There is no film in existence of the extraordinary Maria Yudina, sometimes known as ‘Stalin’s favourite pianist’.
Denis Zhdanov has pieced together a portrait from surviving photos and recordings.
Yudina was, and remains, a legends among pianophile.
Watch.
The post A revealing documentary on the mysterious Maria Yudina appeared first on Slippedisc.
Between the awards and box office success for You Can See Everything, I’m really happy for Lance Oppenheim. At the same time, I feel like the ‘90s teenage version of me who would get annoyed at the sudden popularity of bands I liked for years. Oppenheim isn’t going to be this little secret for me anymore. I have to share him with more people than have probably seen a documentary in a theater in decades. But I am glad these people might now discover his previous films, including Some Kind of Heaven, which just began streaming for free with ads on Tubi and Fandango.
There is also some concern that Oppenheim will leave documentary behind. You Can See Everything is a bit different from his other nonfiction features, and some critics claim it isn’t even a documentary (they’re wrong, of course). Oppenheim also recently directed the drama Primetime, which has given him additional success and promise in the “narrative feature” arena. But how sad would it be if he’s the one to, as many pundits predict, finally have a documentary nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and then leave nonfiction cinema behind? I don’t think that will happen. I hope not.
Speaking of my favorite documentarians doing other things, I’ve been wanting to share Don Argott’s side hustle for a while (and no, I’m not being paid to mention this). It’s an apparel brand called Depressed Heroes, and it’s focused on music and movie t-shirts. Some designs feature clever mashups for fans of both. The only documentary represented is Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (eventually I’d love for Nonfics to make classic doc tees if anyone wants to help us figure that out). Most of the film-focused shirts involve New Hollywood auteurs, ‘80s teen movies, ‘90s indie directors, or horror. The last of which is perfect for Halloween, of course. He’s got a sale on horror apparel for the season, so check that out now.
Below are this week’s documentary highlights, followed by daily listings for all known releases and broadcasts, along with a brief look at what’s coming soon for doc fans (including the latest from Ron Howard). Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for more in-depth highlights and reviews, plus full access to special posts like our best-of lists, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available. If you have an upcoming documentary needing coverage or a mention, reach us at nonficseditor (at) gmail and let us know its release plans.
Ben Proudfoot is best known for his prolific work directing short documentaries, including Oscar winners The Queen of Basketball and The Last Repair Shop and Oscar nominee A Concerto Is a Conversation. One of his latest, The Baddest Speechwriter of All, was just nominated for a Critics Choice Award and is considered a strong contender in this year’s Academy Awards race. He also has The Eyes of Ghana in contention. It’s not his feature debut, but given it’s been a decade since his only other feature, Rwanda & Juliet, and he’s made so many shorts in that time, it may as well be. It also ought to be his breakout feature, and deserves to be.
Here is an excerpt from our review of The Eyes of Ghana published after its festival premiere last year (and which is quoted in the trailer shared above):
“With The Last Repair Shop, Proudfoot and Bowers gave us a love letter to music education. His and Thrash’s The Turnaround is a love letter to sports fandom. Now he has made a love letter to the power of cinema. If you’re not familiar with Proudfoot’s work, your expectations for The Eyes of Ghana may differ. It’s not a deep examination of post-colonial Ghana, nor a history lesson about its first prime minister, Kwame Nkrumah. It’s not even the complete story of the discovery of a treasure trove of surviving films that had been thought destroyed after Nkrumah’s government was overthrown by the military. All of those things are part of the documentary, but as firstly a portrait of 93-year-old Ghanaian filmmaker Chris Hesse, it’s a lighter affair than, say, Concerning Violence or even Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.”
The Eyes of Ghana will be released in theaters on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, for a limited time, via IShowSpeed.
These two new releases couldn’t be more different in their subject matter (though both involve a parent-child relationship). But in my attempt to consolidate, I’m grouping them because they’re both tedious watches, for different reasons. Closure, the latest from All These Sleepless Nights director Michal Marczak, follows a father relentlessly searching a river for the body of his missing teenage son. It’s repetitive and seems to go nowhere until a contrasting search gives us a greater understanding of the tedium we’ve experienced.
Critics Choice nominee Making Marie Antoinette, the final making-of feature by Hearts of Darkness director Eleanor Coppola, emphasizes the tiresome routine of moviemaking as it follows the production of daughter Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Having been on many a set, I can attest that it’s a faithful representation — tedious, yes, but never dull if you’re like me and can never get enough. Also, Diane Lane provides a wonderful voiceover reading of Eleanor Coppola’s filming diary.
