DC/DOX, the documentary film festival in the nation’s capital, has announced its full slate of films for its fourth edition. In addition to the previously announced Signature Screenings Give Me The Ball!; Earth Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That’s The Weight Of The World; Sara Bareilles: Good Grief; and The Lorraine, DC/DOX will host the world premieres of the features The Endless Frontier and Freefall: A Reckoning For Boeing, as well the world premieres of the shorts The Custodian; Final Press; Notes On Courtwatch; Plumped; Sheesh, A Taylor Love Story; and Toss A Rose Over.
Freefall: A Reckoning For Boeing continues director Rory Kennedy’s investigation into the once iconic aviation giant. The Endless Frontier, directed by Marilyn Ness, follows three scientists facing the growing threats to scientific research in the U.S.
The DC/DOX slate includes 64 features and 49 shorts from 32 countries, with nine world premieres, three North American premieres, and five U.S. premieres. The festival will also present a special mini-retrospective celebrating the work of Frederick Wiseman, featuring Hospital, Juvenile Court, and Welfare. The fourth annual DC/DOX festival will be held June 11-14 in Washington, DC.
“Once again, the DC/DOX lineup reminds us of the singular power of documentary film to bring people together in pursuit of deeper understanding,” said DC/DOX co-founder and festival director Sky Sitney. “At a moment when the world can feel overwhelming and divided, these films offer space to reflect, connect, and engage with the urgent questions shaping our lives. This year’s slate is as expansive as it is deeply personal–stories of courage, creativity, resilience, and truth that remind us of both the challenges we face and the humanity we share. We’re honored to bring filmmakers and audiences together in Washington, DC to experience these stories in community.”
The festival will also host the North American premieres of Amazomania and The Salisbury Poisonings: A Spy Next Door; and the U.S. premieres of Hell’s Army, Love Apptually, Super Nature, and The Sandbox.
“This year’s slate has an incredible range of films, with truly something for everyone” said DC/DOX co-founder Jamie Shor. “With such a diverse lineup, we invite our audiences to trust us and step out of their comfort zones, and we are certain they’ll find a film they love that maybe they might not have expected.”
DC/DOX 2026 PROGRAM
Signature Screenings
Opening Night Screening: Thursday, June 11
GIVE ME THE BALL!: DIRS Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff. PRODS Liz Garbus, Elizabeth Wolff, Dominic Crossley-Holland, Dan Cogan, Chris James, and Gentry Kirby. USA.
This intimate portrait of tennis legend and trailblazer Billie Jean King reveals the personal toll behind the immense sacrifices she made to transform her sport—and the world.
Courtesy of ESPN Films
Centerpiece Screening: Friday, June 12
SARA BAREILLES: GOOD GRIEF: DIR Josh Alexander. PRODS Daniel J. Chalfen and Josh Alexander. USA.
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles returns to the recording studio with close friends for the first time in seven years in this raw, cinematic portrait of her creative process—one that becomes a profoundly personal and ultimately hopeful reflection on recent loss and grief and the power of music to heal.
Closing Night Screening: Saturday, June 13
EARTH, WIND & FIRE (TO BE CELESTIAL vs THAT’S THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD): DIR Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. PRODS Dave Sirulnick, Samantha Grogin, KB White, Arron Saxe, and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. USA.
Few bands are as influential or enduring as Earth, Wind & Fire. They displayed Black joy and excellence to the world. They imbued their music with metaphysical positivity to uplift consciousness and empower everyone to be their best. In this captivating portrait, Academy Award-winning director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson honors and explores the most beloved band we know the least about.
Courtesy of HBO.
Spotlight Screening: Sunday, June 14
THE LORRAINE: DIR Sam Pollard. PRODS Dan Braun, Joe Wemple, and Ben Braun. USA.
Renowned documentarian Sam Pollard tells the astonishing and inspiring story of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee—the site of the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.—and of its remarkable owners, Walter and Loree Bailey.
Features
AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR/GREAT-GRANDPARENT/GREAT-GRANDCHILD]: DIRS Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil. PRODS Steve Holmgren, Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil, Grace Remington, and Jacque Clark. USA.
Trapped in museum archives, Ancestors bend time and space to find their way home. History, spirituality, and the law collide as tribal repatriation specialists fight to return and rebury Indigenous human remains, revealing the still-pervasive worldviews that justified their collection in the first place.
ADAM’S APPLE: DIR Amy Jenkins. PRODS Brit Fryer and Amy Jenkins. USA.
A transgender teen and his mother chronicle their lives, weaving an intimate portrait of a family in transition. Two decades of footage trace a boy’s path to manhood and his parents’ vulnerability as they reckon with change.
AI: PROBABLY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT: DIR Nick Holt. PRODS David Glover, Mark Raphael, David Dugan, and Zara Powell. United Kingdom.
As artificial intelligence accelerates a new technological arms race, the scientist whose breakthrough made it possible begins to question what he has unleashed. AI: PROBABLY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT is a gripping look at the race to build thinking machines — and the growing fear that they may outpace us all.
