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.

Before two airliners crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182 was the deadliest terrorist attack involving an airplane. On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 181 left Toronto an hour and forty minutes late, stopped in Montreal, became flight 182, and then headed across the Atlantic Ocean bound for London. Just over 100 miles from Ireland, the plane exploded in the air and crashed into the ocean, killing everyone on-board -- 329 people, which included 280 Canadian citizens and 136 children. It was a devastating tragedy, yet it was largely ignored by the world at large, as well as the country that housed the largest number of casualties (Canada).

Almost 23 years later, the story is finally hitting big screens with Sturla Gunnarsson's documentary, Air India 182. Between the tragedy and the time it took for the matter to be resolved in courts almost two decades later, the story of 182 is long and intense. Gunnarsson sorts through it by focusing on how it came to be, rather than its drawn-out aftermath -- the terrorists who planned it, the government officials trying to discern the plan and stop it, and the families who suffered tremendous personal losses in the tragedy.

Twenty years ago last Saturday, Air-India Flight 182 exploded above the Atlantic Ocean, near Ireland. Everyone on board was killed -- 136 of them were children and 280 were Canadian citizens. It was the deadliest terrorist attack before September 11, and is the largest mass-murder in Canadian history. Now the CBC is commissioning a documentary to start filming next month that delves into the tragedy -- to be directed by Sturla Gunnarsson. His name might ring bells as the man who directed the great 2005 adaptation Beowulf & Grendel, which starred Gerard Butler as Beowulf to Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson's Grendel. However, he also has an Oscar-nominated documentary under his belt -- 1982's After the Axe, which bodes well for this production.

Gunnarsson says: "We've heard about it in fragments of personal loss, conspiracy theory, erased surveillance tapes, bungled investigations and cultural divide, but now, after 22 years, three trials, and two commissions, a coherent narrative has emerged. The time has come to tell this story." There is currently an inquiry on hiatus (to resume in September) on the tragedy, so it will be interesting to see how he deals when all that isn't resolved. The doc will be a collection of re-enactments, archival footage, information on the victims and a look into how intelligence agencies handled things. If things go as planned, the film should be aired early next year on the CBC. This seems to be the only thing on the plate for Gunnarsson at this time. Since Beowulf, he's been busy with a number of television directorial stints, but has no features in the works.

I'm a sucker for obscure 8th Century (or so) Old English poetry, so when I saw that Beowulf and Grendel had been made, my inner lit geek trembled with equal parts trepidation and excitement. Danes and Geats fighting an evil troll, descended from Cain, the first murderer? Oh, yeah. And there's something to be said for manly Geat warriors strutting around in dead animal capes and carrying enormous swords. But what if they messed the story of Beowulf up? What if it was as bad as the godawful 1999 sci-fi version starring Christopher Lambert? Fortunately, in the hands of Sturla Gunnarsson, Beowulf and Grendel is a masterful film that fleshes out the decidedly one-sided epic poem, bringing Grendel to life with a humanity and warmth that adds layers of meaning to the old tale.

In John C. Gardner's novel Grendel, the author told the story of Beowulf from Grendel's point of view, going heavy on the darkish philosophy and making Grendel a nihilist who had deep conversations with dragons and came to view himself as the creator of the Danes. Scribe Andrew Rai Berzins, in penning the script for Beowulf and Grendel, takes a somewhat different tack, imbuing his Grendel with a deeper level of humanity and a reason for attacking the Danes. Beowulf (Gerard Butler, so perfectly cast he could have stepped right out of the ancient manuscript) is still heroic, but he is a hero with a conscience. Beowulf hears of the plight of the Danes, who have been plauged with attacks by a murderous troll. Distantly related to Danish King Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgård), and being the heroic and manly warrior that he is, Beowulf sets sail with 14 of his strongest men in his mighty longboat , intent upon quickly and heroically relieving the troll of his head.