Candyman: The David Klein Story

I decided to do Hot Docs this year on the cheap. As such, I was limited to films that were showing before 6pm. There were still tons of docs to choose from, but for some reason, there weren't as many sticking out to me for definite viewing. Nonetheless, there were enough docs to keep me busy.
The first doc that I saw was Candyman: The David Klein Story (official website here). It's the story of David Klein, the man who invented Jelly Bellys. The doc highlighted his journey in the candy industry as an entrepreneur and inventor and his unwavering loyalty to those whom he worked with. This quality, unfortunately, allowed others to take advantage of him or allowed others to prosper where he continued to face some struggles. The biggest scandale, basically being wiped out from Jelly Belly history and loosing out on a ton of profit money.
There was also a component with his son, Bert Klein which I enjoyed. It talked of their relationship and we were able to see the story from a different point of view.
There was a Q&A with Costa Botes (the director), and David and Bert Klein. The questions were fairly mundane and didn't really provide any great responses. Although Bert was wearing the famous sparkly shirt/coat and David danced in wearing the matching hat, the Q&A didn't provide as many fun lighthearted moments as their entrance and David's presence in the doc would suggest. As I was watching the documentary I thought that he would be a great guest speaker talking to youth about good values, creativity, living life to the fullest and so much more. I was actually surprised by David's seemingly snide quips about Jelly Belly and big corporations. I mean, his comments were justified, but I really thought that he would be the type would wouldn't use this opportunity to rant and just quietly project positive vibes no matter how frustrated and hurt he may have felt. Maybe I misread something.
Anyway, another nice touch at the screening was the little baggies of Jelly Bellys that audience members received on the way into the theatre. I would have liked the little legend to tell me the flavours, but thanks to the internet, I don't need a hard copy.
I have to admit, that probably about 45-60 minutes into the doc, I started to get bored. I hope that it wasn't an indication of the doc, as I can't remember the last film that I saw that I didn't feel the same way. Perhaps more of an indication of my attention span.
One doc down, a couple more to go!

- picture courtesy of hotdocs.ca