AMAZING LIVE SEA MONKEYS: DIRS Mark Becker and Aaron Schock. PRODS Mark Becker and Aaron Schock. USA.
From her crumbling estate on the Potomac River, Yolanda Signorelli battles to wrest control of her late husband Harold’s iconic toy, AMAZING LIVE SEA-MONKEYS!, from the corporate men she insists stole it from her — and to rescue it from the stain of her husband’s dark legacy.
AMAZOMANIA: DIR Nathan Grossman. Sweden, Denmark, France.
When the footage from a celebrated 1996 first-contact expedition in the Amazon resurfaces decades later, a triumphant story of discovery unravels into a reckoning with colonialism, documentary ethics, and the lasting impact on the Korubo people.
North American Premiere.
AMERICAN DOCTOR: DIR Poh Si Teng. PRODS Poh Si Teng, Kirstine Barfod, and Reem Haddad. USA, Palestine State, Malaysia, Denmark, Qatar.
When three American doctors—Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian—enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to expose the truth.
AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ: DIR David Alvarado. PRODS David Alvarado, Lauren DeFilippo, Everett Katigbak, and Amanda Pollak. USA.
Against political resistance and industry skepticism, Luis Valdez pushes Chicano storytelling from the fields to the film screen with Zoot Suit and La Bamba, crafting iconic works that challenge, celebrate, and expand America’s story.
BABY/GIRLS: DIRS Jackie Jesko and Alyse Walsh. PRODS Melissa Leardi, Alex Waterfield, and Kelly Rohrbach Walton. USA.
Set in post-Dobbs Arkansas, BABY/GIRLS follows three teens living in a Christian maternity home as they navigate pregnancy and early motherhood—an intimate, unfiltered look at girlhood and motherhood colliding in the American South.
BARBARA FOREVER: DIR Brydie O’Connor. PRODS Elijah Stevens, Brydie O’Connor, and Claire Edelman. USA.
A dreamlike portrait of the life, work, and legacy of a pioneering feminist experimental filmmaker whose work helped shape early lesbian cinema. Tracing her prolific canon alongside rarely seen documentation of her life and body, the film reveals her unconventional attempts to live on—most notably through the extensive archiving of her films.
THE BEND IN THE RIVER: DIR Robb Moss. PRODS Lisa Remington and Kristin Feeley. USA.
Following a group of friends for nearly fifty years, THE BEND IN THE RIVER explores the inexorable flow of aging and the unfinished project of living.
BIRDS OF WAR: DIRS Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak. PROD Sonja Henrici. United Kingdom.
From besieged Aleppo to the confines of a London newsroom, Lebanese journalist Janay Boulos and Syrian activist/cameraman Abd Alkader Habak retrace their love story through a vast personal archive spanning 13 years of revolution, war, and exile. Can their love survive distance, danger, and difference?
BLACK ZOMBIE: DIR Maya Annik Bedward. PRODS Kate Fraser and Hannah Donegan. Canada.
From the flickering screens of Hollywood horror to the haunted cane fields of colonial Haiti, BLACK ZOMBIE unearths the buried origins of the zombie, reclaiming it as a symbol of survival and spiritual resistance.
BUCKS HARBOR: DIR Pete Muller. PRODS Nathan Golon, Noel Paul, and Pete Muller. USA.
In Downeast Maine, boys are shaped by brutal winters, the harvesting of the ocean’s bounty, and the rigid codes of their fathers. BUCKS HARBOR explores what it means to grow up in a community where a man’s worth is measured by the strength of his back.
A CHILD OF MY OWN: DIR Maite Alberdi. PRODS Sandra Godínez, Carla González Vargas, Maximiliano Sanguine. Mexico.
Alejandra’s profound desire to become a mother—and the heartbreak and pressure that engulf her after multiple miscarriages—drive her to fake a pregnancy, unleashing a media scandal and a moral reckoning.
Courtesy of Netflix.
CLOSURE: DIR Michaƚ Marczak. PRODS Monika Braid, Michał Marczak, Rémi Grellety, Katarzyna Szczerba, and Karolina Marczak. Poland, France.
After his teenage son goes missing, Daniel combs the depths of the Vistula River day and night, caught in a grueling, endless routine and torn between the dread of a fatal leap and the fragile hope that his son may still be alive.
COOKIE QUEENS: DIR Alysa Nahmias. PRODS Gregory Kershaw, Michael Dweck, Alysa Nahmias, and Jennifer Sims. USA.
It’s Girl Scout Cookie season, and four tenacious girls strive to become top-selling “Cookie Queens,” navigating an $800 million business where innocence and ambition collide.
THE CYCLE OF LOVE: DIR Orlando von Einsiedel. PRODS Harri Grace, Chloe Leland, Karl von Schedvin, and Emelie von Schedvin. United Kingdom, Sweden.
