Morgan Spurlock's new film that exposes the pervasiveness of product placement on the big and small screen is to open the Hot Docs International Film Festival.

Spurlock, the American filmmaker who took on the fast food industry with Super Size Me, talks to insiders in the chain of film and TV sponsorship in Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

It will open Hot Docs, the annual Toronto festival that screens documentaries from around the world, on April 28, organizers announced Tuesday.

Executive director Chris McDonald announced a program of 199 documentaries to screen in 16 cinemas around Toronto. One of the innovations of this year's festival is that screenings will expand to many other neighbourhoods around the city.

The buzz films include Pirate Tapes, a documentary by a Somali Canadian who gets himself embedded with a Somali pirate gang. The murder of four Americans by Somali pirates last month has focused attention on the east African country which has not had a proper government for more than 20 years.

Kasey and company on the boat in The Pirate Tapes. (Hot Docs Festival)

Matvei Zhivov and his two Canadian partners say they worked clandestinely from Kenya with a man who went undercover with modern-day pirates.

"We've watched all the pirate docs that have been made and they're full of BS," he told CBC News. "This is probably the only that was in there...You're in there without people knowing what you're doing."

David York, producer of Air India 182 , which screened at the 2008 Hot Docs, returns with Weibo's War, looking at Weibo Ludwig's fight against Alberta's oil and gas industry.

York says Ludwig is wily, media-savvy subject who is nonetheless fighting for the good of his family.

"The job of every documentary is to bring something new and richer. In this case, people have pretty strong preconceptions, either positive or negative," York said. "What I bring to the table with the film is two years of shooting with the family at the height of the most recent conflict."

Matt Gallagher, who received cash from the Canwest-Hot Docs film development fund two years ago, is to show his film Grinder,about the underground world of those who play poker for a living.

Other Canadian films:

Beauty Day, by Jay Cheel, about the gross-out comedy of Ralph Zavadil.

Love Shines, Douglas Arrowsmith's film about Ron Sexsmith.

The Power of Love, Joyce Wong's film about Céline Dion fans in Kenya.

Parks project a 'riff on the Group of Seven'

Musicians, from left, Dan Werb, Jennifer Castle and Sebastien Grainger on the shore at Mingan Archipelago, as part of the National Parks Project. (National Parks Project) The National Parks Project, a film, music and new media creation that looks at the way the wilderness has shaped the Canadian imagination, has its Canadian big screen debut at Hot Docs.

The ambitious project asked filmmakers such as Kevin McMahon, Peter Mettler, Zacharias Kunuk and Hubert Davis to explore Canada's national parks with a group of musicians and composers.

The result is 13 high-definition documentaries set in Gwaii Haanas, Gros Morne, Nahanni and 10 other national parks across Canada. Each is set to music by artists such as Sarah Harmer, Jim Guthrie, Matt Mays and Sebastien Grainger.

McMahon, director of Waterlife, co-produced the series as well as directing the episode on the Nahanni National Park.

"It's kind of a 21st century riff on the Group of Seven [visual artists]. We wondered what would happen if we brought filmmakers and musicians into a national park to experience and inspire great art," McMahon said.

A web component of the National Parks Project is already up online and the series will also screen on television.

Darker fare includes Hell and Back Again, American filmmaker Danfung Dennis's doc about the Afghan war and The Redemption of General Butt Naked, about the new life of brutal Liberian warlord.

A spotlight on Italy includes films such as I Am Jesus by Valerie Gudenus and Heloisa Sartorato, Heart-Quake by Mark Olexa and The Valley of the Moon by Giovanni Buccomino.

The Focus On program will honour mid-career Canadian documentary maker Alan Zweig, known for works such as A Hard Name, Lovable and I, Curmudgeon.

Hot Docs runs April 28 to May 8.