Hot Docs

For gamblers, winning can feel like a kind of “divine election,” like God himself has reached down from the heavens to anoint you. But gambling can feel good regardless of the outcome; a day of heavy losses can be described to a loved one as “a great day,” if only to hide from them gambling’s true cost. Filmmaker John Appel, whose father believed he had made “the discovery of the century” in his system for playing roulette, knows all too well the toll that games of chance can take. The Player plumbs a gambler’s psychology by delving deep into the experiences of a happy-go-lucky bookie at a race track and an imprisoned con man whose need to deceive leads to running a scam from a secret cell phone. “You keep believing in a Holy Grail,” he tells us. “And you have to find it. You must find it.”

Co-presented with Dutch Treat Canada.

Media Coverage

Eye Weekly (Capsule Review)