An epic true-life journey of self-discovery, tracing the romantic odyssey of PK Mahanandia, a Delhi street artist who bicycled 6,000 miles across continents in 1977 to reunite with the woman he loved—risking everything for belief, connection, and what the heart demands.
DAUGHTERS OF THE FOREST: DIR Otilia Portillo Padua. PRODS Paula Arroio, Elena Fortes, and Otilia Portillo Padua. Mexico.
Deep in Mexico’s forests, two Indigenous mycologists seek to reconcile the past and present while reimagining the future for themselves and a changing world.
DO YOU LOVE ME: DIR Lana Daher. PRODS Films de Force Majeure and My Little Films. Lebanon, France, Qatar, Germany.
An exhilarating journey through 70 years of images and sounds from Lebanon, exploring Beirut’s collective psyche—marked by beauty, trauma, joy, and forgetting.
EARTH TO MICHAEL: DIRS Nico López-Alegría and ZZ. PRODS ZZ, Steffie van Rhee, Dustin Nakao-Haider, and Nico López-Alegría. USA.
Before an astronaut leaves Earth to usher in a new era of spaceflight, his son asks him to confront the unresolved space between them—revisiting a past shaped by distance in the hope of a more connected future.
THE ENDLESS FRONTIER: DIR Marilyn Ness. PRODS Beth Westrate and Ted Richane. USA.
An urgent portrait of three scientists confronting some of the most pressing challenges of our time, revealing the growing threat to the American research ecosystem—and what is at stake if it begins to falter.
World Premiere.
EVERY CONTACT LEAVES A TRACE: DIR Lynne Sachs. USA.
In the digital era, when real-life connections are increasingly rare, even fleeting encounters can leave a lasting trace. Over a lifetime, filmmaker Lynne Sachs has collected business cards—mementos of brief exchanges with strangers—and selects seven to uncover why these moments have lingered so vividly in her memory.
FIRST THEY CAME FOR MY COLLEGE: DIR Patrick Bresnan. PRODS Holly Herrick, Harry W. Hanbury, Patrick X. Bresnan, and Zackary Drucker. USA.
When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stages a coup at New College, students and professors confront a new reality: their campus becomes ground zero in an unprecedented nationwide assault on academic freedom and diversity.
FREEFALL: A RECKONING FOR BOEING: DIR Rory Kennedy. PRODS Rory Kennedy, Mark Bailey, Viva Van Loock, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, and Alexandra Korba. USA.
Following the highly publicized death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, Rory Kennedy’s FREEFALL: A RECKONING FOR BOEING continues the investigation into the once-iconic aviation giant, uncovering startling new revelations and insider accounts in the wake of a deepening corporate crisis.
World Premiere.
Courtesy of Netflix.
THE GREAT EXPERIMENT: DIRS Stephen Maing and Eric Daniel Metzgar. PRODS Stephen Maing, Eric Daniel Metzgar, and Farihah Zaman. USA.
An epic poem in documentary form—a mirror held to an American nation at war with itself, asking not who is right, but whether the experiment can survive.
HARVEST: DIRS Natalie Baszile and Hyacinth Parker. PROD Trevite Willis. USA.
The Nelson brothers are on a mission to become the largest farmers in the U.S., but after two years of poor harvests, a new season brings as much opportunity as uncertainty. Farming more land than ever before, the brothers must work together to navigate the mounting pressures of climate change, equipment failures, and family tensions.
HELL’S ARMY: DIR Richard Rowley. PRODS Richard Rowley, Richard Butler, Atanas Georgiev, and Caitlin McNally. Norway, United Kingdom, USA.
A dissident Russian journalist faces death threats and the murder of her colleagues as she races across the globe to unmask one of the world’s most feared mercenary armies.
US Premiere.
JARIPEO: DIRS Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig. PROD Sarah Strunin. Mexico, USA, France.
In Michoacán’s hypermasculine rodeos, what begins as a celebration of tradition descends into a subconscious terrain of memory, queer desire, and longing—a reckoning with the wounds and beauty of a home left behind.
JOYBUBBLES: DIR Rachael J. Morrison. PRODS Sarah Winshall, Will Butler, and Annie Marr. USA.
A boy discovers he can control the global telephone system by whistling a magic tone. Born blind and yearning for connection, his obsession sparks a subculture that helps shape the future of hacking and technology.
KIDS LIKE ME: DIRS Cynthia Lowen and Jon Cohrs. PRODS Cynthia Lowen and Jon Cohrs. USA.
Meet Oliver, a 12-year-old murder-mystery buff with a boundless imagination who is growing up with a rare genetic condition. Together with his family, he helps reframe what it means to live with disability as they embark on an imaginative adventure to create a murder-mystery caper.
THE LAKE: DIR Abby Ellis. PROD Fletcher Keyes. USA.
An environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah. Two intrepid scientists and a political insider race against the clock to save their home from unprecedented catastrophe.
LANDSCAPES OF MEMORY: DIR Leah Galant. PRODS Elijah Stevens and Leah Galant. USA.
