Anvil: The Story of Anvil

(VH1 Films, 10.6.2009)

Opening night films at festivals can be a dicey proposition. More often than not, classy, inoffensive, sponsor-friendly films are dragged out to make a good impression -- and then they're promptly forgotten by everyone in the room. Thankfully, the 2008 Hot Docs documentary film festival got underway with precisely the opposite breed of film: Anvil: The Story of Anvil, a skillfully-crafted and unexpectedly affecting doc that may be the most crowd-pleasing non-fiction film of the decade (take that, March of the Penguins). It also turned out to be one of the highlights of the festival and, with the exception of Man on Wire, the entry that reached the widest post-festival audience. Good work, Hot Docs.

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