The circumstances surrounding a young Holocaust victim's tragic demise are brought to life in Larry Weinstein's documentary Inside Hana's Suitcase.The circumstances surrounding a young Holocaust victim's tragic demise are brought to life in Larry Weinstein's documentary Inside Hana's Suitcase. (HotDocs)

Truth is stranger than fiction. Documentary pioneers D.A. Pennebaker and Frederick Wiseman always knew it, but it took mainstream audiences a little longer to embrace the notion.

Viewer interest in all things reality has spiked, and the Canadian International Documentary Festival, better known as Hot Docs, is better for it. In the 16 years since its inception, the festival has blossomed from a once-quaint Toronto event into North America’s largest showcase for non-fiction film.

In spite of ever-growing ticket sales — not to mention buzz — the 11-day festival has maintained a reputation of accessibility. Festival viewers can still engage in lively Q&A sessions with directors at most screenings, and even though many films on this year’s Hot Docs schedule are listed as sold out, tenacious cinephiles willing to stand in the “rush” line are usually rewarded.

This year’s festival, which runs April 30-May 10, boasts 171 entries from nearly 40 countries. The festivities include special retrospectives devoted to directors Ron Mann and Alanis Obomsawin, a spotlight on the best documentaries from South Korea and a look at the National Film Board’s most acclaimed works (in honour of its 70th anniversary). Hot Docs 2009 will also screen 11 docs in a new series entitled Let’s Make Money.

Here are 10 docs that are generating lots of pre-festival buzz. One of the following could become this year’s Man on Wire.

We Live in Public

Arriving with a Sundance Grand Jury Prize in tow, this film takes an intimate look at internet pioneer Josh Harris, whose belief that everyone would eventually want to live life online predated the Facebook and Twitter craze by nearly a decade. Director Ondi Timoner’s extensive footage details what transpired when Harris chose to put his relationship with his then-girlfriend on a 24-hour webcam. Advance buzz suggests the result is as engaging and obsessive as Timoner’s previous award winner, DiG!.

The film Objectified looks at our relationship with objects and the people who design them. The film Objectified looks at our relationship with objects and the people who design them. (HotDocs)

Objectified

After his triumphant, sold-out run at Hot Docs 2007 with Helvetica, filmmaker Gary Hustwit returns with another rigorous look at a very specialized subject – this time, industrial design. Viewers can expect to see some gorgeous images and a loving tribute to the creative whizzes behind our most treasured Apple and Braun products.

Best Worst Movie

Helmed by Michael Paul Stephenson, a former child actor, this doc explores the unusual cult that’s developed around the incoherent vegetarian-goblin horror flick Troll 2 (1990), which the Internet Movie Database has dubbed one of the worst movies of all time. This trashy good fun will play well with the adventurous, rowdy crowd at Hot Docs’ late-night screenings.

Inside Hana’s Suitcase

Based on Karen Levine’s best-selling book, this compelling doc begins with a suitcase bearing the name “Hana Brady” wending its way from the Auschwitz Museum to a classroom in Tokyo. While teacher Fumiko Ishioka works with her young students to uncover the suitcase’s mysterious origins, the ensuing story of Hana and her brother George is revealed through a blend of children’s voices, interviews, still photographs and dramatic re-enactments. Larry Weinstein’s film is tremendously affirming — viewers are advised to keep Kleenex on hand for the end.

A scene from Invisible City. A scene from Invisible City. (Industry Pictures/Shine Films/NFB)

Invisible City

Set against the backdrop of Toronto’s Regent Park housing projects, Invisible City is an intimate study of two teens, Mikey and Kendell, grappling with tricky decisions and temptations on the road to adulthood. Oscar-nominated director Hubert Davis’s portrait of boys and a community in flux promises to be an unflinching, stirring look at the challenges facing those on society’s margins.

Outrage

Oscar-nominated documentarian Kirby Dick has an uncanny ability for ferreting out hypocrisy, be it in the Catholic Church (Twist of Faith) or the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings board (This Film Is Not Yet Rated). This time around, he went to Washington to out the closeted politicians who are the most vehement supporters of anti-gay legislation.

Prom Night in Mississippi

Most of us like to think segregation’s long over, but it’s alive and well in Charleston, Miss., where black and white high schoolers are still forced to attend separate dances. That is, until Charleston resident Morgan Freeman steps up and offers to end the folly by paying the tab for an integrated senior prom. Directed by Canadian Paul Saltzman, this is likely to be one of the biggest crowd pleasers at this year’s fest.

Waterlife examines the beauty, complexity and state of distress of the Great Lakes, the largest supply of water on earth. Waterlife examines the beauty, complexity and state of distress of the Great Lakes, the largest supply of water on earth. (HotDocs)

Waterlife

In this imaginative take on the standard eco-doc, director Kevin McMahon (The Falls) charts the journey of a lone water molecule from the tip of Lake Superior all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. In the process, Waterlife becomes a thought-provoking meditation on our relationship to a substance we take for granted, and an impassioned plea to save the Great Lakes from the ravages of toxins, sewage and climate change.

Reporter

This up-close-and-personal profile of Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tracks the humanitarian journalist as he travels deep into the war-torn Congo. Early reviews from Sundance suggest Reporter is a gripping study of a man determined to make readers care about a crisis they can’t see, and an ode to the dying art of investigative journalism.

When We Were Boys

Sarah Goodman – whose debut, Army of One, netted the Best Documentary prize at Hot Docs 2004 – ventures behind the ivy walls of a boy’s private school in Toronto. Once inside, she zeroes in on two grade eight students, Noah and Colin, whose friendship is tested as childhood roughhousing gives way to the pressures of school dances, girls and the clique-y horrorshow that is Grade 9.

The Hot Docs Film Festival runs April 30-May 10.

Lee Ferguson writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.