As she journeys through Germany, Leah Galant confronts family trauma and the legacy of Holocaust memory, weaving together the lives of a survivor’s descendant, a Nazi-descendant historian, exiled Palestinian artists, and her father’s ALS to examine the uses and abuses of memory culture.
THE LAST CRITIC: DIR Matty Wishnow. PRODS Joe Levy, Paul Lovelace, and Ben Wu. USA.
Robert Christgau, the “Dean of American Rock Critics,” whose work has inspired and infuriated readers for sixty years, is still at it in his eighties—grading records, interrogating commas, and listening to nearly everything (except metal and prog).
THE LAST FIRST: WINTER K2: DIR Amir Bar-Lev. USA.
A complex, harrowing, and deeply moving portrait of the evolving world of extreme mountain climbing, following a 2021 expedition in which Icelandic mountaineer John Snorri Sigurjónsson and Pakistani father-son team Ali and Sajid Sadpara attempt the first winter summit of K2, when the mountain is at its most unforgiving.
Courtesy of Apple Original Films.
LOS LOBOS NATIVE SONS: DIRS Doug Blush and Piero F. Giunti. PRODS Rafael Agustín, Doug Blush, Robert Corsini, Piero F. Giunti, Patricia Harris DiLeva, and Flavio Morales. USA.
Drawing on rare archival material and intimate access, LOS LOBOS NATIVE SONS chronicles the extraordinary 50-year journey of Los Lobos, revealing the music, roots, and legacy of one of America’s most enduring bands.
LOVE APPTUALLY: DIR Shalini Kantayya. PROD Elizabeth Woodward. USA, Australia.
Following a French journalist’s journey from an early fascination with Tinder to an investigation of the deeper truths embedded in its algorithm, LOVE APPTUALLY explores how a multibillion-dollar tech industry is quietly reshaping desire, intimacy, and the most fundamental of human pursuits: love.
US Premiere.
MAKING THEIR POINTE: DIR Kamilah Thurmon. USA.
During segregation, African American ballet teachers in Washington, D.C. opened doors for children in underserved communities to enter and excel in the world of classical ballet, creating a legacy that continues across generations.
Screening as part of DC/FRAME.
MISS REPRESENTATION: RISE UP: DIR Jennifer Siebel Newsom. PRODS Camille Servan-Schreiber, Gretchen Miller, and Jennifer Siebel Newsom. USA.
In this timely follow-up to the lauded MISS REPRESENTATION, Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s RISE UP explores the ongoing cultural backlash against women’s mental health, agency, and political power, revealing how technology amplifies sexism and misogyny.
NEWPORT & THE GREAT FOLK DREAM: DIR Robert Gordon. PRODS Joe Lauro, Robert Gordon, and Laura Jean Hocking. USA.
Through performances at the Newport Folk Festival from 1963 to 1966, NEWPORT & THE GREAT FOLK DREAM captures a generation finding its voice through the revival of American folk traditions and protest song.
THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD: DIR Sam Green. PRODS Alison Byrne Fields and Josh Penn. USA.
A decade-long global odyssey chronicles the ever-shifting record holders of the title, evolving into a poignant meditation on time, chance, and the experience of being alive.
ONE IN A MILLION: DIRS Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes. PRODS Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes, Will Anderson, James Bluemel, Andrew Palmer, and Raney Aronson-Rath. USA, United Kingdom.
Filmed over ten years, one girl’s epic journey unfolds from Syria to Germany and back again as she navigates war, exile, and heartbreak, illuminating the complexities of the refugee experience.
Courtesy of PBS Distribution.
PHENOMENA: DIR Josef Gatti. PRODS Rob Innes, Jessica Harrop, Caitlin Mae Burke, Jad Abumrad, and Josef Gatti. Australia.
A psychedelic odyssey into the fabric of the universe, where immersive practical experiments yield striking, otherworldly imagery that unfolds into a hypnotic audiovisual experience of awe and human connection to the natural world.
THE SALISBURY POISONINGS: A SPY NEXT DOOR: DIR Dan Vernon. PROD Alex Brisland. United Kingdom, USA.
A botched assassination in a small English city contaminated by a chemical weapon unfolds into one of the most extraordinary true spy stories of the modern era—a portrait of loyalty and betrayal with urgent relevance today.
North American Premiere.
Courtesy of CNN Films.
THE SANDBOX: DIR Kenya-Jade Pinto. PROD Shasha Nakhai. Canada.
Through meditative, cinematic landscapes, THE SANDBOX explores global borders where surveillance and AI shape who lives and who dies. From the Arizona desert to the Mediterranean Sea, suffering is clinically managed while control is packaged as security. If there is no opting out, who is The Sandbox really protecting?
US Premiere.
SCHOOL FOR DEFECTORS: DIR Jeremy Workman. PROD Sona Jo. USA.
In an industrial area of Busan, South Korea, the tiny Jangdaehyun School serves just 20 students—all North Korean defectors—offering a joyful story of youth, inspiration, and our shared humanity.
