Academy Award winner Director Brigitte Berman has been invited to speak at this year’s ideaCity 2010 conference. On Wednesday, June 16, at 11:40am, Berman will delight audiences at Toronto’s Koerner Hall with clips of her documentary, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, as well as tales of her encounters with the founder of Playboy Magazine.
Toronto’s ideaCity Conference
Hosted by media legend Moses Znaimer, ideaCity is Toronto’s 3-day celebration of “The Smartest People” and “The Biggest Ideas.” Each year, Znaimer invites fifty innovators to talk about their lives, their ideas and their projects in short, 20-minutes or under presentations. Past presenters include fashion designer Joeffer Caoc; authors Douglas Coupland and William Gibson; architect Frank Gehry; and numerous other innovators.
Academy Award Winner Brigitte Berman
Oscar winning producer, director, and writer Brigitte Berman was born in Frankfurt and attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she studied English and Film. Over a twenty year career, she has produced and directed over a hundred documentaries including Bix; the Academy Award-winning Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got; The Circle Game; and Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, about legendary Playboy Magazine founder and editor Hugh Hefner.
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
While making her documentary about Hef, Berman gained access to Hugh Hefner’s inner circle as well as the Playboy founder’s own archives; in Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, she uses illustrations, cartoons, rare film footage and Hefner’s many scrapbooks to show us a tough but tender Hef, a man who not only has become a symbol of hedonism as easily recognizable as Playboy’s bunny logo, but has been for his entire life an ardent champion of free speech and equal rights. Hugh Hefner, Playboy, Activist, Rebel gives us a glimpse of the man behind the bunny – a man more honourable and ethical than many would have suspected.
Berman’s candid portrait of a charming, charismatic Hugh Hefner was a hit at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, where Hef appeared flanked by girlfriends Crystal Harris and the Shannon Twins, and received a standing ovation from fans new and old. Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel premiered to sold-out audiences at the 2010 Miami International Film Festival, the Sarasota Film Festival and the Seattle International Film Festival, and was selected for Canadian Front, MoMA’s annual survey of new Canadian cinema.
Brigitte Berman’s Hugh Hefner, Playboy, Activist, Rebel opens in theatres in Toronto and Vancouver on Friday, August 6, 2010.
Sources
For more information about the movie Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel and director Brigitte Berman, visit the Toronto International Film Festival website. To find out more about the 2010 ideaCity Conference, visit ideaCityonline.
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