Closure will be released theatrically in New York City on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, via 1-2 Special, ahead of a national rollout.
Making Marie Antoinette will be released in theaters nationwide on Friday, October 23, via Mubi, ahead of its debut on the streaming service.
Another grouping for this week highlights two new Netflix celebrity biographies, both of which see their subjects in and out of institutions for their mental health disorders. The One About Matthew Perry is a three-part docuseries about the titular actor best known for the sitcom Friends and secondarily known for his struggles with addiction. I can’t say more since reviews are embargoed until its release date.
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story, the second documentary from Judd Apatow on the life of a comedian in as many weeks, is about the titular performer. She is known for her stand-up bits and television specials and series addressing and poking fun at her own diagnoses of OCD and bipolar II disorder. Apatow directed Paralyzed by Hope with Neil Berkeley, who also just recently put out another comedian biography with Who Is Martin Mull? on Netflix. This is one of the best from both of them, as they together and separately continue to elevate the genre with hilarious, moving, and compelling stories that are never stale in their structures.
The One About Matthew Perry will premiere and begin streaming exclusively on Netflix on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story will premiere and begin streaming exclusively on Netflix on Friday, October 23, 2026.
One of the first articles published on Nonfics for its launch in September 2013 was our first Documentary Classics column, spotlighting Leon Gast’s When We Were Kings. More than 13 years later, this week the film is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its release. Following its premiere at Sundance that January, it opened theatrically on October 25, 1996. That was 20 years after Gast had originally intended to put out the documentary, which would have been more of a concert film focused on the three-day Zaire 74 event. Instead, it wound up being about the simultaneous boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman called “The Rumble in the Jungle.” When We Were Kings also went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and remains one of the most memorable Oscar-winning docs of the 1990s.
Here is an excerpt from our column reviewing When We Were Kings and its legacy:
“By the time Gast settled a legal battle for the footage, struggled to find money to finish it, and finally had a premiere at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, the documentary still featured Foreman as a secondary character. However, the fight was now the main event. And Ali was the main concentration. Whether he’s the main character is another story. It’s certainly about him, but I might argue that Norman Mailer and George Plimpton are the stars of When We Were Kings as much as Ali is. The two writers are among the five talking heads who were interviewed for the film in the ’90s (Spike Lee is another), and at one point, they provide a rat-a-tat-tat telling and analysis of the bout’s climax that is even more captivating than the boxer’s poetic showboating that makes up much of the earlier-shot material. Meanwhile, the concert acts, including James Brown, B.B. King, and The Spinners, are almost relegated to tertiary status.”
When We Were Kings is currently available to stream on HBO Max with a subscription, and for free with ads on Shout! TV and JustWatch.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem, which William Greaves conceived and filmed more than 50 years ago, was completed by his son, David Greaves, this year and was released in theaters last week courtesy of Neon. Timed to that occasion and his centenary (100th birthday) earlier this month, NYC’s Film Forum is hosting a one-week retrospective of the elder Greaves’s work. Some of the screenings will be presented by his granddaughter, Liani Greaves, who was also a producer on Once Upon a Time in Harlem. Most of the films are unavailable to stream at home, so if you can, definitely check out them out on the big screen. For those that are available, I recommend anyone incapable of getting to Film Forum watch along at home.
The series begins with William Greaves’s most famous and pioneering documentary, the brilliantly constructed, ahead-of-its-time, National Film Registry-selected 1968 feature Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (now streaming on The Criterion Channel). Also screening on the first day is Nationtime (now streaming on Kanopy), on the 1972 National Black Political Convention, the 1986 medium-length film Black Power in America: Myth…or Reality?, and the 1974 short From These Roots. On Saturday, you can find his early shorts Putting It Straight (now streaming for free on the National Film Board of Canada website) and Smoke and Weather (also on the NFB website), plus Still a Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class (now streaming for free via the American Archive of Public Broadcasting), In the Company of Men, and the shorts The First World Festival of Negro Arts and Wealth of a Nation (now on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives).
