The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is the largest public film festival in the world. This year’s festival features 190 films. The corporate-owned media’s coverage of TIFF often focuses on glossy Hollywood fare. And of course, such films can be superb; however, we at rabble.ca want to highlight a genre that receives less fanfare. Here’s a roundup of three of The Festival’s most interesting documentaries.

Each documentary on this list tackles a different issue relevant to contemporary progressive politics. These documentaries made us think, feel, and wonder about the future of humanity (not to be dramatic). These three docs tackle different issues, but all capture the spirit of the times.

1. Union Town (Dir. Barbara Kopple)

Union Town is a compelling look at three recent labour battles that all took place in New York City, the titular Union Town. The labour stories at the centre of the film document the Teamsters Union’s work to negotiate a fair deal for UPS workers, Amazon’s legendary 2024 Holiday Strike, and a group of brave deliveristas fighting to make change at DoorDash and GrubHub. 

Oscar-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple’s brilliant direction prioritizes the stories of the workers we meet, from seasoned UPS drivers to young Amazon delivery people who dream of belonging to a Union, to migrants struggling to make a living through precarious work, delivering meals to customers who rarely tip. 

Kopple is an extraordinarily empathetic filmmaker. She takes time to get to know the people whose battles she documents. Each worker we meet has their own unique story – and their own incentives to fight corporate greed. Kopple shares shocking images of deliveristas transporting meals by bicycle during a blizzard to avoid getting kicked off their apps. Kopple also offers images of UPS workers sleeping in their cars between shifts that are stacked too closely together, and Amazon delivery workers desperately trying to drop off packages before the clock runs out. No matter how unsavoury the scene, Union Town never flinches away from the truth.      

While Union Town demonstrates how inspiring solidarity between workers can be, the film also highlights solidarity’s limits when UPS divides its workers with an agreement that is life-changing for full-time employees, yet woefully underserves its part-time staff. 

Ultimately, Union Town represents the importance of the work Labour activists and unions do without flattening the challenges that emerge while seeking a fair deal for all…          

2. Edward Said: Between Worlds (Dir. Maiken Bard)

Every so often – perhaps once or twice in a generation – a progressive thinker comes along who changes how we see the world. For many of us, Palestinian-American academic Edward Said was one such person. Through classic books like his seminal work, Orientalism, Said unpacked the ways The Western World constructed an image of The Middle East to justify its colonialism. In the face of The West’s recent incursions into The Middle East, Said’s message is just as relevant as ever.  

While Said passed in 2003, Award-winning director Maiken Bard’s documentary, Edward Said: Between Worlds. is on a mission to bring him back to life. In collaboration with Palestinian-American producers Sarah Mowaswes and Razan Ghalayni, Bard works to educate the world about who Said was, what he stood for, and why his work must be preserved.

Born in Palestine in 1935, the scholar was displaced by the historical event known as The Naqba, which refers to the dispossession of Palestinians that followed the establishment of Israel in 1948.

The documentary mines the archives for Said’s best interviews and speeches, presenting the renowned thinker’s cultural criticism in an incisive and digestible way. Importantly, Between Words highlights Said’s impressive ability to communicate his sophisticated ideas in ways that resonated with people of different backgrounds, regardless of whether they were his fellow academics at Columbia University or activists seeking a more just world.  

If you are looking to educate yourself – or someone else – about the ideas and life of the great Edward Said, Between Worlds is an excellent use of your time. 

3. Musk (Dir. Alex Gibney)

For better or worse (probably for worse), Elon Musk is one of the most prominent individuals of our age. The trillionaire who refuses to stop accruing wealth and children is a bizarre figure. But Musk isn’t just an eccentric who loves science fiction and wonders if we’re living inside a simulation; Gibney’s documentary showcases how Musk came to be one of the world’s most powerful people, and its wealthiest individual. 

While Musk does not sugarcoat the life and actions of its titular tech CEO, it isn’t a polemic, either. Musk himself has denounced the film, but Gibney still takes care to explore his subject’s possible motivations. The doc also examines Musk’s almost baffling evolution from a darling of The Left (Remember, he held major government contracts under the Obama Administration) to his embrace of far-right fascist politics.   

What’s immediately apparent when you watch Musk is how much Gibney immersed himself in the making of his film. Despite Musk’s refusal to participate in the doc, it does include interviews with people who know him intimately, including his first wife, Justine, and Elon Musk’s father, Errol. The documentary also includes commentary from Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children and his former business partner, who has stated she refused to sign a multimillion-dollar NDA that would have muzzled her. 

Ultimately, Musk is an infuriating yet informative documentary about one of the dominant characters of our age.