Finally! Hot Docs might have snuck away with my opportunity to see Green Porno, but now it's available online. Well, it's available for people in the States through SundanceChannel.com, or people who read the comment section of Boing Boing. To give you a taste, check out the YouTube clip above, and pics at TreeHugger.

When I first heard about this, I imagined Isabella Rossellini's voice over gruesome pics of bugs in the act. It wasn't my cup of visual tea, but with Rossellini, I couldn't resist. But oh no, it's so much better. Dressed in different buggy garb, Isabella acts out the mating rituals of these buggy beings -- the bee, the dragonfly, the earthworm, the firefly, the house fly, the preying mantis, and the spider. There's the decapitation by way of the mantis, the broken-off penis of the bee, and more insane mating rituals that make human romps seem downright boring.

I'm glad I'm not a snail...

Sturla Gunnarsson introducing Air India 182.

Last year was the easy selection of Hot Docs. I got to see a ton of films, and most of them were pretty damned uplifting. I laughed at the sheer awesomeness of Billy the Kid, cheered for Girls Rock!, got a huge craving for tea with All in This Tea, got some art on with A Walk Into the Sea, gaped at Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse, and was in awe of Jessica Yu's Protagonist.

It wasn't a smile fest this year. This time around, the theme was death, tragedy, and all sorts of seriousness. Most of them were pretty damn good, but it's been an exhausting week and a half seeing these films, thinking about them, and then writing about them. I still wish scheduling had permitted me to dip into the worlds of Wesley Willis and Kathy Acker, and some of the other docs I was itching to see. I have a feeling they would've helped matters a little.

Last year, Toronto's Hot Docs was full of interesting documentaries, many of which trumped the fictional features that I checked out in 2007. There were pounding beats and screeching tykes with the likes of Girls Rock!, first love with Billy the Kid, Euripides in Jessica Yu's Protagonist, and even messie moms and foul odors with Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse. This year, after an impressive 1800 submissions, 173 films have been picked for the festival, which runs from April 17-27.
The fest will open with Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Sacha Gervasi's film about the "demi-gods of Canadian metal," which our James Rocchi reviewed at Sundance and said: "I am about as metal as your aunt, and I was spellbound by Anvil! The Story of Anvil -- laughing, yes, but also inspired to think and feel, literally moved to the edge of tears by the complicated-simple, stupid-smart, goofy-serious story."

From there, the docs hit all walks of life. Erik Davis' beloved Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about his Father will get its Canadian premiere, which Erik thinks will make for an interesting night because of what is said about Canada (me, I'm trying my darnedest to go in fresh). There's also As Slow As Possible, which details a man who found out on his 18th birthday that he would slowly go blind, a biography of the late musician Wesley Willis called Wesley Willis's Joy Rides, Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno, a doc about an orthodox priest with strong views about abortion and social issues in The Tadpole, the Rabbit, and the Holy Ghost, a look at a tough American writer with Who's Afraid of Kathy Acker?, and Dreams of Sharp Teeth -- Grizzly Man producer Erik Nelson's look at Harlan Ellison.

But really, that's only the tip of the iceberg. Go to the festival's website and check out all that great films that will screen this year. I don't know how I will choose between them all.

If there's one thing that can be said about Isabella Rossellini, other than praising her talents, is that she knows how to pick interesting filmmakers to collaborate with. She was put on the map for her work in David Lynch's Blue Velvet, and now she's been spending a lot of time with Canada's Guy Maddin. She starred in The Saddest Music in the World, and he helped her make an excellent short, doc film about her father Roberto called My Dad is 100 Years Old. Now she's continuing to make shorts, and Variety reports that she will open Berlin International Film Festival's 38th Forum sidebar with Maddin -- just a year after they screened the Roberto tribute there.

On the second day of the festival, Guy will screen My Winnipeg, his snowy homage to his hometown that I reviewed during TIFF, while Rossellini will contrast his black and white humor with her international premiere of Green Porno, which is looking to be the next step in the actress' sexy filmmaking. Her directorial debut, Oh La La, dealt with cities, sex, and symphonies, whereas this short film is a "collection of three one-minute shorts that explore the mating behaviour of insects." I wonder if that will include the decapitating mating rituals of preying mantises?

If you can't make your way to Berlin to see her take on sexin' insects, or you want to see her in something much more mainstream, you can head to your local theater and see her in The Accidental Husband -- that romcom with Uma Thurman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan -- this March.