The US’s largest documentary event, Silverdocs, has announced the lineup for its ninth edition, running June 20-26 in Silver Spring MD. I’ve never been able to attend the event in the past due to scheduling conflicts, but I’m excited to be going this year as one of several guest curators of a handful of panels at the Conference that runs concurrent with the film screenings.
The festival, a collaboration between the AFI and the Discovery Channel, is run by Sky Sitney and her team, drawing some of the best non-fiction projects of the year and an impressive number of industry representatives to the Washington DC area. Refreshingly, like Sheffield, which has now moved to the same month, Silverdocs isn’t obsessed with premieres – its slate tends to spotlight well-received films from notable festivals like Sundance, SXSW, IDFA, True/False, Hot Docs, and Tribeca, making their local debuts here, such as the fest’s galas: Silverdocs is bookended with two Tribeca-premiering titles, opening with THE SWELL SEASON (included in my Tribeca coverage here) and closing with THE REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR, with THE INTERRUPTERS as the fest’s Centerpiece (profiled before its premiere at Sundance here).
The two feature competition sections, covering US and World cinema, include very strong work. In the US Competition, I haven’t had a chance to see BOB AND THE MONSTER or INCENDIARY, but recommend the rest of the selections, including Ramona Diaz’s THE LEARNING which I’ve not written about yet, but will out of Silverdocs. In the World Competition, I’m hoping to see Salome Jashi’s BAKHMARO (pictured). I missed FIRE IN BABYLON at Tribeca as well, so may put aside my general disinterest in sports docs and take a look. I also plan on writing on Natalia Almada’s EL VELADOR, which I viewed at New Directors/New Films.
In the non-competition Silver Spectrum, perhaps lesser-seen titles to recommend include A GOOD MAN (pictured) and THE PRUITT-IGOE MYTH. I hope to see a few films that I’ve missed thus far or which are debuting here, including RENEE, SEMPER FI, SOUND IT OUT, BETTER THAN SOMETHING: JAY REATARD, SCENE OF A CRIME, AGE OF CHAMPIONS, and, if I can find the six hours in my schedule, KARAMAY.
Finally, added to my viewing list are a few docs from the “Peacebuilding on Screen” strand, including THE RESCUERS, LOVE DURING WARTIME, and THE TEAM (pictured).
Note: My take on most of the rest of the lineup not mentioned here can be found by searching elsewhere on what (not) to doc.
what (not) to doc 