SEIZED: DIR Sharon Liese. PRODS Sharon Liese, Sasha Alpert, and Paul Matyasovsky. USA.
When the small town of Marion, Kansas, is thrust into the international spotlight after a police raid on the Marion County Record and the death of its 98-year-old co-owner, a fierce debate ignites over abuse of power, journalistic ethics, the future of local journalism, and the United States Constitution.
THE SIEGE OF PARADISE: DIR Gar O’Rourke. Ireland, Switzerland.
Every summer, nearly four million tourists—TikTokers, Instagrammers, and selfie-seekers among them—descend on Cinque Terre and its 3,000 residents. THE SIEGE OF PARADISE follows one chaotic season in a sharply funny and surprisingly tender portrait of paradise under pressure.
SOUL PATROL: DIR J.M. Harper. PRODS Sam Bisbee, J.M. Harper, Danielle Massie, Nasir Jones, and Peter Bittenbender. USA.
From deep behind enemy lines, a hidden chapter of American military history emerges, prompting the question of whether reckoning with the past can bring peace to those who lived it. The Vietnam War’s first Black special operations team reunites to tell their story.
STEALING MAGIC: DIR Matthew Testa. PRODS Ethan Smith, Melanie Miller, Diane Becker, and Randy Pitchford. USA.
Magician Andi Gladwin becomes an unlikely citizen detective, joining a team of illusionists to track down internet pirates who steal their secrets and resell them online.
SUPER NATURE: DIR Ed Sayers. PRODS Rebecca Wolff, Ed Sayers, and Beth Allan. United Kingdom.
A global love letter to nature, filmed entirely on Super 8, invites us into a spellbinding journey of togetherness with our fellow dwellers on Earth—human and nonhuman—as people embrace beauty, abundance, and loss.
US Premiere.
THEYDREAM: DIR William D. Caballero. PRODS William D. Caballero, Brad Jones, Erin Ploss-Campoamor, and Elaine Del Valle. USA.
After 20 years of chronicling his Puerto Rican family, a director and his mother face devastating losses. Through tears and laughter, they craft animations that bring their loved ones back to life, discovering that every act of creation is also an act of letting go.
TIME AND WATER: DIR Sara Dosa. PRODS Shane Boris, Elijah Stevens, Jameka Autry, and Sara Dosa. USA, Iceland.
Facing the loss of his country’s glaciers and the impending death of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away—family, memory, time, and water.
Courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films.
TIME WARP: DIR Allison Berg. USA.
Fifty years after THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW electrified the world, a fearless dreamer sets out to bring its message of personal expression and sexual freedom to a small town in Wyoming.
TO HOLD A MOUNTAIN: DIRS Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić. PRODS Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić, Quentin Laurent, and Rok Biček. Serbia, France, Montenegro, Slovenia.
In the highlands of Montenegro, a shepherd mother and daughter defend their ancestral land from becoming a NATO military training ground, stirring memories of past violence.
TRUE NORTH: DIR Michèle Stephenson. PROD Leslie Norville. USA, Canada.
A riveting portrait of 1960s Montréal, where luminous archival footage and firsthand accounts bring a city in upheaval to life, revealing a defining moment in the global movement for Black liberation.
TWO MOUNTAINS WEIGHING DOWN MY CHEST: DIR Viv Li. PRODS Daniela Dietrich, Erik Winker, and Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen. Germany.
A Chinese misfit ricochets between Berlin’s alternative scene and Beijing’s family expectations, transforming cultural whiplash into an offbeat search for identity and belonging.
WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS: DIR Dawn Porter. PRODS Dawn Porter, Jennifer Oko, and Miriam Weintraub. USA.
In 1983, author Ta-Nehisi Coates recalls learning that a 14-year-old boy was murdered in the corridor of his Baltimore middle school. Revisiting the case as an adult, he uncovers the truth about three teenagers who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life. After 36 years in prison, false testimony is revealed to have led to their imprisonment. WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS explores the lasting impact of the case on the community, the wrongfully accused, and the young witnesses pressured to testify against them.
Courtesy of HBO Documentary Films.
WHO KILLED ALEX ODEH?: DIRS Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans. PRODS Dawne Langford, Daniel J. Chalfen, Jason Osder, and William Lafi Youmans. USA.
In 1985, the assassination of Palestinian American leader Alex Odeh remains unsolved. Reopening the case as a gripping cold-case investigation, the film follows new leads as the search for accountability intensifies.
THE WHOLE WORLD IS A LIE: DIR Charlie Birns. PRODS Charlie Birns. USA.
A New York method acting class unravels when its students and teacher revolt against the filmmaker, forcing him into a reckoning with truth, trauma, and power in an age when reality itself feels like performance.
YO (LOVE IS A REBELLIOUS BIRD): DIRS Anna Fitch and Banker White. PRODS Anna Fitch, Banker White, Sara Dosa, and Hannah Roodman. USA.
