This Week in Film rounds up noteworthy new releases in theatres, rep cinema and avant-garde screenings, festivals, and other special cinema-related events happening in Toronto.

A chance encounter at a local record shop has brought Toronto-based filmmaker Alan Zweig back to Hot Docs with a documentary on fifteen loosely related stories called 15 Reasons To Live. Inspired by Ray Robertson's collection of essays Why Not? 15 Reasons to Live, Zweig interviewed thirteen individuals who had life-changing experiences, and inserted two of his own. The auteur who made a movie about his audophilia, Vinyl, and concerning misanthropy in the self-titled I, Curmudgeon, still has the stylistic streak of Bukowski, but there is the slightest hint that he may be taking his career in a slightly less inward-looking and autobiographical direction.

This Week in Home Video previews all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and on-demand titles hitting the street this week, plus lost gems, crazed Cancon, outrageous cult titles and the best places to rent or buy movies in Toronto.

Think of ALIAS, directed by Michelle Latimer, as musical activism, bringing Toronto's hip-hop scene into sharp focus for the uninitiated. The documentary, which premiered last night at Hot Docs, came into development during the infamous "summer of the gun" in 2007. ALIAS is partly a corrective against the negative publicity of Toronto African-Canadian communities and rappers. But it's also a very personal look into complicated lives beset with obstacles and empowered by ambition.

This Week in Film rounds up noteworthy new releases in theatres, rep cinema and avant-garde screenings, festivals, and other special cinema-related events happening in Toronto.

The 2013 Hot Docs Festival is finally here. Toronto's second-largest film event (behind TIFF), Hoc Docs runs for 11 days and contains a whopping 205 movies to choose from. If my math is correct, it's impossible to see them all, so we've put together this here post to help narrow down your schedule with some confidence that you'll be seeing the best films on offer.