EXCLUSIVE: SFFilm’s prestigious Doc Stories is set to welcome a slew of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmakers to its 10th anniversary event next month, along with industry heavyweights Keri Putnam, Laura Kim, Carrie Lozano, and Justine Nagan.
The documentary festival, which runs from October 17-20 in San Francisco, unveiled its full lineup this morning, highlighted by new work from Kevin Macdonald, Ben Proudfoot, Raoul Peck, Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, and Pedro Kos, as well as a classic from Amy Berg about a singer who stunned San Francisco with her talent more than 50 years ago. [Scroll for the full program]
Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, and Oscar winner for One Day in September) opens the festival with One to One: John and Yoko, co-directed by Sam Rice-Edwards, “which chronicles John and Yoko’s musical, personal, artistic, social, and political world set against the backdrop of a turbulent era in American history.”
The closing night film belongs to Suburban Fury, directed by Robinson Devor, “the story of Sara Jane Moore, who attempted to shoot President Gerald Ford on a crowded sidewalk in San Francisco’s Union Square in September of 1975. Moore holds the center of this nonfiction drama which Devor has created with the feel of a 1970s thriller.”
Jessie Fairbanks, director of programming for SFFilm which puts on both the San Francisco International Film Festival and Doc Stories, notes that Doc Stories “is now considered an essential part of fall exhibition landscape.” Heading into the event’s 10th anniversary, she says, “We all just feel really proud and grateful to every filmmaker that has believed in this showcase and that has shared their work with us and to the audience that keeps showing up. So, we hope that they’re excited by what we announce.”
The announcement includes a slate of nine new feature docs, one retrospective, two shorts programs, an on-stage conversation with Putnam, Kim, Lozano, and Nagan, SFFilm’s Doc Congress and more.
Feature documentaries in the program include Architecton from Victor Kossakovsky; Ernest Cole: Lost and Found from Raoul Peck; Mistress Dispeller from Elizabeth Lo; No Other Land from Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor; The Remarkable Life of Ibelin from Benjamin Ree; Union from Brett Story and Stephen Maing; and The White House Effect from Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, and Jon Shenk. Two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot brings his new short film The Turnaround to Doc Stories after its world premiere at Telluride. The film, co-directed by Kyle Thrash, tells an unusual story out of the sports world that changed the fortunes of the Philadelphia Phillies’ Trea Turner. The Obamas have boarded the film through their Higher Ground production company, as Deadline reported in late August.
By design, Doc Stories presents a strictly curated program. It’s the polar opposite of massive festivals that present more films than any single individual can possibly see in a short stretch.
Jessie Fairbanks, SFFilm Director of Programming
SFFilm
“To find that balance and to limit it to nine features and one retrospective is not easy and it means that we have to say no to a lot of really beautiful films,” Fairbanks concedes. “Trying to create balance across a program in a politically charged season is a tall order, and making sure that while we want to deliver the challenging, rigorous, critical films that are necessary part of social discourse right now, we also want to showcase really beautiful and inspirational documentaries.”
One advantage to the tight lineup means Doc Stories doesn’t “counter-program” – in other words, it presents one documentary at a time – avoiding the festivalgoer’s typical conundrum of, “Should I go see this great film or that great film that are playing at the same time?”
“Every film gets to screen, gets a Q&A, and then everybody gets a chance to grab a coffee, talk in the lobby, speak outdoors, and we get to digest the film before we move into the next one,” Fairbanks says. “It allows filmmakers to go see one another’s work in a way that just simply is not possible at other festivals, and it allows our audience to actually really participate in a huge amount of our screenings because they’re not running from venue to venue and they’re not trying to juggle a couple of different competing start times. What I really love about it is that it creates a really intimate sense of community around all the screenings.”
