By Jessica Herndon
What does it take to move the needle through art? An original, singular vision that broadens our minds and deepens our understanding of the world. Here, we believe in independent filmmakers who encourage us to look at things in fresh ways, and we are privileged to support some of the most dynamic storytellers across the globe who are doing so with bold documentaries. Through our Documentary Film Program, our dedicated team champions nonfiction storytellers through many levels of development with our Documentary Fund, Documentary Film Producers Track, and labs and intensives.
We love having the opportunity to uplift films as they develop from concept to post-production to inciting awe in theaters or at home. This fall, a sizable collection of 18 Sundance Institute–supported true stories are reaching wider audiences through festivals, theatrical releases, TV broadcast premieres, and even a podcast. Catch all the phenomenal works, including Black Box Diaries, a gripping film about a Japanese journalist investigating her own sexual assault; The Body Politic, a powerful account of the mayor of Baltimore’s fight to reform the violent city; and Sabbath Queen, the liberating story of an Orthodox rabbi who becomes a drag queen. Below, find a complete list of the season’s riveting nonfiction works with connections to the Institute and hear from our team members about select projects.
Wilfred Buck
Director: Lisa Jackson
Producers: Lisa Jackson, Alicia Smith, Lauren Grant
Logline: Wilfred Buck is a hybrid feature centering on a Cree elder who’s been called the Indiana Jones of Indigenous star knowledge. Weaving together his harrowing past and his present life with sky stories, we’ll move between the gutter and the stars to unpack colonization’s impact on Indigenous ways of knowing.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2020 Sandbox Fund.
Screened at Camden International Film Festival on September 13.
Homegrown
Director: Michael Premo
Producer: Rachel Falcone
Logline: Homegrown is an unflinching chronicle of Americans at war with each other, offering an unprecedented look at right-wing activists as they search for purpose and power — with dire consequences.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2020 Documentary Fund.
“Director and multidisciplinary artist Michael Premo has spent years researching far-right movements within the United States. He and his team at Storyline brought journalistic rigor and artistic commitment to following multiple stories around the country, paths that narrowed and ultimately ended at the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Multiple perspectives from that day are widely available, but seen through Premo’s remarkably steady lens, it is impossible to look away. Through measured vérité deftly edited, viewers have the space and time to watch and absorb how complex identities merge and movements turn to state sanctioned violence.” — Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film and Artist Programs
Screened at Camden International Film Festival on September 13.
No Other Land
Directors: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Producers: Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning
Logline: For 10 years, Basel, a young Palestinian activist, has been filming homes in his community being destroyed by Israeli soldiers. During the darkest period of his life, in face of mass eviction of his community, he develops an unlikely, intimate relationship with a similarly aged Israeli journalist — who joins his struggle.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2021 Documentary Fund and the 2023 Edit and Story Lab.
“Winner of Best Documentary at Berlinale this year, No Other Land follows the journey of co-director Basel Adra and his family, a displaced people in their home territory of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank. This collaborative effort by a collective of Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers is rooted in the profound friendship between Basel and co-director Yuval, an Israeli journalist, as they confront the social and political realities and power imbalances that exist between them, which is felt deeply and clearly. The use of archive throughout the film serves as a document of past and present amid an ongoing genocide across Palestine that will echo into the future. As audiences witness Basel’s community being bulldozed through his camera, No Other Land serves as a crucial testament to the enduring impact of occupation, challenging viewers to reflect on history and advocate for a more just future.” — Andrea Alarcon, Manager, Producing & Artist Support
Screened at Camden International Film Festival on September 13.
Directors: Stephen Maing, Brett Story
Producers: Stephen Maing, Brett Story, Mars Verrone, Samantha Curley, Martin Dicicco
Logline: The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island — takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2022 Documentary Fund, winner of the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art of Change at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
“Through visually striking vérité storytelling, Brett Story and Stephen Maing bring us up close and personal into the daily frontline activities, as well as the varied lived experiences, of the men and women who make up the Staten Island Amazon Labor Union (ALU). We follow and become increasingly emotionally invested in their fight to unionize amid interpersonal conflicts, individual hardships, and external struggles, all culminating in a powerful and highly nuanced David and Goliath narrative.” — Sara Glassberg, Coordinator, Documentary Fund
Screened at Camden International Film Festival on September 15.
Directors: Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
Producers: Arun Bhattarai, Noémi Veronika Szakonyi, Máté Artur Vincze
Logline: Amber is one of the many agents working for the Bhutanese government to measure people’s happiness levels among the remote Himalayan mountains. But will he find his own along the way?
