TIFF latest: festival adds doc on mysterious John McAfee

Toronto makes room for two more late adds, including film on late Chicago guitarist Terry Kath

The Toronto International Film Festival is adding more documentary titles to its slate, just two weeks before the event begins.

Among the late adds is Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee from director Nanette Burstein, about the founder of the ubiquitous anti-virus software. After making his fortune in debugging computers, McAfee moved to Belize where, in the words of TIFF programmers, he became something of a Kurtz-like figure, building "a heavily armed compound in the jungle, like a modern day Heart of Darkness. McAfee never shied away from media attention and boasted of his libertine lifestyle, maintaining a harem of young women."

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Nanette Burstein delivers a deep investigation that sheds new light on the shadows around the 70-year-old mogul...

   --TIFF programmers on the documentary Gringo about John McAfee

The tale only gets stranger from there.

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TIFF writes,  "In 2012 his neighbour in Belize, an American named Gregory Faull, was found murdered by a gunshot. Sought for questioning by local authorities, McAfee fled to Guatemala, then returned to the US where he pursued the Libertarian Party nomination for President in 2016."

Burstein is best known for co-directing The Kid Stays in the Picture, the 2002 documentary about another eccentric figure, former Paramount Pictures chief Robert Evans.

The world premiere of Gringo is scheduled for Sunday, September 11. The film then premieres on the pay cable network Showtime Saturday, September 24. 

Toronto also added The Terry Kath Experience, a documentary about the late Chicago guitarist Terry Kath. TIFF writes, "Michelle Sinclair, first-time filmmaker and Terry's daughter, searches for the truth surrounding the life and untimely death of her father, in this look at one of the most underrated guitarists in rock history."

Sinclair was just two years old when her father died in 1978 after an accidental shooting. At the time, Chicago was among the most successful rock bands in the world.

​The world premiere is scheduled for September 15 at the Winter Garden Theater in Toronto. 

The third film just added to the TIFF lineup is Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory from director Mohanad Yaqubi. TIFF writes: "Showcasing an unprecedented depth of research and access, Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory is a unique historical portrait of the Palestinian people's struggle to produce their own image. Using material long hidden in archives across the globe, the film reaches back through the modern history of Palestine and reverses decades of colonial dominance with a mosaic of struggle from the perspective of the colonized."

The world premiere is scheduled for Saturday, September 10. The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8-18.

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