Rock singer Janis Joplin in 1969
Evening Standard/Getty Images
Oscar-nominated director Amy Berg brought her documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue to the first Doc Stories a decade ago. She returns for a retrospective screening of her film about Janis Joplin, who hailed from Texas, but emerged as a rock n’ roll powerhouse in the Bay Area in the 1960s. In an interview with me in 2015, at the time of the film’s theatrical release, Berg said, “I feel like Janis’ music is kind of timeless in its own way. It doesn’t ever feel dated to me. She was a part of this iconic music moment in the 60s in San Francisco, but it never feels really dated. It just feels important and powerful, and it feels like a woman sharing and baring her soul. I think that will probably never change.”
In a statement, Anne Lai, executive director of SFFilm, observed of the nonfiction event, “Year over year, Doc Stories has established a growing reputation that brings together not only our substantive and curious audiences, but also the film industry at large. We have been proud to ignite other SFFILM’s programs during Doc Stories beyond our public program, including private, free screenings for grade and high school students, and a deeper behind-the-scenes industry forum.”
Not to be self-promotional, but for the first time Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast (co-hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley and Deadline’s documentary editor Matt Carey) will head to Doc Stories for a live taping of the show.
Mats Steen in ‘The Remarkable Life of Ibelin’
Bjørg Engdahl/Netflix
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is about to premiere on Netflix, but most of the feature films in the Doc Stories lineup don’t have distribution as yet, including Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, Mistress Dispeller, The White House Effect, and No Other Land.
“It is a surprising result of curation done on merit,” Fairbanks says. “I would say that we feel really privileged to be able to have so many filmmakers believe in the value of this showcase, this festival; that they’re willing to bring their films as they’re in sales process is a sign to us that filmmakers believe in what they can achieve while they’re with us at Doc Stories. It’s a sign to us that sales agents believe in the value add of our audience, of the engagement that they get from the industry while they’re on the ground.”
Below is the schedule for the 10th anniversary Doc Stories, followed by complete details on the program:
SCHEDULE
Thursday, October 17—VOGUE THEATRE
4 pm PT – Janis: Little Girl Blue—Community Screening 7 pm PT – OPENING NIGHT: One to One: John & Yoko
Friday, October 18—VOGUE THEATRE
3 pm PT – Doc Stories Talk: Building Solutions with Audience Demographics 5 pm PT – New York Times Op-Docs
7:30 pm PT – Mistress Dispeller
Saturday, October 19—VOGUE THEATRE
11 am PT – Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
1:30 pm PT – Union
4:15 pm PT – Doc Stories Talk: A Call to Action: Non-Fiction Leaders in Dialogue 6 pm PT – No Other Land
8:30 pm PT – The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Saturday, October 19—SFFILM FilmHouse
1 pm PT – Workshop: Documentary Filmmaking & Activism for Teens
Sunday, October 20—VOGUE THEATRE
11 am – Architecton
1:30 pm PT – Shorts Block: The Persistence of Dreams 4:30 pm PT – The White House Effect
7:30 pm PT – CLOSING NIGHT: Suburban Fury
DOC STORIES PROGRAM
Architecton
Sun, Oct 20 at 11:00 AM at Vogue Theatre
Victor Kossakovsky (Germany/France/USA 2024, 98 min)
Victor Kossakovsky returns to SFFILM with a visually stunning meditation on stone and steel as he probes the incredible wreckage wrought upon the planet in our endless quest to build bigger and better.
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
Sat Oct 19 at 11:00 AM at Vogue Theatre Raoul Peck (France 2024, 105 min)
Eight years after his magisterial portrait of James Baldwin I Am Not Your Negro, master documentarian Raoul Peck turns his considered focus to the life and career of South African photographer Ernest Cole, with a vocal performance from LaKeith Stanfield.
Janis: Little Girl Blue
Thu Oct 17 at 4:00 PM at Vogue Theatre Amy Berg (USA 2015, 105 min)
This illuminating film explores the tumultuous development of Janis Joplin’s iconic and primal style returns for Doc Stories’ 10th Anniversary.