After losing her friend Yo, Anna spends a decade obsessively building a detailed one-third-scale replica of her house — just large enough to crawl inside — where a puppet version of Yo still lives.
Shorts
9,192,631,770 HZ: DIR Todd Chandler. PRODS Heidi Fleisher, Mike Paterson, and Nora Wilkinson. USA.
In conversation with his young son, a filmmaker reflects on time — our attempts to control it, and the ways it shapes human experience.
AND AGAIN I DREAM: DIRS Catherine Gund and Mariah Norman. PROD Catherine Gund. USA.
As Ivy Young nears the end of her life, her lifelong friend Catherine and her young protégé Mariah come together to preserve the story of a beloved journalist and organizer whose legacy bridges queer generations through memory, activism, and love.
AT THE STAGE WHEN: DIR Hao Zhou. PRODS Tyler Hill and Hao Zhou. USA, China.
In a Chinese megacity, a young laborer navigates her marriage to a well-off man and finds herself bound to an unintended future.
THE BADDEST SPEECHWRITER OF ALL: DIRS Ben Proudfoot and Stephen Curry. PRODS Stephen Curry, Erick Peyton, and Ben Proudfoot. USA.
Now 95, Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer and speechwriter reflects on the personal cost and surprising truths of making history, offering an intimate insider’s view of the Civil Rights Movement.
Courtesy of Netflix.
BIG BASS: DIR Drew Dickler. PRODS Nikki F. Heyman, Jennie Kamin, and David Sherwin. USA.
Drew returns to 1997 to revisit a dreamlike second-grade memory shaped by her emerging queer identity, a legendary P.E. teacher, and a mysterious giant plastic fish.
THE BOYS AND THE BEES: DIR Arielle Knight. PROD Arielle Knight. USA.
On an idyllic farm in rural Georgia, young parents share their understanding of life, love, and nature with their sons, teaching them the art of beekeeping.
Courtesy of POV.
BUCKSKIN: DIR Mars Verrone. PROD Mars Verrone. USA.
An experimental portrait of the filmmaker’s grandfather: Carroll B. Williams Jr., a ground-breaking African-American forester, reflecting on his work and legacy in the twilight of his life.
CHILAPA GIRL: DIR Juana Lotero López. PRODS Daniel Sánchez and Juana Lotero López. Colombia.
Yulieth, on the cusp of adolescence, faces the difficulties of growing up in a wild territory where natural beauty coexists with the hostility of machismo. Her emerging identity is caught between the pull of her dreams and the realities of her world.
CHOCOLATE: A MOTION POETRY HOMAGE TO BLACK D.C.: DIR Eliamani Ismail. PROD Gyzelle Garcia. USA.
In the nation’s fastest-gentrifying city, Black DC refuses quiet erasure.
Screening as part of DC/FRAME.
THE CUSTODIAN: DIR Khaula Malik. PRODS Amber Hsu, Colleen Thurston, and Khaula Malik. USA.
After more than five decades collecting rare and vintage memorabilia dating back to 1932, Samu Qureshi, a devoted Washington Commanders superfan, believes he is finally ready to part with his collection — hoping to sell it to team ownership and help establish a museum and hall of fame.
World Premiere.
THE DARK KNOT AT THE CENTER: DIR Inês Pedrosa e Melo. PRODS André Guiomar, Carlos Carneiro, and Luís Costa. Portugal, USA.
Women travel hundreds of miles for abortion care, recounting the barriers they face and the lasting toll of a system that forces them to the margins.
A DERAILMENT: DIR Nathan Truesdell. PRODS Kat Nguyen and Will Lennon. USA.
At 8:55 PM on February 3, 2023, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.
DIVISION: DIR James Paul Dallas. PRODS James Paul Dallas and Eryc Perez de Tagle. USA.
Spring, 2025. Brooklyn, New York. One chapter closes and another begins.
ENDLINGS: DIR María Luisa Santos. PROD Carlo Nasisse. USA, Costa Rica.
Amid the planet’s first human-driven mass extinction, a filmmaker moves through churches, ancient DNA labs, and spectral archives in search of what remains—and what can never be recovered.
FILME-COPACABANA: DIR Sofia Leão. PRODS Laura Neiva, Leonardo Martinelli, Rafael Lopes Cesar, and Sofia Leão. Brazil.
From a chair on a Rio sidewalk, a woman observes the passing choreography of Copacabana. Workers, tourists, dogs, and daily street life come together through playful montage to create a vibrant portrait of the neighborhood.
US Premiere.
FINAL PRESS: DIR John Haley. USA.
Workers at The Minnesota Star Tribune complete the last printing run at the newspaper’s Heritage Center, ending 150 years of printing the paper in Minnesota.
World Premiere.
FLETCHER STREET: DIR Jannat Gargi and David Darg. PROD Jannat Gargi. USA.
In North Philadelphia, the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club offers a vital safe haven for at-risk youth. Their joy and sense of freedom as they ride horses majestically through the streets of their neighborhood is as affirming as the trust, discipline, and emotional resilience they build through their close bonds with the horses.