Sunday offers the first showings in the series of Greaves’s 2001 biographical feature Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (now streaming on Kanopy), while Monday brings the sequel/remake Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2 (now streaming on The Criterion Channel), the short You’ve Got a Number, and the medium-length In the Company of Men follow-up The Deep North. On Tuesday, you can see Voice of La Raza. On Wednesday, you can see Frederick Douglass: An American Life (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives) and Booker T. Washington: The Life and the Legacy (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives). And on Thursday, you can see the shorts Where Dreams Come True (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives) and Space for Women (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives).
The retrospective also includes films in which Greaves is an actor (such as Lost Boundaries, Souls of Sin, and Miracle in Harlem) and documentaries that he edited, such as Stanley Jackson’s short Profile of a Problem Drinker and Terence Macartney-Filgate’s short Blood and Fire (also now streaming on the NFB website). For those in New York City, Once Upon a Time in Harlem will also be screening for free this Saturday and Sunday at a few theaters in Manhattan, presented by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
William Greaves 100 begins on Friday, October 23, 2026, and runs through Thursday, October 29, 2026.
The first nominees and honorees for the 2027 Cinema Eye Honors were announced last week, including the contenders for its broadcast documentary categories. Among the features and series recognized there are Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story (now streaming on HBO Max), Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV), The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO Max), Trust Me: The False Prophet (Netflix), Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time (Hulu), Katrina: Come Hell or High Water (Netflix), The Man Will Burn (HBO Max), Critical Incident: Death at the Border (HBO Max), Breakdown: 1975 (Netflix), and Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World (HBO Max).
This year’s Unforgettables include the subjects and participants of the documentaries American Doctor (now in theaters), Ask E. Jean (VOD), A Fox Under a Pink Moon, Give Me the Ball!, Steal This Story, Please! (VOD), and One in a Million (now in theaters). The Cinema Eye Honors also shared their longlist for the Audience Choice Prize, which includes You Can See Everything (in theaters), The History of Concrete (in theaters), The Bend in the River, Cookie Queens (VOD), The Cycle of Love (in theaters), Time and Water (Disney+ and Hulu), NAZA (in theaters), Everybody to Kenmure Street (in theaters), Wild Inside (in theaters), and Once Upon a Time in Harlem. They also unveiled the shortlist for shorts, which includes A Derailment, La Tierra del Valor (The Home of the Brave) (streaming online via the Los Angeles Times), They’re Here, and Bill Morrison’s Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon (now on YouTube via The New Yorker).
Agatha’s Almanac – A documentary feature about a 90-year-old woman and her devotion to her farm. Read our review. *NONFICS PICK* (OVID)
First We Bombed New Mexico (2023) – A documentary feature about Indigenous and Latino Nuevomexicano people who have suffered from the radiation caused by the atomic bomb testing in New Mexico. (In Theaters)
The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony (2026) – A documentary feature about girl gymnasts in Pakistan. (In Theaters)
Making Marie Antoinette (2026) – A Critics Choice-nominated making-of documentary directed by Eleanor Coppola about her daughter Sofia’s 2006 film Maria Antoinette. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. (In Theaters)
Nuns vs. the Vatican (2025) – A documentary feature about nuns who expose the priests who abused them. (In Theaters)
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story (2026) – A documentary feature directed by Judd Apatow (Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!) and Neil Berkeley (Gilbert) about the titular comedian. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. *NONFICS PICK* (Netflix)
Pasión (2026) – A documentary about what soccer means to Mexico. (In Theaters)
The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd Season 4, Episode 4: “Astonishing Beings” – The latest installment of a docuseries about mysterious and bizarre people and things. (History)
48 Hours Season 40, Episode 3: “What the Cameras Saw” – The latest installment of an investigative documentary series. (CBS)
Austin City Limits Season 52, Episode 8: “Red Clay Strays” – The latest installment of a long-running music series. (PBS)
Earth Odyssey with Dylan Dreyer Season 9, Episode 4: “A High-Climbing Adventure” – The latest installment of an adventure series that takes viewers to exotic locations. (NBC)
Heathens (2026) – A documentary about five strangers who have lost their religious faith as they gather at a mountain retreat. (In Theaters)
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild Season 4, Episode 4: “Weird and Wonderful” – The latest installment of a nature series focused on wildlife conservation. This episode involves animals specific to Australia, including cassowaries, echidnas, and platypuses. (NBC)
Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler Season 3, Episode 4: “Triangle of Guilt” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries involving murder trials in Texas. (Oxygen)
