How Toronto Documentaries Use Innovative Methods to Reach New Audiences: ‘You Need a Different Lens’

Documentaries have flooded streaming services and arthouse theaters for years, with good reason: They’re usually the most inexpensive indie films to produce and can spark cultural conversations that attract big audiences. But with so many to choose from, how can filmmakers set theirs apart from the pack?

In Toronto, directors are taking some unconventional approaches: inserting new theatrical scenes to present unfilmable histories, capturing mind-bending aerial stunts that go far beyond typical doc photography, using aural techniques that duplicate protagonists’ experiences and even bringing doc elements into other genres.

“Unquestionably, we’re living in a world of much more nonfiction filmmaking and engagement from audiences than 10 years ago,” says TIFF’s documentary programmer Thom Powers. “And with that increase comes a different set of challenges, as audiences become familiar with certain visual styles of documentary-making. If you want to shake them up and get them to look at something with fresh eyes, you need to have a different lens.”

One example Powers cites is “Patrice: The Movie,” Ted Passon’s “documentary rom-com” about a disabled woman and her fight to get married without losing disability benefits she needs to survive. The protagonist, Patrice Jetter, designed sets to play herself in re-created scenes from her life with child actors. “Patrice has a million stories from her life, and there’s so much she went through that shapes how she sees the world now,” Passon says. “She’s been working on a graphic novel and doing drawings from her life, and she had a public access kids television show. It was fun to combine these elements, and it helped us with a tonal issue, because some of the things she’s talking about are really serious.”

Producer Kyla Harris co-wrote these scenes with Jetter for the film, which premieres at TIFF Sept. 8 and airs on Hulu Sept. 30.

Several hit docs have used aerial cinematography to breathtaking effect, from 2007’s “Man on Wire” to this year’s “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” plus too many skydiving docs to count. But how many show cars and office cubicles falling from planes? “Space Cowboy,” from directors Marah Strauch (who helmed the 2014 BASE-jumping doc “Sunshine Superman”) and Bryce Leavitt, uses incredible images to capture the work of aerial stunt cinematographer Joe Jennings. “You could’ve easily made it about his life and career as the go-to guy for making objects fly just from his archival footage,” Leavitt says. “But he’d never made a car fall flat in the air, or ‘fly’ perfectly, so this was an opportunity we had to follow him on this pursuit,” Strauch adds. The film bowed Sept. 6 in Toronto.

Like “Patrice,” Olivier Sarbil’s “Viktor” attempts to capture the subjective experience of its title protagonist, a Deaf person volunteering as a war photographer during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “By asking Viktor to document his thoughts and feelings in a journal and using it for the voiceover, I believe we captured his inner world with greater intimacy than a traditional interview,” Sarbil says. The film uses muted audio “to create the sound of the Deaf world, to reflect Viktor’s inner life and shape how the audience understands what is happening inside Viktor’s body.” And its black-and-white cinematography mirrors Viktor’s camera work and reflects his way of experiencing life, which he says changed from color when he lost his hearing at age five.

And at least one Toronto entry uses elements of doc filmmaking without being a doc at all. The animated biopic “Piece by Piece” incorporates “Lego Movie”-style animation to capture the life and work of musician Pharrell Williams. Despite direction from vet documentarian Morgan Neville and unscripted commentary from artists like Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar and Gwen Stefani, all seen as Lego characters, the film’s visual storytelling and some scripted scenes push it into the realm of fictional Lego movies, plus films like Richard Linklater’s 2001 animated feature “Waking Life.” “It was totally delightful, and I love films that expand audiences for nonfiction storytelling,” says TIFF’s Powers, who wasn’t involved in programming the Sept. 7 Special Presentation that hits theaters Oct. 11. “I kept thinking it was a film that my 14-year-old would enjoy, and often when I’m trying to get him to watch a movie, he’ll say, “Anything but nonfiction!’”