GATORVILLE: DIR Freddie Gluck. PRODS Chloe Campion, Freddie Gluck, and Matteo Moretti. USA.
In Colorado’s forgotten valley, two siblings face alligators and the ache of leaving youth behind.
GHOST LANDS: DIR Zachary Garmoe. USA.
Following the marshes and forests of the Delmarva Peninsula in the footsteps of Harriet Tubman, GHOST LANDS explores how the natural landscapes that shaped her life continue to hold the memory of freedom, resistance, and our shared past.
THE GRANDFATHER PUZZLE: DIR Ora DeKornfeld. PRODS Zsófia Paczolay, Máté Artur Vincze, and Noémi Veronika Szakonyi. USA.
When a puzzle-obsessed grandfather refuses to discuss his past, his granddaughter travels to photograph the Hungarian castle where he grew up and turn it into a puzzle. What begins as a simple mission becomes a darkly comic exploration of displacement, memory, and the meaning of home.
GRAZING ON IMAGES: DIR Mark Street. USA.
A diaristic journey shot on 35mm still film and Super 8 travels, tracing a life shaped by the rhapsodic beauty of everyday images.
World Premiere.
THE HOTLINE: DIRS Ricki Stern and Jesse Sweet. PROD Ricki Stern. USA.
A haunting, meditative portrait of opioid users connected through an anonymous phone line, THE HOTLINE reveals a fragile tether between life and death.
I WANTED TO HEAR YOUR VOICE: DIR James Pellerito. PROD David Barba. USA.
After eight years caring for his mother with severe dementia, a son navigates the challenges of their daily routine.
JACOB KAINEN: THE LAST EXPRESSION: DIR Mark Covino. PROD Jon Gann. USA.
From tenement kid to towering figure in Washington, DC’s art world, JACOB KAINEN: THE LAST EXPRESSION traces Jacob Kainen’s seven-decade journey through American art as a story of creative defiance.
Screening as part of DC/FRAME.
JOURNEY(S): ADDIS TO DC: DIR Saaret E. Yoseph. PROD Saaret E. Yoseph. USA, Ethiopia.
A narrative journey between two distant sister cities, JOURNEY(S): ADDIS TO DC traces the lives of Ethiopian women in America and Black women across the diaspora, weaving together memory, migration, and the search for home.
Screening as part of DC/FRAME.
KITE: DIR Thanos Psichogios. PROD Thanos Psichogios. Greece.
On Clean Monday, the first day of Lent in Greece, Panos, now grown, returns to a childhood ritual of flying a kite with his father. But memories are never simple.
KOKI, CIAO: DIR Quenton Miller. Netherlands.
The autobiography of Koki, the parrot of Marshal Tito, who led Yugoslavia for 35 years.
LA MAR: DIR Jean Chapiro. PROD Jean Chapiro. Mexico.
As the ocean swallows her fishing village on Mexico’s Gulf Coast, one woman leads the effort to relocate her community while struggling to let go of the sea that shaped her life.
LISTEN: DIR Taliesin Black-Brown. PRODS Taliesin Black-Brown, Sam Davis, and Greg Moga. USA.
As his mother slips away into dementia, an Alaskan sound recordist listens for what remains.
NOTES ON COURTWATCH: DIR Kate Levy. USA.
“Courtwatchers” attend immigration court to bear witness and support asylum seekers facing the risk of ICE detention at their hearings.
World Premiere.
OH WHALE: DIR Winslow Crane-Murdoch. PRODS Luke Terrell, Cecilia Brown, and Rachel Gardell. USA.
One man. One Whale. Twenty cases of dynamite.
PEDRO TOMÁS EXPLAINS THE WORLD: DIR Kornelijus Stučkus. PRODS Liliana Díaz Castillo, Marc Vila Bosch, and Paulina Martinez. Spain.
On the volcanic island of La Palma lives Pedro Tomás, a man who explores the world through his unique vision.
PLANT LIFE: DIRS Brett Marty and Joshua Izenberg. PRODS. USA.
At a pivotal moment in her life and career, Joanne Chory races to complete her most audacious experiment yet: re-engineering crops to draw down CO₂ at planetary scale. As her Parkinson’s advances and carbon levels surge, PLANT LIFE captures a scientific race against time that may determine both her legacy — and our collective future.
PLUMPED: DIRS Nora DeLigter and Faye Tsakas. PRODS. USA.
Inspired by GAP-TOOTHED WOMEN by Les Blank, women speak candidly about their experiences with lip filler, exploring beauty, identity, and the pressures of self-image.
World Premiere.
Courtesy of Rolling Stone.
A QUIET STORM: DIR Benjamin Nicolas. PROD Rumi Tominaga. Canada, Japan.
In suburban Tokyo, a fourteen-year-old krump prodigy channels his unspoken rage into dance while his single mother quietly raises him and his sister, who lives with a disability. In a culture that demands silence and conformity, her endurance becomes the loudest act of love, and his body becomes the only language left.