Super Animals Season 4, Episode 10 – The latest installment of a nature docuseries for kids about animals with special traits. This episode involves jungle animals including jaguars, pythons, monkeys, and toucans. (National Geographic)
Catfish Murders Season 1, Episode 2: “A Hopeless Romantic” – The latest installment of a true-crime series about murders involving catfish scenarios. (Oxygen)
A Course Called Ireland (2026) – A six-part docuseries starring Bill Murray as he tours golf courses in Ireland. (Paramount+)
Late Night Law Season 2, Episode 7 & 8 “Neck Chair” & “Running with Warrants” – The latest installments of a docuseries that follows law enforcement during the night shift. (A&E)
Snapped: Killer Moms Season 1, Episode 2: “Cynthia Cdebaca” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about mothers who kill to protect or avenge their children. (Oxygen)
Warren Miller’s Days Off (2026) – A documentary that showcases professional skiers on their days off. (In Theaters)
The Wolves of Real Estate: The Alexander Brothers (2026) – A docuseries about three brothers, their ascent in the world of luxury real estate and private security, and their convictions for sex trafficking. (Peacock)
Harlan Coben’s Final Twist Season 2, Episode 4: “Caught on Camera” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries exposing shocking murders and scandals. This episode involves a couple shot dead in a crashed car. (CBS and Paramount+)
Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana Season 2, Episode 1: “Montana & Wyoming — Small Acts, Wide Ripples” – The latest installment of a docuseries starring the titular chef about Pan-American food, culture, and history. (PBS)
Seeds (2025) – A documentary feature about Black generational farmers in Georgia. Presented as an episode of Independent Lens. Read our review. *NONFICS PICK* (PBS)
A Well-Spent Life (1971) – A medium-length documentary by Les Blank and Skip Gerson about blues singer and guitarist Mance Lipscomb. *NONFICS PICK* (TCM)
40 Watts from Nowhere (2025) – A documentary about an independent FM station in Los Angeles in the 1990s. (Blu-ray)
Fools’ Paradise (lost?) (2024) – A documentary feature about the healing power of the natural world. (DVD)
In Pursuit: Lessons of American Leadership (2026) – A documentary special about what can be learned from the past to make for a better America. (PBS)
Kordell Stewart / Slash & Burn (2026) – A short documentary about NFL quarterback Kordell Stewart and a rumor that followed him for decades. (HBO and HBO Max)
Le Joli Mai (The Lovely Month of May) (1963) – A documentary feature by Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme about Paris in 1962 after the ceasefire with Algeria. Read our essay on the film. *NONFICS PICK* (Blu-ray)
Magical Universe (2013) – A documentary about the artist Al Carbee. (DVD and Blu-ray)
Megadoc (2025) – A documentary feature by Mike Figgis about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. Read our review. (Blu-ray)
The One About Matthew Perry (2026) – A three-part docuseries about the titular actor. See our highlights section for more info. (Netflix)
Scary Stories (2018) – A documentary feature about the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series. Read our review. (Blu-ray)
Blind AF (2024) – A feature-length documentary about a blind Paralympic champion attempting a record-breaking cross-country bike ride. (Prime Video)
Closure (2026) – A documentary feature by Michal Marczak (All These Sleepless Nights) that follows a man as he searches for his missing son. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. (In Theaters)
The Eyes of Ghana (2025) – A documentary feature by two-time Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot (The Queen of Basketball; The Last Repair Shop) about filmmaker Chris Hesse and his nearly lost coverage of post-colonial Africa. See our highlights section for more info and a link to our review. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
Ghost Adventures Season 31, Episode 5: “Mountain Meadows Massacre” – The latest installment of a docuseries following paranormal investigators. (Discovery Channel)
Hanging By a Wire (2026) – A documentary feature about the rescue operation to save a group of students trapped in a cable car high above a valley. Read our review. (Paramount+)
Nature Season 45, Episode 3: “Tiger Island” – The latest installment of a nature series. This episode continues to involve tigers. (PBS)
Nova Season 53, Episode 15: “Evolution: Bodybuilders” – The third installment of a five-part series within Nova about evolution on Earth over billions of years. This episode looks at the evolution of body shapes and sizes. (PBS)
Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning (2025) – A concert film starring Ozzy Osborne and his band Black Sabbath. (In Theaters)
Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana Season 2, Episode 2: “New Mexico & Colorado — Life Along the Rio” – The latest installment of a docuseries starring the titular chef about Pan-American food, culture, and history. (PBS)
After The First 48 Season 13, Episode 2: “No Road Home” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about murder cases attempted to be solved in the first 48 hours. This episode involves a woman gunned down on the side of the road. (A&E)
Archive X: Unexplained Phenomena Season 1, Episode 5: “Near Death Experience” – The latest installment of a docuseries that explores prophetic dreams, ESP, near-death experiences, alien encounters, and messages from beyond. (Sundance Channel)
Black Cats and Broomsticks (1955) – A short documentary about superstitions, personal rituals, taboos, and talismans. (TCM – Technically airing early Friday morning.)
