Toronto fest to screen docs about Cohen, Chong

Documentaries about subjects as different as Leonard Cohen and Tommy Chong will be screened at next month's Toronto International Film Festival.

The event's lineup of docs features more than 20 titles for festivalgoers to choose from – many of them focusing on famous people.

Directed by Lian Lunson, I'm Your Man is being billed as an intimate look at Cohen's life.

The Montreal native has earned worldwide renown as a poet and songwriter. I'm Your Man, which takes its name from Cohen's 1988 album, also features footage of the singer in concert.

AKA Tommy Chong, meanwhile, looks at the Edmonton-born Chong, who gained fame in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong.

The film is a look at how the one-time stoner was sent to prison for selling bongs as a result of the U.S. government's Operation Pipe Dreams.

After he was released, Chong said he did the nine-month jail stint to protect his son, who ran the drug-paraphernalia business.

Festival organizers did not indicate on Thursday if either Cohen or Chong would attend the event, which kicks off Sept. 8.

Among the other titles announced on Thursday is Sketches of Frank Gehry, veteran director Sydney Pollack's ode to the shy Canadian-born architect.

There will also be offerings about non-Canadians. Chief among these is The Well, in which Swedish filmmaker Kristian Petri documents a little-known passion of legendary director Orson Welles – his love of Spain.

The Giant Buddhas, on the other hand, is Swiss director Christian Frei's documentary about the Taliban members who used dynamite to destroy two historical statues of Buddha in Afghanistan.

Renowned artist Jean Michel Basquiat is the focus of Tamra Davis's A Conversation With Basquiat – which features a rare and revealing interview with the deceased painter.

Thursday's unveiling was one of many announcements made each year in the run-up to the festival's opening gala.