ROOM OF THE ABSOLUTE: DIRS Natalie Shirinian and Elizabeth Baudouin. PRODS Natalie Shirinian, Elizabeth Baudouin, and Alla Hurenko. USA.
Ukrainian painter Alla Hurenko (known as Pazza Pennello) captures an intimate, diaristic portrait of life under war through her iPhone, where art becomes a powerful act of resilience and self-preservation.
THE SECOND LIFE OF FREDDIE NOLE: DIR Dana Nachman. PRODS Chelsea Matter and Dana Nachman. USA.
When Freddie Nole drives to meet a man walking out of prison, he is not just offering a ride, but hope, dignity, and a path to lasting freedom. As this vérité road trip unfolds, the remarkable story behind Freddie’s mission comes into focus: a staggering mistake that cost him 50 years of freedom and ultimately brought him back to the prison gates.
SCENES FROM THE DIVIDE: DIR Alison Klayman. PRODS Alison Klayman and Courtney Powell. USA.
Set against the contentious mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani, SCENES FROM THE DIVIDE follows one daughter and her parents, alongside other New Yorkers, as divisions over Palestine expose deeper fractures within Jewish communal life. Through intimate family and community conversations, the film reveals a struggle over identity, history, and belonging.
SEA SONG: DIR An-Phuong Ly. USA.
The last remaining South Vietnamese naval officers reunite one final time with the few people who understand the forces that have shaped their lives.
SHEESH, A TAYLOR LOVE STORY: DIR Ramona Diaz. PROD Diane Quon. USA.
In a country where drag is both art and survival, Taylor Sheesh transforms Taylor Swift fandom into a movement of joy, belonging, self-expression, and empowerment — revealing the power of queer performance to help people feel seen, beautiful, and free in a region still fighting for equality.
World Premiere.
STALIN BOYS: DIRS Ora DeKornfeld and Bianca Giaever. USA.
Four middle school boys in a Texas border town develop an unexpected obsession: Joseph Stalin.
STILL STANDING: DIR Victor Tadashi Suarez and Livia Albeck-Ripka. PRODS Livia Albeck-Ripka and Victor Tadashi Suarez. USA.
After the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires leave thousands of homes contaminated with toxic ash, residents face an impossible choice: protect their health or return home.
SUDAKAS: DIR Ricardo Betancourt. PRODS Lorraine Caffery. Venezuela.
A former Venezuelan diplomat now working as a housekeeper in the same city where she once served confronts the realities of immigration, labor, and reinvention.
TOSS A ROSE OVER: DIR Janelle VanderKelen. USA.
A travelogue from the vantage point of the plants of the Grand Canyon.
World Premiere.
THE TUNERS: DIR Pawel Piotr Chorzepa. Poland.
In the shadows of the world’s most prestigious piano competition, a group of expert tuners spend a month striving to achieve perfect pitch—hoping that the eventual champion will perform on their instrument.
North American Premiere.
WATER COOLER: DIR Emma V.F.. USA.
The Trump administration has transformed immigration courts into deportation traps. As ICE agents wait outside courtrooms to make arrests, their banal conversations stand in stark contrast to the gravity of their actions.
WEIRDO: DIR Amy Oden. PROD Amy Oden. USA.
In the summer before she starts high school, Bronwyn discusses what it’s like to feel weird in two very different towns.
WHEN THE REVOLUTION DOESN’T COME: DIR Aurora Brachman. PROD LaTajh Simmons-Weaver. USA, United Kingdom.
They are the children of the Black Panther Party — the self-styled Panther Cubs — born into a revolutionary movement for Black equality and self-determination, and now reckoning with the pride, loss, and unfinished promise of that legacy fifty years later.
Courtesy of The Guardian.
WOMEN LAUGHING: DIRS Kathleen Hughes and Liza Donnelly. PRODS Judith Mizrachy, Liza Donnelly, and Nathalie Seaver. USA.
New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly talks, draws, and laughs with some of the most celebrated and groundbreaking cartoonists at the iconic magazine as they reflect on the essential work of women cartoonists today and over the last century.
Courtesy of Conde Nast / The New Yorker.
Frederick Wiseman Retrospective
HOSPITAL (1969): DIR Frederick Wiseman. USA.
Through the daily rhythms of an urban hospital’s emergency ward and clinics, HOSPITAL reveals the intricate systems, urgent decisions, and human encounters at the heart of modern medicine.
JUVENILE COURT (1973): DIR Frederick Wiseman. USA.
Set inside the Memphis juvenile justice system, JUVENILE COURT observes the difficult cases and impossible choices at the intersection of punishment, protection, and rehabilitation.
WELFARE (1975): DIR Frederick Wiseman. USA.
Inside a New York City welfare office, WELFARE reveals the human struggles, bureaucratic barriers, and impossible choices at the heart of the social safety net.
