This year’s non-fiction showcase offers fresh perspective on the world we live in and the fascinating people and stories that surround us. Some are masters, some emerging, but they share a passion to tell entertaining and enlightening stories from fascinating places.
Sponsored by the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Directed by Steve James
The incredible saga of the Chinese immigrant Sung family, owners of Abacus Federal Savings of Chinatown, New York, elicits both …
Buzz One Four
Directed by Matt McCormick
At the height of the Cold War, the US Air Force was flying B-52 bombers armed with thermonuclear weapons on …
Alive & Kicking
Directed by Susan Glatzer
Some dance styles and crazes endure. For many who love music and dance, the lindy hop, jitterbug, shag, and other …
All These Sleepless Nights
Directed by Michał Marczak
“Many of us know the freedom of our twenties—unfettered by responsibilities or mortality, inventing ourselves in the rush of the …
Austerlitz
Directed by Sergei Loznitsa
Filmed on the sites of former Nazi concentration camps, Loznitsa’s (Maidan, In the Fog) Austerlitz is a stark observation of …
Behemoth
Directed by Zhao Liang
You can’t un-see political documentarian Liang’s cinematic allegory, which draws inspiration from The Divine Comedy in fashioning a simultaneously intoxicating …
Burden
Directed by Timothy Marrinan, Richard Dewey
One the most intriguing, boundary-pushing artists of his generation, Chris Burden guaranteed his place in art history in 1971 with …
Fire at Sea
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi
The island of Lampedusa, between Sicily and Tunisia, is a major destination point for refugees fleeing Africa and the Middle …
Forever Pure
Directed by Maya Zinshstein
Beitar Jerusalem, an intensely nationalist soccer team in the Israeli Premier League, inspires as much extreme fandom as it does …
I Am Not Your Negro
Directed by Raoul Peck
Based on the text of Remember This House, James Baldwin’s final, unfinished novel, Peck’s urgent essay film is a reflection …
Kedi
Directed by Ceyda Torun
Cats (“kedi”) have an exalted status in Turkish culture, and caring for them is both a social and religious obligation, …
Obit
Directed by Vanessa Gould
Who makes it on the obituary page of the paper of record? Both a peek into the inner workings of …
Raising Bertie
Directed by Margaret Byrne
What happens in the lives of young people caught in the complex interplay of generational poverty, educational inequity, and race? …
Starless Dreams
Directed by Mehrdad Oskouei
Starless Dreams plunges us into the lives of teenage girls at a juvenile detention center on the of Tehran. The …
The Land of the Enlightened
Directed by Pieter-Jan De Pue
Shot over seven years, De Pue’s debut, a hybrid of documentary and fiction, paints a whimsical yet haunting look at …