what (not) to doc

THE GREATEST NIGHT IN POP
In 1985, 46 music icons, including Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder, came together for the most star-studded recording session in history. This is the untold story of the legendary global pop song “We Are the World” — which very nearly didn’t happen.

Director:
Bao Nguyen

Producers:
Julia Nottingham, Lionel Richie, Bruce Eskowitz, Larry Klein, Harriet Sternberg, George Hencken

Festival Section:
Special Screenings

More Info:
Nguyen was previously at Sundance with BE WATER.

Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES
On a handmade set re-creating her Casablanca neighborhood, a young Moroccan filmmaker enlists family and friends to help unearth the troubling lies built into her childhood.

Director/Producer:
Asmae El Moudir

Festival Section:
Spotlight

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

THE SYNANON FIX
Exploring the rise and fall of the Synanon organization — through the eyes of the members who lived it — from its early days as a groundbreaking drug rehabilitation program to its later descent into what many consider a cult.

Director/Producer:
Rory Kennedy

Executive Producers:
Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Tina Nguyen

Producers:
Mark Bailey, Alexandra Korba, Keven Mcalester

Festival Section:
Episodic

More Info:
Kennedy has brought six of her previous documentary features to the Festival, including AMERICAN HOLLOW, DOWNFALL: THE CASE AGAINST BOEING, and the Oscar-nominated LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM, as well as her doc short THE FENCE.

Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

LOLLA: THE STORY OF LOLLAPALOOZA
In the summer of ’91, the Lollapalooza music festival was born. What started as a farewell tour for the band Jane’s Addiction rose from the underground to launch a cultural movement and change music forever.

Director/Producer:
Michael John Warren

Producers:
James Lee Hernandez, Brian Lazarte, Brian Levy, Mat Whittington, Daniel Gibbs, Bruce Gillmer, Amanda Culkowski, Perry Farrell, Charlie Walker, Charles Attal, Berkeley Reinhold

Festival Section:
Episodic

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

GOD SAVE TEXAS: THE PRICE OF OIL
Three directors offer their unique and personal perspectives on their home state of Texas, creating vivid portraits of a state that mirrors the United States’ past, present, and future. Inspired by the book God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright.

As the world’s energy capital, Houston is a city that manufactures both its prominence and demise. Alex Stapleton explores the industry’s impact on her family, who arrived as enslaved people in the 1830s, built thriving communities, and now must cope with the human costs of Texas’ biggest money-maker.

Director:
Alex Stapleton

Executive Producers:
Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney, Richard Linklater, Peter Berg, Michael Lombardo, Elizabeth Rogers, Stacey Offman, Richard Perello, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller

Producer:
Meghan O’Hara

Festival Section:
Episodic

More Info:
Stapleton previously premiered her feature doc CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL at the Festival.

Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

GOD SAVE TEXAS: LA FRONTERA
Three directors offer their unique and personal perspectives on their home state of Texas, creating vivid portraits of a state that mirrors the United States’ past, present, and future. Inspired by the book God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright.

Iliana Sosa examines how “nepantla,” an embrace of in-betweenness, characterizes relations to both her Mexican heritage and her hometown of El Paso, Texas. An exploration revealing how the city’s humanity and unique hybridity catalyzed unity, nurturing healing in the aftermath of a devastating mass shooting in 2019.

Director:
Iliana Sosa

Executive Producers:
Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney, Richard Linklater, Peter Berg, Michael Lombardo, Richard Perello, Stacey Offman, Elizabeth Rogers, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller

Producer:
Danielle Mynard

Festival Section:
Episodic

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

GOD SAVE TEXAS: HOMETOWN PRISON
Three directors offer their unique and personal perspectives on their home state of Texas, creating vivid portraits of a state that mirrors the United States’ past, present, and future. Inspired by the book God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright.

Huntsville, Texas sits at the heart of an expansive prison industrial complex. Yet, for many residents, these prisons exist in another realm, disconnected from their lives. Richard Linklater revisits his hometown to explore its diverse inhabitants, painting a vibrant portrait that encapsulates the criminal justice system of Texas.

Director/Executive Producer:
Richard Linklater

Executive Producers:
Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney, Peter Berg, Michael Lombardo, Elizabeth Rogers, Stacey Offman, Richard Perello, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller

Producer:
Nell Constantinople

Festival Section:
Episodic

More Info:
Linklater has brought seven of his fiction features to Sundance before – including SLACKER, BEFORE SUNRISE, BEFORE MIDNIGHT, and BOYHOOD – as well as the doc short LIVE FROM SHIVA’S DANCE FLOOR. His most recent fiction film, HIT MAN, also screens in this year’s lineup, as part of the Spotlight section.

Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

CONBODY VS EVERYBODY
Over eight years, Coss Marte builds ConBody, a gym inspired by workouts he developed while in prison. Committed to employing trainers who were formerly incarcerated, Coss creates a community fighting to break the cycle of recidivism while navigating society’s many obstacles to reentry.

Director/Executive Producer:
Debra Granik

Executive Producers:
Anne Rosellini, Victoria Stewart, Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Joslyn Barnes, Jonathan Scheuer

Festival Section:
Episodic

More Info:
Granik’s three previous fiction features – DOWN TO THE BONE, WINTER’S BONE, and LEAVE NO TRACE – have debuted at Sundance, but this marks her first nonfiction work at the Festival.

Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

BETTER ANGELS: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO TAMMY FAYE
As told by her family, friends, and enemies, the meteoric rise, scandalous fall, and unlikely resurrection of Tammy Faye, the “First Lady of the Electric Church,” poses an increasingly relevant question: How did we get the story so wrong?

Director/Executive Producer:
Dana Adam Shapiro

Executive Producers:
Elton John, David Furnish, Danny Gabai, Alexander Moore, Vanessa Case, Helen Rollins, Peter Rollins, Jesse Angelo, Subrata De

Producer:
Guillermo Garcia

Festival Section:
Episodic

More Info:
Shapiro previously debuted his Oscar-nominated doc feature MURDERBALL at the Festival.

Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.

WILL & HARPER
When Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship in an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America.

Director/Producer:
Josh Greenbaum

Producers:
Rafael Marmor, Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum, Christopher Leggett

Festival Section:
Premieres

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