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2021 Documentary Fund and premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
“Tasked with documenting it in others, Amber is searching for his own happiness among situational odds. Directors Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó have crafted a heartwarming, comedic, and sensitive depiction of this journey. Expertly balancing the pangs of yearning with glimmers of hope, they have landed with an exceptionally earnest film that exudes warmth. Highly relatable from any corner of the world.” — Kat Schulze, Coordinator, Documentary Film and Ignite Programs
Screened at Camden International Film Festival on September 15.
Leap of Faith
Director: Nicholas Ma
Producer: Morgan Neville
Logline: Troubled by our fractured society, 12 midwestern Christian leaders tackle the most controversial questions of today to discover whether we can belong to each other in a challenging and divisive world.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2024 Documentary Fund.
“Leap of Faith is at its core a film about love. In a moment of profound divisions in our world, this is an important and timely film, fostering empathy and deeper understanding. By embarking on an incredibly emotional journey with the protagonists, the audience will be deeply moved and encouraged to see humanity in one another, beyond dogma and ideology.” — Paola Mottura, Director, Documentary Film Fund
Arrived in select theaters October 4.
unseen: Life as a Blind Immigrant podcast
Director: Set Hernandez
Producers: Set Hernandez, Day Al-Mohamed, Félix Endara
Logline: An aspiring social worker, Pedro faces restrictions as a blind, undocumented immigrant to get his college degree. But when attaining his dreams leads to new challenges, what will Pedro do? Using experimental cinematography, unseen reimagines film accessibility through an audio-centric experience. Based on the award-winning film, unseen is now a four-chapter podcast. Tune in to experience cinema without relying on vision or sight.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2021 Sundance Documentary Film Grant.
“Unseen is a deeply beautiful and experimental portrait film following Pedro, who dreams of helping others as a social worker. With the support of family, he faces the uncertainty of finishing his degree as a blind and undocumented immigrant. Winner of the 2024 Film Independent’s Truer Than Fiction Award, director Set Hernandez and team reinvigorate the possibilities of accessibility within storytelling. Now, in honor of World Blindness Awareness Month, Pedro’s story is being released as a four-part immersive podcast. Listen along as episodes drop each Tuesday in October!” — Kat Schulze, Coordinator, Documentary Film and Ignite Programs
Available October 8 wherever you listen to podcasts.
The Strike
Directors: JoeBill Muñoz, Lucas Guilkey
Producer: JoeBill Muñoz, Lucas Guilkey
Logline: The Strike is a feature documentary that tells the story of a generation of California men who endured decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launched the largest hunger strike in U.S. history.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2021 Documentary Fund.
“Hunger strikes have a long history as a form of protest within the confines of prisons. Inhumane treatment inflicted on those incarcerated matched by the unimaginable fortitude required for a hunger strike is hard to fathom. But what directors JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey have vividly captured is a reminder that the fight against injustice must be comprehended, documented, and preserved. The Strike tells the over-a-decade-old story of how California inmates ignited a statewide hunger strike to protest many indecencies, including the practice of unrelenting solitary confinement. An inspiring film showcasing the importance of supporting prisoner-led resilience and the power of unity for the rights of those who are incarcerated.” — Kat Schulze, Coordinator, Documentary Film and Ignite Programs
Screening at San Quentin Film Festival on October 11.
Sabbath Queen
Director: Sandi DuBowski
Producer: Sandi DuBowski
Logline: Filmed over 21 years, Sabbath Queen follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s journey as the heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis who is torn between accepting his ancestral destiny or becoming a drag queen rebel.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2015 Documentary Fund.
“Sabbath Queen is a rich kaleidoscopic exploration of what it means to live at the intersection of queer and Jewish identities through following Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s journey toward self-discovery. Filmed over two decades and edited into a nonlinear structure that spans generations and continents and which evokes the often similarly nonlinear process of defining one’s self and finding your purpose, Sandi DuBowski’s expansive yet intimate documentary provokes us all to consider how family, spirituality, and history are all inexorably intertwined and what we owe each other and ourselves for a better future.” — Sara Glassberg, Coordinator, Documentary Fund
Screening at Hamptons International Film Festival on October 13.
Mother Vera
Directors: Cécile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson
Producer: Laura Shacham
Logline: From the thick snow of the Belarusian forest to the heat of the reeds in the French Camargue, Mother Vera is the story of a young Orthodox nun, her turbulent past, and fragile future. After 20 years as a monastic, Vera faces deep inner conflict; now, she must confront her past and trust her instincts to find the liberation she desires.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2020 Documentary Fund.
