Maria's Story

A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.

During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront a moral quandary: whether to obey White House orders to evacuate only U.S. citizens.

A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.

As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.

A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.

In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.

In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times and takes aim at our culture today that alarmingly shows the need for continued change.

A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.

Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.

With a first-person look at the notorious Crips and Bloods, this film examines the conditions that have lead to decades of devastating gang violence among young African Americans growing up in South Los Angeles.

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

Thirty-four days before she's sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss.

The film follows adventurer Jeff Johnson as he retraces the epic 1968 journey of his heroes Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia.

Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.

An unprecedented and intimate look at the life, work and enduring legacy of British actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).

A subjective documentary that explores various theories about hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick's classic film The Shining. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments.

This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.

A documentary on the modeling industry's 'supply chain' between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S., told through the experiences of the scouts, agencies, and a 13-year-old model.

BBC Arena's documentary on the Dames of British Theatre and film featuring Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright on screen together for the first time as they reminisce over a long summer weekend in a house Joan once shared with Sir Laurence Olivier.

Ranjit, a farmer in India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape. His decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.

A behind-the-scenes documentary about the Clinton for President campaign, focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.

"What if someone wrote your biography? Would there be horns and halos involved?"

Kua and Teriki will soon get married. They live on the distant Tureia island in the French Polynesia, Pacific Ocean and have just been told that something is wrong with their son Maokis heart. It is a consequence of living only 100 km away from the island of Moruroa, where France has tested 193 atom bombs for 30 years. Several of their family members are sick and Moruroa can soon collapse, which can lead to a tsunami likely to drown all of them. Vive La France is a personal and intimate story about harvesting the consequences of the French atomic program.

A short documentary about singers Kate and Anna McGarrigle made by animator Caroline Leaf.

The Execution of Wanda Jean chronicles the life-and-death battle of Wanda Jean Allen, the first black woman to be put to death in the United States in the modern era.

In the far, far North, where the day begins and the oceans meet, a small hamlet New Chaplino is situated. The government decided to turn the village into a tourist resort. It is winter, 30 degrees Celsius below zero. The tourists are not coming. There are only few memories of them and the snow has already covered their footprints. A documentary about the tourism influence on original ethnic groups that haven’t been affected by civilization so far and about the changes of how they experience their own culture. The documentary takes place on the Russian far north – in the Chukotka region.

The film uses a documentary approach to tell the stories of 12 Chinese pioneers, chosen from the fields of business and the arts. The protagonists reflect upon their life journeys against the backdrop of modern China.

2021 marks the 50th anniversary of "Coal Miner’s Daughter," the Loretta Lynn song that became a book, a feature film, and an indelible part of popular culture. Like so many other songs written by Lynn, the lyrics told the story of her life and spoke to women who struggled to make ends meet. Lynn’s simple, straightforward song stories gave legitimacy to the joys, heartaches, struggles and triumphs.

African-American painter Mickalene Thomas pays tribute to the life and longings of her mother and muse Sandra Bush in this documentary short. A former runway model with a poignant backstory filled with dreams, regrets and redemption, Sandra is the focus of this emotional portrait for her New York-based artist-daughter Mickalene, for whom she serves as a model and inspiration.

A chronological look at films by, for, or about gays and lesbians in the United States, from 1947 to 2005, Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks" to "Brokeback Mountain". Talking heads, anchored by critic and scholar B. Ruby Rich, are interspersed with an advancing timeline and with clips from two dozen films. The narrative groups the pictures around various firsts, movements, and triumphs: experimental films, indie films, sex on screen, outlaw culture and bad guys, lesbian lovers, films about AIDS and dying, emergence of romantic comedy, transgender films, films about diversity and various cultures, documentaries and then mainstream Hollywood drama. What might come next?

In this revealing documentary, burlesque star Immodesty Blaize examines the world of British burlesque and the resurgence in its popularity.

Using the camera as a weapon to defend their ancestral land in Brazil, three women of the Daje Kapap Eypi audiovisual collective lovingly record their Munduruku traditions and their mythology of humans transforming into forest plants and animals.

During the height of the military dictatorship, Jorge Bodanzky documented the construction of the Humboldt University [research station] in Mato Grosso. While flying over the surrounding area—amidst the dense, unbroken forest—he captured an intriguing image: a large maloca (communal indigenous dwelling) where the inhabitants were attempting to strike the plane with arrows. Half a century later, the filmmaker uses this moment as a starting point to revisit—without a script—his long-standing connection to the Amazon and the story behind that image, through an approach that is both spontaneous and intimate.

After surviving the massacre in which the police killed ten landless workers in Pará’s Amazon region, Fernando dos Santos becomes the only survivor to reveal his identity and testify. Still shaken, he recounts how the police murdered his boyfriend and tortured his companions, yet the film portrays him as far more than a victim: a courageous man who left the city’s comfort to chase the dream of owning land, using humor and intelligence to endure the solitude of being a gay man in rural Brazil. Alongside him is José Vargas, an idealistic lawyer defending the survivors and their right to justice. As he faces threats and isolation, the film exposes the human cost of truth, resilience, and the struggle for dignity in a land scarred by violence and inequality.

Pearl Gluck travels to Hungary to retrieve a turn-of-the-century family heirloom: a couch upon which esteemed rabbis once slept. En route for the ancestral divan, Pearl encounters a colorful cast of characters who provide guidance and inspiration.

A portrait of five St. Petersburgians and their connection to The Hermitage.

A rare behind the scenes look at the tragedies and bitter disappointments that plagued one of MGM's most popular leading ladies

A series of 43 documentary shorts, directed (without credit) by several famous French filmmakers and each running between two and four minutes. Each "tract" espouses a leftist political viewpoint through the filmed depiction of real-life events, including workers' strikes and the events of Paris in May '68.