Category Archives: Recommendations

FREE CHOL SOO LEE
After a Korean immigrant is wrongly convicted of a 1973 San Francisco Chinatown gang murder, Asian Americans unite as never before to free Chol Soo Lee. A former street hustler becomes the symbol for a landmark movement. But once out, he self-destructs, threatening the movement’s legacy and the man himself.

Directors:
Julie Ha, Eugene Yi

Producers:
Su Kim, Jean Tsien, Sona Jo, Julie Ha, Eugene Yi

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.

FIRE OF LOVE
Intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft died in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together: unraveling the mysteries of volcanoes by capturing the most explosive imagery ever recorded. A doomed love triangle between Katia, Maurice, and volcanoes, told through their archival footage.

Director:
Sara Dosa

Producers:
Shane Boris, Ina Fichman, Sara Dosa

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.

THE EXILES
Documentarian Christine Choy tracks down three exiled dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre in order to find closure on an abandoned film she began shooting in 1989.

Directors:
Ben Klein, Violet Columbus

Producers:
Maria Chiu, Ben Klein, Violet Columbus

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.

DESCENDANT
Clotilda, the last known ship carrying enslaved Africans to the United States, arrived in Alabama 40 years after African slave trading became a capital offense. It was promptly burned, and its existence denied. After a century shrouded in secrecy and speculation, descendants of the Clotilda’s survivors are reclaiming their story.

Director:
Margaret Brown

Producers:
Essie Chambers, Kyle Martin, Margaret Brown

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.

AFTERSHOCK
Following the preventable deaths of their partners due to childbirth complications, two bereaved fathers galvanize activists, birth-workers, and physicians to reckon with one of the most pressing American crises of our time – the US maternal health crisis.

Directors/Producers:
Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.

The 38th Sundance Film Festival will run January 20-30 — in-person in Utah, online, and via seven satellite screens across the US — with an announced lineup of 82 features, 6 episodics, 15 New Frontier projects, 59 new short films, and 40 retrospective short films.

As a Senior Programmer for the Festival, I’m excited for audiences to experience this fantastic slate in a few short weeks. For the purposes of this space, I especially don’t want any of the feature docs and long-form episodic nonfiction to be overlooked. So, starting this coming Monday, I’ll be posting simple, individual pointers to each of these projects in the lead up to the festival, in a feature I’m calling Sundance Don’t Miss Docs.