Screened at Camden International Film Festival on September 13 and screening at the BFI London Film Festival on October 13 and 16.
There Was, There Was Not
Director: Emily Mkrtichian
Producer: Mara Adina
Logline: The first line of every Armenian fairy tale, There Was, There Was Not tells the collective myth of a homeland nearly lost to war — and four women’s resistance to that loss.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2020 Documentary Fund.
Screening online at the New Orleans Film Festival October 16–28 and in person on October 19.
Our Land, Our Freedom
Directors: Meena Nanji, Zippy Kimundu
Producer: Meena Nanji, Zippy Kimundu, Eliane Ferreira
Logline: Set in Kenya, Wanjugu Kimathi’s search for her father’s remains becomes an investigation into British colonial atrocities, including concentration camps and land theft that left hundreds of thousands of Kenyans destitute. Working closely with her mother, their efforts spark a larger movement, transforming Wanjugu into a powerful advocate championing justice and land resettlement for those dispossessed.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2022 Documentary Fund.
Screening at the New Orleans Film Festival on October 17.
Reas
Director: Lola Arias
Producers: Gema Juárez Allen, Clarisa Oliveri
Synopsis: Yoseli has a tattoo of the Eiffel Tower on her back and has always wanted to travel to Europe, but she was arrested at the airport for drug trafficking. Nacho is a transman who was arrested for swindling and started a rock band in jail. Gentle or rough, blonde or shaved, cis or trans, long-term inmates or newly admitted: in this hybrid musical, they all re-enact their lives in a Buenos Aires prison. Reas is a collective work that reinvents the musical genre: the performers dance and sing about their past in prison, relive their life as fiction, and invent, through fantasy and imagination, a possible future.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2020 Documentary Fund.
Screened at Camden International Film Festival on September 12 and screening at NewFest on October 17.
Directors: Anirban Dutta, Anupama Srinivasan
Producer: Anirban Dutta
Logline: In the dense forests of the Eastern Himalayas, moths are whispering something to us. In the dark of night, two curious observers shine a light on this secret universe.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2020 Sandbox Fund, winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
“Nocturnes is a film that must be experienced on the biggest screen with the best sound system. The film is a fascinating study of moths and the people who research them and a meditative journey. A true escape in a dark theater.” — Dominic Davis, Manager, Documentary Fund
Arriving in select theaters October 18.
Songs From the Hole
Director: Contessa Gayles
Producers: Contessa Gayles, richie reseda, David Felix Sutcliffe
Logline: An incarcerated musician struggles for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary visual album composed behind bars.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2024 Documentary Fund.
“Deep collaboration between JJ’88 and the Songs From the Hole film team yields a visual album as documentary. This powerful and poetic film reveals the humanity of a person caught in the criminal justice system, and the team’s novel approach brings deep artistry to an entrenched issue.” — Dominic Davis, Manager, Documentary Fund
Screening at the New Orleans Film Festival on October 19.
Mistress Dispeller
Director: Elizabeth Lo
Producers: Elizabeth Lo, Emma D. Miller, Maggie Li
Logline: Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband’s affair. With strikingly intimate access, Mistress Dispeller follows this unfolding family drama from all corners of a love triangle.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2023 Producers Lab.
Screening at the New Orleans Film Festival on October 21.
Black Box Diaries
Director: Shiori Itō
Producers: Shiori Itō, Eric Nyari, Hanna Aqvilin
Logline: Journalist Shiori Itō embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial and societal systems.
“Shiori Itō is both director and protagonist. She is an accomplished journalist who documented her fight for justice after sexual assault and the consequences of her public fight that followed. Shiori is courageous, funny, and relentless in her pursuit, which brings her up against the highest order of power in Japan. Though film is her tool, it’s also a testament to strength and an act of love for survivors everywhere.” — Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film and Artist Programs
Arriving in select theaters October 25.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2023 Edit and Story Lab.
The Body Politic
Director: Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough
Producers: Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, Dawne Langford, John Benam
Logline: Like many areas in the United States, the city of Baltimore has been plagued by gun violence. Amid the George Floyd uprising, Brandon Scott, a young reform-minded leader, is elected mayor. His hope is to lower violence in the city with a new public health–focused approach rather than relying only on policing as he feels others have done.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2022 Kendeda Fund.
“Gabriel Goodenough’s directorial debut follows the election and first year of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s tenure. The film transcends genre of the ‘political’ doc and eschews hagiography. It explores the tensions and challenges of Scott’s attempts to address crime and economic instability at its roots, reflecting the slow arc toward justice.” — Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film and Artist Programs
Making its broadcast premiere on PBS’ POV November 25.
