The Story of Documentary Film

Tracing the evolution of documentary film across time, examining landmark works and hidden treasures, while revealing how the form has helped us see and make sense of our world.

Closure

After his teenage son goes missing, Daniel scours the depths of the Vistula River, torn between the dread of a fatal leap and the hope that his son may still be alive.

Kikuyu Land

As a Nairobi journalist probes a land battle entangling the local government and a powerful multinational corporation, covered wounds are revealed and family secrets are exposed.

Silenced

After #MeToo broke the cultural silence on gender violence, international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson fights against the weaponization of defamation laws to silence survivors.

Some Kind of Refuge

On the shifting edge of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, the spirit of a fading outsider community endures through its two oldest residents.

Murder 101

A case that haunted Tennessee’s best detectives for decades is cracked wide open with the help of some unlikely investigators: a high school sociology class.

To Hold a Mountain

In the remote highlands of Montenegro, a shepherd mother and daughter proudly defend their ancestral mountain from the threat of becoming a NATO military training ground, stirring memories of the violence that shattered their family.

La Tierra del Valor (The Home of the Brave)

During a summer of grief and fear brought on by immigration raids in Los Angeles, one small act of bravery gives a community hope.

All About the Money

A son of one of America’s wealthiest families creates a communist revolutionary base in rural Massachusetts as a means of disrupting the capitalist system he grew up in but has now come to despise. It’s the starting point of an astonishing journey.

One In A Million

Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary | Itab Azzam & Jack MacInnes

Filmed over 10 years, one girl’s epic journey from Syria to Germany and back again. She and her family navigate war, exile, and heartbreak in a foreign land, illuminating the complexities of the refugee experience.

Sentient

An investigation into laboratory research on animals exposes a hidden world in which it’s not just the animals getting hurt. The story of Dr. Lisa Jones Engel, a primatologist turned animal welfare advocate, asks whether harming animals and ourselves in science’s name is justified.