A scene from Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out.
What is it about Roman Polanski? If you want to stir up some instant talk-radio, right-left-style bitch-slapping, just mention the nearly 79-year-old filmmaker's name and the game is on. Four years ago, documentary filmmaker Marina Zenovich learned this in spades when her award-winning investigative feature Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired unearthed fresh evidence and testimony that the director, charged with the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, had fled the United States because he knew he couldn't get a fair trial. The evidence was compelling but hardly uncontentious, and less than a year after the movie's release Polanski was seized by Swiss authorities and held in custody for several months after stepping off a plane to receive a film festival life achievement award. Was Zenovich responsible? In her followup film Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out, she asks this question of herself while reopening the case and casting even more light on one of the most persistent international jurisprudential debates of our day.
Sept. 8, 9 p.m., Yonge & Dundas 10; Sept. 14, 2:45, Yonge & Dundas 7.