Hot Docs president Marie Nelson, pictured at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto on March 7, announced Tuesday she is leaving the organization after less than a year in the role.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
Just a little more than a year after taking on the top job at Toronto’s Hot Docs, president Marie Nelson is leaving the beleaguered arts organization, it was announced late Tuesday.
Nelson, a former senior manager at ABC News and PBS who is less than a year into her role after long-time Hot Docs president Chris McDonald stepped down in May, 2023, has presided over a tumultuous era for the not-for-profit arts organization, which restructured its board of directors last month and shuttered its flagship Toronto cinema for the summer.
“We are proud of the work Hot Docs has accomplished with Marie at the helm and are confident that the groundwork she has laid during her tenure will assist us in realizing our full potential,” the arts organization said in an unsigned statement. “We at Hot Docs would like to express our appreciation for her invaluable contributions to the organization, and her unwavering commitment to advancing our mission.”
Seasoned production executive Janice Dawe, who has been serving as interim executive director for Hot Docs since Nelson went on personal leave in early May, will continue to lead the organization through a number of critical financial obstacles in the wake of Nelson’s departure.
Alongside managing director Heidi Tao Yang, Dawe will collaborate with Hot Docs’ current “working board” consisting of just three members – documentary filmmaker Nicholas de Pencier, Nulogy chief operating officer Kevin Wong, and Pemberley Investments’ Lydia Luckevich – down from the 14 people who populated it before last month’s restructuring.
This past March, in one of her first major media campaigns as president, Nelson told The Globe that Hot Docs, which puts on North America’s biggest documentary film festival every spring, was facing “significant operational challenges.” Weeks later, filings with the Canada Revenue Agency revealed that Hot Docs had a deficit of just more than $2-million in the period ending May, 2023.