Janis: Little Girl Blue will be offered as a community screening, free and open to the public. Attendees must RSVP for tickets at sffilm.org
Mistress Dispeller
Fri Oct 18 at 7:30 PM at Vogue Theatre Elizabeth Lo (China/USA 2024, 94 min)
Elizabeth Lo’s strikingly intimate portrait of a woman in China who hires a professional to infiltrate her husband and mistress’s private lives to bring an unassailable end to their affair.
New York Times Op-Docs
Fri Oct 18 at 5:00 PM at Vogue Theatre Total Runtime 81 min
SFFILM’s celebrated collaboration with the New York Times continues into its tenth year, this time showcasing five films that provocatively explore the complex and precarious spaces that various women occupy in an ever-modernizing world.
No Other Land
Sat Oct 19 at 6:00 PM at Vogue Theatre
Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor (Palestine/Norway 2024, 95 min)
Made by a four-person collective of Israeli and Palestinian activists, this unflinching, prize-winning documentary depicts the harrowing conditions of a mountain village living under constant violence.
No Other Land is presented in collaboration with SFFILM’s partners at the Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) and the Jewish Film Institute (JFI). Directors Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra are expected to attend.
OPENING NIGHT: One to One: John & Yoko
Thu Oct 17 at 7:00 PM at Vogue Theatre Kevin Macdonald (UK 2024, 100 min)
One to One is a cunningly crafted mixtape that flips through the private moments of Lennon and Ono’s life alongside seminal cultural moments in our nation’s history.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Sat Oct 19 at 8:30 PM at Vogue Theatre Benjamin Ree (Norway 2024, 104 min)
Director Benjamin Ree skillfully and compassionately recreates the experiences of the late Mats Steen in World of Warcraft, where he developed heartfelt friendships and profoundly impacted the lives of other gamers across Europe.
Shorts Block: The Persistence of Dreams
Sun Oct 20 at 1:30 PM at Vogue Theatre Total Runtime 98
min
Harnessing the power of short-form non-fiction film, each character-driven story in this block is a cinematic demonstration of perseverance.
CLOSING NIGHT: Suburban Fury
Sun Oct 20 at 7:30 PM at Vogue Theatre Robinson Devor (USA 2024, 115 min)
For this film, Sara Jane Moore, who attempted to shoot President Ford in Union Square, insists that she be the only one interviewed. The result is one of the most fascinating depictions of an unreliable narrator in the documentary field.
Union
Sat Oct 19 at 1:30 PM at Vogue Theatre
Brett Story, Stephen Maing (USA 2024, 104 min)
Amazon is notorious for being anti-union. Some brave workers in various locations are taking organizing matters into their own hands however, and this rousing documentary takes a deep dive into the efforts of one such group in Staten Island.
The White House Effect
Sun Oct 20 at 4:30 PM at Vogue Theatre
Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk (USA 2024, 97 min)
From Bay Area alumni filmmakers, this timely, tense documentary is a breathtaking excavation of squandered opportunities for significant environmental change that also illuminates a path forward for demystifying political obfuscation.
TALKS + WORKSHOPS
Doc Stories Talk: Building Solutions with Audience Demographics
Fri, Oct 18 at 3 PM at Vogue Theatre
Former Sundance Institute CEO Keri Putnam presents her research that uses quantitative data to examine alternative pathways for engaging audiences and ensure that non-fiction filmmaking continues to thrive.
Doc Stories Talk: A Call to Action: Non-Fiction Leaders in Dialogue
Sat, Oct 19 at 4:15 PM at Vogue Theatre
The golden era of documentaries is at an end and what comes next is one of the most fiercely debated topics in our industry. Join us as we welcome Laura Kim, Carrie Lozano, Justine Nagan, and Keri Putnam for a timely discussion on the state of affairs within non-fiction filmmaking.
Documentary Filmmaking & Activism Workshop for Teens
Sat, Oct 19 at 1 PM at SFFILM FilmHouse 120 min
Join Jalena Keane-Lee, award-winning filmmaker and director of Standing Above the Clouds, for a social justice-focused documentary workshop for teens.
