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PRESS RELEASE Full Lineup Announced for Hot Docs Podcast Festival, November 1 to 5 Presented with lead sponsor CBC Podcasts • Live performances of chart-topping podcasts including: LeVar Burton Reads, ESPN’S 30 for 30, Other People’s Problems, Thirst Aid Kit, StartUp, and more! • Two new Canadian showcase events hosted by CBC’s Podcast Playlist, bringing more than 10 of this country’s best podcasts to the stage for the first time • New industry Creators Forum to host leading international decision makers Toronto, September 18, 2018 – Hot Docs is excited to announce that its third annual Podcast Festival will return to Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema this November. With an expanded five-day program this year’s Festival will feature 13 live podcast events and a new Creators Forum, the industry component of the event where global leaders in podcasting will share their knowledge and expertise on the rapidly-growing medium. Featuring celebrated podcasts like ESPN’S 30 for 30; LeVar Burton Reads LIVE!, the wildly popular show from the Reading Rainbow and Star Trek star; pioneering entrepreneurial podcast StartUp; the return of the true crime favourite Criminal and the #1 iTunes sleeper hit The Secret Life of Canada, this year’s Festival will dazzle audiences with exceptional and captivating live audio storytelling, while helping to nurture the growth and ingenuity of the podcasting industry. The Hot Docs Podcast Festival returns to Toronto from November 1 to 5. As the interest in podcasting and the appetite for new content continues to grow, Hot Docs has enhanced the industry section of the Podcast Festival this year by introducing the new two-day Creators Forum, which will be held at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema and the Centre for Social Innovation Annex. Offering more learning, networking and market opportunities for attending producers and content creators, the Forum will feature several informative industry panels, masterclasses and roundtables led by key executives and decision makers from such international platforms as Gimlet Media, NPR, The New York Times, Stitcher, WNYC, This American Life and BBC as well as major Canadian executives from Canadaland, CBC, eOne and Corus. Designed to unite the global podcasting community and foster the development of the industry, the Creators Forum will establish the Festival as a hub for industry activity and Toronto as an incubator for innovation in audio storytelling. “When we conceived of the Festival in 2016, our goals were modest. We love podcasts and were looking for a reason to bring some of our favourites to the cinema,” said Alan Black, managing director of Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. “Three years later we’ve wildly surpassed our initial intent; the Festival is fulfilling its potential to play a significant role in bringing audiences and audio storytellers together in a way that hasn’t really happened yet in Canada. With this year’s Festival we’re able to build on the success of the previous two and bring some of the best storytelling to our stage in the hopes that it will find rabid new fans, both here at home and internationally.” "This year's Festival features an expanded lineup of amazing podcasts that demonstrate the creative potential of this medium,” said Hot Docs Podcast Festival lead programmer, Will Di Novi. “We're presenting a wider range of genres than ever before, and hosting internationally acclaimed shows from the US and UK that Canadian audiences have never had the chance to see in person. Above all, we're WWW.HOTDOCS.CA PRESS RELEASE excited to showcase the range and diversity of the podcasting talent here in Canada, with greater representation of homegrown podcast producers and two specially curated variety shows that will feature beloved podcasts from BC to the Maritimes.” Participating podcasts: • The Allusionist • Other People's Problems • Canada's Podcast All-Stars: Opening • Reveal Night / Closing Night • Rewatchability • Criminal featuring This is Love • The Secret Life of Canada • ESPN's 30 for 30 • StartUp • LeVar Burton Reads LIVE! • Thirst Aid Kit • Nancy Creators Forum: • Panel: How to Make It in Canada • Panel: NPR and CBC Original Podcasts in Conversation • Panel: The Art of the Interview • Panel: How the News Should Sound: Original Podcasting at The New York Times • Panel: From Pitch to Podcast: Developing New Shows at WNYC and Gimlet Media • Panel: Funny Business: Comedy Podcasting at Stitcher and Earwolf • Masterclass: The Sound of Europe • Masterclass: Revealing Canada's Darkest Stories with Thunder Bay's Ryan McMahon and Jesse Brown Visit the website at www.hotdocscinema.ca/podcast LIVE PODCAST EVENT LINEUP Thursday, November 1 6:00 PM Canada’s Podcast All-Stars: Opening Night Extravaganza Presented by CBC’s Podcast Playlist Kick off the Festival in style with