Category Archives: Film Festivals

The world’s oldest LGBT film fest, San Francisco’s Frameline, celebrates its 40th anniversary beginning tomorrow, Thursday, June 16. Approximately 70 new and retrospective features will screen through the course of its eleven-night run before it wraps on Sunday, June 26. Highlights of the more than two dozen documentaries on offer follow: Continue reading →

The Edinburgh International Film Festival celebrates its 70th anniversary beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, June 15. Before it wraps on Sunday, June 26, the event will unspool more than 125 new features, including approximately 30 docs, as well as a host of retrospective offerings. The following offers a brief look at a selection of the nonfiction being presented: Continue reading →

The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s popular BAMcinemaFest kicks off tomorrow night, Wednesday, June 15. This year’s edition, the eighth, will present nearly 30 features before it wraps on Sunday, June 26, among them eight recent documentaries from Sundance and elsewhere on the circuit and one retrospective presentation. Continue reading →

Tonight, Friday, June 10 sees the opening of the 27th New York City edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which uses the power of storytelling to expose and bear witness to human rights issues both internationally and domestically. The event is primarily a nonfiction showcase, with a smaller number of vetted, fact-based fiction features and special panels also included. This year’s lineup offers seventeen documentary features which will screen through Sunday, June 19, including the following highlights:

Several films explore human rights in the United States, such as Michael Collins’ ALMOST SUNRISE (pictured), which follows two veterans as the cross the country by foot as a way to combat the after-effects of war. Other treks are explored in films about crises and migration, including George Kurian’s THE CROSSING, about the flight of Syrian refugees to Europe.

Among the projects addressing issues of accountability and justice are Tatiana Huezo’s consideration of victims of corruption in Mexico, TEMPESTAD (pictured); and Michele Mitchell and Nick Louvel’s look at the struggle to have rape acknowledged as a war crime, THE UNCONDEMNED.

Women’s rights are the subject of a number of offerings, including Maisie Crow’s JACKSON, which looks at the battle being waged against abortion clinics in the South; while films focusing on LGBT rights include Eric Juhola’s GROWING UP COY, about a six-year-old transgender girl whose barring from using her school’s girls’ bathroom leads to a civil rights case.

Sheffield Doc/Fest‘s 23rd edition begins tomorrow, Friday, June 10. The popular six-day event draws filmmakers and industry to South Yorkshire for a lineup featuring over 100 new and recent feature docs, plus retrospective work, shorts, and industry programming. In addition to presenting the UK bows of some of the standout titles that have debuted elsewhere over the past year, the event also showcases notable new titles, such as the highlights noted below: Continue reading →

The Sydney Film Festival begins today, Wednesday, June 8, and runs through Sunday, June 19. Approximately 150 features will unspool during the event, which holds its 63rd edition this year. The following highlights a selection of the nearly 60 new and recent nonfiction features appearing in the festival: Continue reading →

Taking place in Johannesburg and Cape Town between today, Thursday, June 2 and next Sunday, June 12, South Africa’s Encounters is the continent’s largest nonfiction event. The 18th edition of the festival includes more than three dozen nonfiction features, with nearly half of that number representing African productions, including the highlights below: Continue reading →