Hot Docs festival organizers have announced that co-president Heather Conway is 'transitioning' to an advisory position after just six months on the job.Courtesy of Hot Docs
Two weeks away from the opening of the 29th edition of Hot Docs in Toronto – the film festival’s first in-person affair in three years – organizers had an announcement to make. Heather Conway, the former executive vice-president of English services at CBC/Radio-Canada who joined Hot Docs as executive director and co-president in November of last year, was “transitioning” to an advisory position after just six months on the job.
Conway joined Hot Docs – arguably the world’s highest-profile documentary film fest, second only to Amsterdam’s International Documentary Film Festival – following the March 2021 departure of long-time executive director Brett Hendrie, who left for a position at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. At the time of her appointment, Conway was tapped to oversee, along with co-president Chris McDonald, Hot Docs’ six production funding programs, the burgeoning Hot Docs at Home video-on-demand platform and the organization’s flagship Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema on Toronto’s Bloor Street West.
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Conway’s departure is the second high-profile departure for Hot Docs this year, after long-time Hot Docs director Alan Black announced in March that following two decades with the organization, “this festival will be my last.” Meanwhile, McDonald, who will now take on sole leadership of Hot Docs, has appointed Black’s fellow Hot Docs director Erin Lau, along with Paul Lewis, conference director of the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, as interim co-executive directors.
Conway, who noted in a statement that she remains “a passionate member of the community and looks forward to working with Chris to advise on strategic planning,” was not available for an interview. But McDonald did respond to queries from The Globe and Mail over e-mail, including the central question of the announcement’s curious timing.
“There is never a good time for such an announcement, but once Heather had made her decision we realized how awkward it would be to go through the festival and have her meet with all our stakeholders – audiences, delegates, donors, sponsors and others – and not be upfront about the change,” McDonald said.
The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, in Toronto. At 650 seats, it is the largest documentary-focused cinema in the world.Gabriel Li/Supplied
McDonald credits Conway, whose new advisory role will not be a full-time position, with “pointing us in a new direction” during her tenure, as well as working on the organization’s structure (including the creation of a director of finance position) and “better positioning us for future growth.” According to McDonald, Conway also brought in new funders and partners: Hot Docs will be screening at Cineplex’s Varsity Cinema for the first time this festival, and will hold industry programming at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
This year’s festival is arguably Hot Docs’ splashiest in years, with high-profile screenings including Canadian filmmaker Daniel Roher’s Sundance-winning Navalny, a portrait of the Russian anti-corruption activist; Abigail Walt Disney Co. and Kathleen Hughes’ The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, which uses Disneyland as a case study on North American inequity; Ron Howard’s We Feed People, which follows chef José Andrés as his non-profit World Central Kitchen tours disaster zones; Reginald Harkema’s The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks; and the opening-night world premiere of Jennifer Baichwal’s courtroom thriller Into the Weeds.
While the organization as a whole was greatly affected by the pandemic – including two virtual-only fests and the 18-month shutdown of its flagship cinema, which averaged 750 guests a day in 2019 – Hot Docs found success in expanding its digital offerings.
According to its 2021 annual report, provided to The Globe, more than 75 per cent of Hot Docs’ membership engaged online with Hot Docs at Home during the cinema’s closure, with more than 6,000 members renewing their subscriptions between September, 2020, and September, 2021. Approximately 10 titles are added to the digital service each month, with about 30 films available to stream at any given time.
McDonald, who says the question of whether Hot Docs will return to a co-president structure depends on how they decide to restructure overall, is mostly focused now on the organization’s five-year strategic plan.
“It might be an opportunity for us to push the pause button on our rapid growth and focus more on our team,” he said. “How can we work more effectively? How can we best support our staff? Continue to address [equity, diversity and inclusion] in the organization? Address mental health and a sustainable work-life balance for our colleagues? Like many others, I think we need to catch our breath.”
As for long-circulating rumours that another screen might be added to the organization’s Bloor theatre – at 650 seats, it is the largest documentary-focused cinema in the world – McDonald says “we’ll be sharing some exciting plans soon.”
Hot Docs runs April 28 through May 8.
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Barry Hertz