Hot docs 2012

In perhaps the best of an excellent crop of documentaries about the Arab Spring, filmmaker Sean McAllister follows 35-year-old tour guide Kais as he tries to make a living in the middle of Yemen's people's revolt. The story is completely gripping, providing footage that draws you right into the streets of Sana'a's Change Square and the confrontation between protesters and military or mercenary snipers. It's not for the faint-hearted, with images of the dying and critically injured in makeshift street clinics. Kais starts as a political sceptic, but gradually gets drawn into his country's fight for freedom against the Saleh dictatorship. Toronto's 2012 HOT DOCS festival presented a richness of images - from a hijacking drama at Dhaka's airport in the 1970s to a ventriloquists' convention in rural Kentucky. RICHARD SWIFT picks a few of the highlights.