George Hall and His Orchestra (1937) – A short music film featuring performances by the titular group. (TCM – Technically airing early Friday morning.)
Killer Investigations Season 2, Episode 2: “The Missing Mom” – The latest installment of a true-crime series about the country’s most gripping homicide cases. (A&E)
MGM Parade Show #13 (1955) – This installment of the Hollywood-focused docuseries showcases the MGM films The Great Waltz and I’ll Cry Tomorrow. (TCM)
10/30 – Paging Hezbollah – A documentary feature about Israel’s use of electronic devices, including pagers, in attacks against Hezbollah. (In Theaters)
11/4 – Taken: Natalee Holloway – A three-part true crime docuseries about the 2005 disappearance of the titular teenager during her high school graduation trip to Aruba. Watch the new trailer for the series below. (Netflix)
11/6 – Kratom: Side Effects May Include – A documentary feature about the titular substance known as “gas station heroin.” (VOD)
11/6 – Wolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory – A nature documentary special about wolves. (National Geographic)
11/8 – The Biggest Little Farm Series – A 12-part docuseries sequel to the film The Biggest Little Farm that continues the story of the Chester farm. Watch the new trailer for the series below. (YouTube)
11/10 – We Chose to Go to the Moon – A live documentary about America’s mission to go to the Moon. (PBS)
11/11 – Avedon – A Critics Choice-nominated biographical documentary feature by Ron Howard (Pavarotti) about the photographer Richard Avedon. Watch the new trailer for the film below. *NONFICS PICK* (Netflix)
11/13 – Expedition: Saving Our Seas – A medium-length documentary special about the impact of rapid environmental change on the world’s oceans. (National Geographic)
11/16 – Crime and Punishment in America – A four-part docuseries directed by Lynn Novick (The U.S. and the Holocaust), executive produced by Ken Burns and Sam Pollard, and narrated by Keith David about the history of the American criminal justice system. Watch the trailer for the series below. (PBS).
11/27 – 14th – A Critics Choice-documentary feature by Ava DuVernay (13th) about the 14th Amendment. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
12/6 – Lucy Worsley’s Keys to the Castle – A four-part docuseries that spotlights four of Europe’s most iconic castles. (PBS)
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Between the awards and box office success for You Can See Everything, I’m really happy for Lance Oppenheim. At the same time, I feel like the ‘90s teenage version of me who would get annoyed at the sudden popularity of bands I liked for years. Oppenheim isn’t going to be this little secret for me anymore. I have to share him with more people than have probably seen a documentary in a theater in decades. But I am glad these people might now discover his previous films, including Some Kind of Heaven, which just began streaming for free with ads on Tubi and Fandango.
There is also some concern that Oppenheim will leave documentary behind. You Can See Everything is a bit different from his other nonfiction features, and some critics claim it isn’t even a documentary (they’re wrong, of course). Oppenheim also recently directed the drama Primetime, which has given him additional success and promise in the “narrative feature” arena. But how sad would it be if he’s the one to, as many pundits predict, finally have a documentary nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and then leave nonfiction cinema behind? I don’t think that will happen. I hope not.
Speaking of my favorite documentarians doing other things, I’ve been wanting to share Don Argott’s side hustle for a while (and no, I’m not being paid to mention this). It’s an apparel brand called Depressed Heroes, and it’s focused on music and movie t-shirts. Some designs feature clever mashups for fans of both. The only documentary represented is Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (eventually I’d love for Nonfics to make classic doc tees if anyone wants to help us figure that out). Most of the film-focused shirts involve New Hollywood auteurs, ‘80s teen movies, ‘90s indie directors, or horror. The last of which is perfect for Halloween, of course. He’s got a sale on horror apparel for the season, so check that out now.
