With the temperature rising and people heading to the streets it's important not to forget about this year's Hot Docs Film Festival. With more than 120 documentary films from 30 countries, Hot Docs further cements it's reputation as one of the leading documentary festivals in the entire world and one of my favorite things about spring in Toronto.

The creation of the idealistic suburbs has gone from an affordable hope to the horrors of urban sprawl in just a few generations. With a looming energy crisis nipping at the heels of one of the worst trends in the evolution of city planning, the time has come to take a serious look at the big picture - the effect of the ticking time bomb known as the suburban lifestyle.

Directors Gary Burns and Jim Brown, with their new film Radiant City, have succeeded in presenting the most damning exploration of suburban lifestyle that I have ever seen. The film is separated into two distinct streams; one explores the damning evironmental, social and psychological repercussions from the point of view of experts in the field of urban planning and sociology, and the other is a verite documentary of the life of the Ross family living in suburbia.

These elements are pitch perfectly crafted and come together to make the most important and urgent Canadian documentary since The Corporation.

Premieres at Hot Docs Doc Soup on April 4th at the Bloor Cinema, with showings at 6:30pm and 9:15pm. Single tickets are $12 online or at the door. The 9:15pm screening has a limited number of free student tickets with I.D.

Documentary films exploring the father-son relationship are often as endlessly complicated as they are bizzarely touching and Souvenirs, directed by Israelis Shahar Cohen and Halil Efrat, is no exception. Co-director Shahar is our lead and we watch as he attempts to explore his 82 year old father Sleiman's past during WWII while he served in the Jewish Brigade.

Cohen, early in his questioning, discovers that Sleiman may have fathered children with young female lovers during the war and in doing so may have left behind little "Souvenirs". Despite his father's adamant refusal to explore the subject, Cohen loads him into a beat up little car and the pair set off.

Will there ever be another Jacques Cousteau in the realm of pop culture science? The answer is probably not. The idea of an eloquent old man of the sea who speaks in poetics doesn't have that extra zing needed to grab people's attention in our media hyper MTV society.

Enter Rob Stewart, an internationally acclaimed underwater photographer turned filmmaker and shark advocate who also happens to be the kind of young and dashing leading man fit for the cast of The OC.

Stewart showcases his hard work and big heart in his new documentary Sharkwater; an exploration of the negative mythology associated to sharks as well as an investigation into the cruel reality of the shark finning industry which threatens to bring many shark populations as well as underwater ecosystems to extinction.

There's no denying that we are part of a generation that, through the use of the internet, has become more connected to one another than any other in history. This "global village accessibility" and seemingly endless flow of information has revolutionized how we communicate - but don't start celebrating yet.

History reminds us time and time again that with any system of mass communication comes censorship by those who would seek to control, contort, and ultimately change the public view as they see fit.

The MySpace phenomenon, with it's 100 million+ users and a mandate seemingly designed to give a leg-up to independent filmmakers, artists, and musicians the world over is a case in point.

By showcasing musicians like !!!, Of Montreal, LCD Soundsystem and even locals like Crystal Castles and Tokyo Police Club, MySpace gives the impression of being in tune and supportive to the global emerging arts community.

Local queer art rockers Kids On TV, however, suggest otherwise after their account was deleted by MySpace administration amongst cries of homophobia and discrimination. They decided to not take it lying down, made their situation public, and found out quickly that they were not alone.

I need to start this review off by first saying thanks to the Canadian funding bodies like Telefilm and CHUM Broadcasting behind the new zom-com, Fido. After a long string of cold and dead dramas and wanna be Hollywood knock offs someone in charge finally realized what many Canadians in the film community have been saying for years; the bizarre genre niche films should be our industry's bread and butter.

Fido directed by Andrew Currie is a polished and sharp 1950's satire film about zombies who are tamed after the great Zombie Wars and used as public servants and household help. Fido carefully uses a mix of recognizable American actors mixed in with Can-Con to create the funniest Canadian film I can recall and what I hope will be one of the most financially viable ones.

Why? Well because it doesn't feel Canadian, it just feels like a good time.