the first of two special showcases featuring popular podcasts from across the country presented live by CBC’s Podcast Playlist. Hosted and produced by Matt Galloway and Lindsay Michael, this interactive, variety show-style event will feature the rich voices of storytellers from coast-to- coast, as well as timely and thought-provoking conversations with special guests. This is your chance to discover the extraordinary range and diversity of Canada’s podcast talent all under one roof. Featuring: First Day Back (Montreal), Nobody Cares (Except for Me) (Toronto), Tai Asks Why (Toronto), Personal Best (Toronto) and Red Man Laughing (Winnipeg). WWW.HOTDOCS.CA PRESS RELEASE 9:00 PM Nancy Hailed as a top podcast by Entertainment Weekly and TIME, Nancy is WNYC's beloved show about the LGBTQ experience today. Co-hosts and best friends Tobin Low and Kathy Tu have frank conversations, share poignant stories, and undertake what VICE calls “a gentle investigation into the courage it takes to live outside social norms.” Prepare to laugh and cry (and laugh again) as Kathy and Tobin investigate how we define ourselves and the weird, funny, and poignant journeys we take to get there. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2 6:30 PM LeVar Burton Reads LIVE! You may recognize LeVar Burton from his roles in Roots and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but many remember him best as the host the iconic children’s show Reading Rainbow, which inspired young readers for over 20 years. Today, LeVar continues to share his passion for storytelling—only this time, with adults! LeVar Burton Reads invites us to take a break from our daily lives and dive into great short story as only he can bring to life. Join the legendary actor for a live reading featuring musical accompaniment and a special guest appearance by a local author. Past live shows have featured stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Charlie Jane Anders, Nnedi Okorafor, and James McBride. 9:30 PM Thirst Aid Kit Lust is a feeling. And thirst? Well, it's the performance of that feeling. On Buzzfeed's hit podcast Thirst Aid Kit, culture critics Bim Adewunmi and Nichole Perkins explore the public ways women express desire, offering savvy and hilarious analysis of everything from John Cho's hands to Keanu Reeves' legs to Chris Evans'...everything. At this first-ever Canadian thirst-a-thon, they'll dissect the work of the hottest celebrities in film and TV, deliver personalized thirst prescriptions for audience members and special guests, and perform the romantic fanfic (aka "sexy drabbles") that have made the podcast famous. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3 12:00 PM StartUp A pioneering show about what it’s really like to start a business, StartUp launched podcasting juggernaut Gimlet Media and put this exciting new medium on the international map. At this first-ever live performance in Canada, co-host and senior producer Eric Mennel, who helmed the show’s recent season on the rise of religious startups, will present a never-before-heard story and give us a sneak preview of StartUp’s hotly anticipated fall season in a special Skype Q&A with co-host Lisa Chow. 4:00 PM ESPN’S 30 for 30 Since debuting at #1 on iTunes Charts last year, this innovative podcast from the team behind ESPN’s Emmy Award-winning 30 for 30 has won legions of followers with its spellbinding stories from the world of sports and beyond. From the tale of an accused murderer who became a world-renowned boxer to its WWW.HOTDOCS.CA PRESS RELEASE binge-worthy season on the cult-like rise of Bikram Yoga, 30 for 30 is producing inspired audio storytelling that delights sports fans and general interest listeners alike. 8:30 PM Criminal featuring This is Love Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer’s award-winning podcast Criminal remains the medium’s most consistently gripping show on the hows and whys of crime. Their new collaboration This is Love is a spinoff series on the mysteries of the heart and has been hailed as one of the year’s most exciting debuts. In this one-of-a-kind event, True Crime will meet True Love as Phoebe and Lauren present new stories from both podcasts with the live scoring and stunning animations that make their live shows one of the hottest tickets on the international podcast circuit. 11:30 PM Shaun of the Dead – Late-Night Screening with Rewatchability Grab a drink, load up on some popcorn, and get ready to fight zombies at this special late-night screening of Shaun of the Dead hosted by Rewatchability, a podcast dedicated to re-visiting movies of the past to see how they hold up today. With the spooky spirit of Halloween still in the air, there’s no better time to celebrate the now-classic “zomromcom” that turned British filmmaking trio Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost into household names—and gave way to cult hits like Hot Fuzz and The World’s End.