The Hottest August

Brett Story is a geographer and non-fiction filmmaker based out of Toronto and New York. Her films have screened at True/False, Oberhausen, Hot Docs, the Viennale, and Dok Leipzig, among other festivals. Her second feature-length film, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and was a nominee for Best Canadian Feature Documentary at the Canadian Screen Awards. The film was broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens in April of 2017. Brett holds a PhD in geography from the University of Toronto and is the author of a non-fiction book, The Prison Out of Place, forthcoming from the University of California Press in 2018. She was the recipient of the Documentary Organization of Canada Institute’s 2014 New Visions Award and the 2016 Governor General’s Gold Medal from the University of Toronto for academic excellence. Brett was a 2016 Sundance Institute Art of Nonfiction Fellow.

Danielle Varga is an award-winning documentary film producer who focuses on bold and artistic storytelling. Her producing credits include Seeds, River of Grass, Light of the Setting Sun, and The Hottest August. She co-produced Cameraperson. Varga received the 2025 Sundance Institute | Amazon MGM Studios Producer Award for nonfiction film.