Stories We Told: A monthly series presenting celebrated Canadian documentary gems of the past, giving audiences an opportunity to rediscover acclaimed films and filmmaking talent in a theatrical setting. Curated by Hot Docs Cinema lead programmer Vivian Belik.
Stories We Told is generously supported by Diane Blake and Stephen Smith.
Supported by
Winner of the 2005 Hot Docs Award for Best Canadian Feature Documentary
Stories We Told takes us back to February 2004 to Toronto's city hall where the police are pushing for more money. But the city is $344 million short and the police budget's on the block. At the same time, a wave of violent gun crimes has swept the city and the election of Mayor David Miller has tipped power to the left at City Hall. As Chief Fantino and the civilian-run Toronto Police Services Board wrangle over the budget, a media storm erupts when the board's chair is smeared by a leaked police memo implying he's soft on pedophiles. The board is so dysfunctional that members are barely speaking to one another. The pressure ratchets up as a series of police corruption scandals make headlines, the head of the police union is forced to resign, and numerous officers are accused of corruption and extortion. With her background in radio and television news, director Min Sook Lee brilliantly constructs a riveting blow-by-blow six-month exposé of the politics, power brokers, bad behaviour and downright dirty tactics when trying to police the police. Lynne Fernie, Hot Docs 2005
Join director Min Sook Lee and Massey College senior fellow Alok Mukherjee for a special post-screening discussion. Moderated by Toronto-based organizer, researcher, and audio artist Aliya Pabani.
Min Sook Lee is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, artist, and professor whose work explores migration, labour, memory, and the afterlives of militarism through intimate and politically engaged cinema. Her most recent film, There Are No Words, premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival where it was recognized with an honourable mention for Best Canadian Feature.
Alok Mukherjee is a senior fellow at Massey College, UofT. He served as chair of the Toronto Police Services Board from 2004 to 2015 and acting chief commissioner and vice chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission in the 1990s. Alok is author with Tim Harper of Excessive Force: Toronto’s Fight to Reform City Policing. He is now working on a new book on the use of policing by liberal democracies as they take an authoritarian turn and reject negotiation while suppressing dissent. He explores the consequences of this illiberal turn in his bi-weekly blogs at Alok Mukherjee, The Way I See It.
Aliya Pabani has written for The Grind on why Toronto's police budget keeps rising and on the force's decades-long struggle with accountability. She is an organizer with No Arms in the Arts, a cross-disciplinary coalition of cultural workers, and a producer of the Webby and IDA-nominated podcast series Operation Morning Light. Aliya is currently pursuing an MA in Communications & Culture at York.
Co-presented by Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Promotional Partner: Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies | University of Toronto
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Photo credit: Jin David Kim