The 14th edition of AFI Docs comes a week later this year, opening tomorrow, Wednesday, June 22 and running through the end of the weekend. The Washington DC event opens with Alex Gibney’s cyber-warfare investigation, ZERO DAYS, and closes with Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s tribute to a television pioneer, NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU, while LO AND BEHOLD, REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD screens as part of this year’s Guggenheim Symposium with director Werner Herzog.
While the majority of this year’s approximately 50 features offer DC audiences the chance to catch films that have generated attention at major fests like Sundance, IDFA, SXSW, and Tribeca, AFI Docs also offers a number of premieres. This year’s world premieres are: Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio’s DOC & DARRYL, on baseball legends Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry; Jamie Sisley and Miguel MiG Martinez’s FAREWELL FERRIS WHEEL, a look at the lives of Mexican migrant carnival workers; and Nicole Opper’s VISITOR’S DAY (pictured), about the efforts of a street kid to better his life.
Other films making at least US debuts at the festival include: Tamar Tal Anati’s SHALOM ITALIA, which follows Jewish brothers as they search for the Tuscan cave that sheltered their family during WWII; Martin Kollar’s 5 OCTOBER, a portrait of the director’s brother before a potentially life-threatening surgery; Maciej Adamek’s TWO WORLDS, about a hearing teenage daughter of deaf parents; Paula Heredia’s TOUCAN NATION, on an abused bird that became a rallying symbol for Costa Rican animal rights; and Trisha Ziff’s THE MAN WHO SAW TOO MUCH (pictured), about a veteran crime scene photographer in Mexico City.
what (not) to doc 