Hot Docs

Large-format photographer Alec Soth travels across America to document people who have retreated from society and the places they hide. Some subjects live in abandoned mountain cabins, others in caves and others still in the desolation of the desert. One picture leads to the next, as Soth immortalizes hermits, monks, conspiracy theorists, gay spiritualists and survivalists. He’s on the hunt for his fantasy hideout, a dream refuge. Taking pictures is his way of searching, dreaming and hiding, and he continues to take them in the hopes of capturing that great one that glimmers. Somewhere to Disappear is a road movie reflecting the decline of the American Empire. We see it in the artist’s dreams of disappearing and running away, in his subjects living out those fantasies, and in our own understanding of why these modern hermits wish to escape. Angie Driscoll

Screening with Minka

Co-presented with Scotiabank CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival.