Dear Hot Docs,
I am writing to you as a very devoted and very sad
aficionado of your festival. I have been coming to Hot Docs since I was a
young’un. For years now, I have attended the festival using the Premium Pass or
the Premium Pass for Two. Last year, I held the distinction of being the very
first person to purchase the Premium Pass – I called the festival headquarters
in March and a very lovely staff sold me one even though they hadn’t gone on
sale yet. Last year I saw 44 movies. The year before, I saw somewhere closer to
50! I always brings friends along and try to introduce people to the spectacle
that is Hott Docs. I even write a blog about the festival – not just about the movies, but
about the whole experience of rushing between theatres, choosing seats,
maximising schedules, and all the fun logistics that go along with tackling a
festival of this size and quality.
Here’s the sad part: somehow, despite the myriad emails
that come my way from Hot Docs, I was completely unaware of the date that the
passes went on sale. I was informed by someone at your box office this week that
the Premium Passes went on sale before the regular packages. I’m not sure how I
missed this but I feel that more could have been done to inform previous pass
holders about the on-sale for this year’s festival. Perhaps a hard mailing;
something attention-grabbing and tailored specifically to those festival goers
who have demonstrated their devotion year after year.
For me, buying a ticket package is not workable. My whole
shtick with the festival is that I like to be spontaneous and I like to choose
my movies during the festival once I hear what other people are saying about the
films. I work from 9-5 and then I usually squeeze in three movies a night. If I
had to wait in rush ticket line-ups I simply would not be able to see this many
movies. At best I reckon I’d be able to see one on a work night and three per
day on a weekend. And that would involve hours and hours of standing in rush
lines.
That brings my grand total to 19 movies, instead of the
40 that I usually take in. The thought of this breaks my heart and I can’t help
but feel that maybe the festival has started to forget the little guys – the
simple fans that thrive off of the excitement of a good old fashioned
documentary film festival.
I realize that it is on me that I missed the pass sales,
but I am asking that in the future there is more of an effort to notify previous
pass holders of a change in the sales schedule.
I must stress to you that I am not a film buff. I’m not
even a documentary connoisseur or a festival fan -- I am specifically,
unabashedly a lover of Hot Docs. If there is any way to squeeze in one more
little Premium Pass into the theatres, I would be forever
grateful.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely,
Dr. Dock
