A Toronto family discovers the answer - and how their garbage affects the world - in this funny and shocking odyssey through our trash. Co-presented with Planet in Focus International Environmental Film and Video Festival. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]
Repeat screening: Tuesday, April 22, 9:00 PM at the Al Green Theatre.



FOOTBALL UNDER COVER @ 6:30 p.m.
International Premiere
D: David Assmann, Ayat Najafi?Germany?86 min
The first official friendly match between the Iranian women's soccer team and a local Berlin team is the background for incredible bureaucracy, hypocrisy, irony and personality...but it's the girl power - Iranian style - that prevails. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]
Repeat screening: Sunday, April 27, 6:30 PM at the Bloor Cinema.


HEAD WIND @ 9:30 p.m.
World Premiere
D: Mohammad Rasoulof?Iran?65 min
Although possessing a satellite dish is illegal in Iran, as this observant, wryly ironic film reveals, cheesy Western television shows somehow find their way into Iranian homes. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]
Repeat screening: Monday, April 21, 2:15 PM at the SCENE Screening Room at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

SUNDAY, APRIL 20TH:

HER NAME IS SABINE @ 4:15 p.m.
Canadian Premiere
D: Sandrine Bonnaire?France?85 min
French actress Sandrine Bonnaire uses intimate home movie footage to create a loving portrait of Sabine, her 38-year-old autistic sister, and to trace her behavioural decline while living in institutional care. Co-presented with Alliance Francaise. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS ]
Repeat screening: Saturday, April 26, 11:30 AM at the ROM Theatre.



VICTOIRE TERMINUS @ 4:30 p.m.
North American Premiere
D: Renaud Barret, Florent De La Tullaye?France?80 min
Determined, street-wise female boxers in Kinshasa struggle to mount a tournament while a fight for the presidency of the Congo rages. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS ]
North American Premiere
D: Renaud Barret, Florent De La Tullaye?France?80 min
Determined, street-wise female boxers in Kinshasa struggle to mount a tournament while a fight for the presidency of the Congo rages. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS ]

MONDAY, APRIL 21ST:

SEARCHING FOR SANDEEP @ 11:30 a.m.
North American Premiere
D: Poppy Stockell?Australia?56 min
A long-distance Internet romance blossoms into a lesbian love affair strong enough to cross three continents and break through cultural barriers in this raw and incredibly frank tale of love, heartbreak and understanding. Co-presented with Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]

Screening with:
LA CORONA (The Crown)
International Premiere
D: Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega?USA?40 min
Murderers, guerrillas and thieves vie to become beauty queens at a women's penitentiary in Bogotá, Colombia. Co-presented with aluCine Toronto Latin@ Media Festival. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]

WILD BLUE YONDER @ 7 p.m.
Canadian Premiere
D: Celia Maysles?USA?70 min
Filmmaker Celia Maysles searches images for answers on her journey to understand the father she never knew, renowned documentary filmmaker David Maysles. WILD BLUE YONDER captures memory in all of its truth, falsity and fantasy. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]

Screening with:
BEGINNING FILMMAKING
Canadian Premiere
D: Jay Rosenblatt?USA?23 min
How to teach a preschooler to make a film. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]
Repeat screening: Wednesday, April 23, 11:00 AM at the SCENE Screening Room at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22nd:

MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH @ 11:30 a.m.
North American Premiere
D: Morgan Dews?USA?74 min
A 1960s Connecticut couple's misguided attempt to preserve their nuclear family unit is viscerally revealed through the innovative use of recorded diaries and psychiatric sessions. Co-presented with Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]



WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23rd:

SECOND SKIN @ 1:30 p.m.
International Premiere
D: Juan Carlos Pineiro?USA?90 min
Massive multi-player online games World of Warcraft, Second Life and EverQuest create virtual spaces that rival, if not replace, reality for some users. An incredible look at online life, love and friendship. Co-presented with Fantasy Worldwide Film Festival. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]



THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GRUMPY BURGER @ 11:59 p.m.
Toronto Premiere
D: Matt Gallagher?Canada?84 min
McDonald's. Burger King. Grumpy Burger? Follow B-movie director Marshall Sfalcin, Windsor's answer to Ed Wood, as he sets out to film his masterpiece about his family...the owners of Grumpy Burger and supposed inventors of fast food. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]

THURSDAY, APRIL 24TH:

CARTS OF DARKNESS @ 12:00 p.m.
Toronto Premiere
D: Murray Siple?Canada?52 min
Eccentric homeless bottle-pickers transform into rubber-burning road warriors when they race their shopping carts at 70 km/hour down the steep roads of North Vancouver. Verité-style intimacy and extreme sport cinematography craft this poignant and thrilling portrait. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]



MECHANICAL LOVE @ 7 p.m.
North American Premiere
D: Phie Ambo?Denmark?79 min
The intimate and complex relationships between therapeutic robots and humans are explored, raising some very provocative questions. Can robots offer a substitute for human affection? Meet Paro, a needy robotic baby seal, and believe that it's possible. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]

ELEVEN MINUTES @ 9:15 p.m.
International Premiere
D: Michael Selditch, Rob Tate?USA?102 min
Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll pulls together his first fashion collection in this irreverent look at the creative process, compromise and the frictions between commerce and art, celebrity and skill, and reality TV and actuality. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS]
Repeat screening: Friday, April 25, 11:45 PM at the Bloor Cinema.




SATURDAY, APRIL 26TH:

TIGER SPIRIT @ 12:45 p.m.
World Premiere
D: Min Sook Lee?Canada?90 min
Anguished Korean families, separated for nearly a lifetime by the demilitarized zone, yearn for their loved ones. The director candidly synthesizes the personal and the political in revealing the painful price of power. [ MORE INFO & TICKETS ]