Below are this week’s documentary highlights, followed by daily listings for all known releases and broadcasts, along with a brief look at what’s coming soon for doc fans (including the latest from Ron Howard). Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for more in-depth highlights and reviews, plus full access to special posts like our best-of lists, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available. If you have an upcoming documentary needing coverage or a mention, reach us at nonficseditor (at) gmail and let us know its release plans.
Ben Proudfoot is best known for his prolific work directing short documentaries, including Oscar winners The Queen of Basketball and The Last Repair Shop and Oscar nominee A Concerto Is a Conversation. One of his latest, The Baddest Speechwriter of All, was just nominated for a Critics Choice Award and is considered a strong contender in this year’s Academy Awards race. He also has The Eyes of Ghana in contention. It’s not his feature debut, but given it’s been a decade since his only other feature, Rwanda & Juliet, and he’s made so many shorts in that time, it may as well be. It also ought to be his breakout feature, and deserves to be.
Here is an excerpt from our review of The Eyes of Ghana published after its festival premiere last year (and which is quoted in the trailer shared above):
“With The Last Repair Shop, Proudfoot and Bowers gave us a love letter to music education. His and Thrash’s The Turnaround is a love letter to sports fandom. Now he has made a love letter to the power of cinema. If you’re not familiar with Proudfoot’s work, your expectations for The Eyes of Ghana may differ. It’s not a deep examination of post-colonial Ghana, nor a history lesson about its first prime minister, Kwame Nkrumah. It’s not even the complete story of the discovery of a treasure trove of surviving films that had been thought destroyed after Nkrumah’s government was overthrown by the military. All of those things are part of the documentary, but as firstly a portrait of 93-year-old Ghanaian filmmaker Chris Hesse, it’s a lighter affair than, say, Concerning Violence or even Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.”
The Eyes of Ghana will be released in theaters on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, for a limited time, via IShowSpeed.
These two new releases couldn’t be more different in their subject matter (though both involve a parent-child relationship). But in my attempt to consolidate, I’m grouping them because they’re both tedious watches, for different reasons. Closure, the latest from All These Sleepless Nights director Michal Marczak, follows a father relentlessly searching a river for the body of his missing teenage son. It’s repetitive and seems to go nowhere until a contrasting search gives us a greater understanding of the tedium we’ve experienced.
Critics Choice nominee Making Marie Antoinette, the final making-of feature by Hearts of Darkness director Eleanor Coppola, emphasizes the tiresome routine of moviemaking as it follows the production of daughter Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Having been on many a set, I can attest that it’s a faithful representation — tedious, yes, but never dull if you’re like me and can never get enough. Also, Diane Lane provides a wonderful voiceover reading of Eleanor Coppola’s filming diary.
Closure will be released theatrically in New York City on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, via 1-2 Special, ahead of a national rollout.
Making Marie Antoinette will be released in theaters nationwide on Friday, October 23, via Mubi, ahead of its debut on the streaming service.
Another grouping for this week highlights two new Netflix celebrity biographies, both of which see their subjects in and out of institutions for their mental health disorders. The One About Matthew Perry is a three-part docuseries about the titular actor best known for the sitcom Friends and secondarily known for his struggles with addiction. I can’t say more since reviews are embargoed until its release date.
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story, the second documentary from Judd Apatow on the life of a comedian in as many weeks, is about the titular performer. She is known for her stand-up bits and television specials and series addressing and poking fun at her own diagnoses of OCD and bipolar II disorder. Apatow directed Paralyzed by Hope with Neil Berkeley, who also just recently put out another comedian biography with Who Is Martin Mull? on Netflix. This is one of the best from both of them, as they together and separately continue to elevate the genre with hilarious, moving, and compelling stories that are never stale in their structures.
The One About Matthew Perry will premiere and begin streaming exclusively on Netflix on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story will premiere and begin streaming exclusively on Netflix on Friday, October 23, 2026.
One of the first articles published on Nonfics for its launch in September 2013 was our first Documentary Classics column, spotlighting Leon Gast’s When We Were Kings. More than 13 years later, this week the film is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its release. Following its premiere at Sundance that January, it opened theatrically on October 25, 1996. That was 20 years after Gast had originally intended to put out the documentary, which would have been more of a concert film focused on the three-day Zaire 74 event. Instead, it wound up being about the simultaneous boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman called “The Rumble in the Jungle.” When We Were Kings also went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and remains one of the most memorable Oscar-winning docs of the 1990s.
Here is an excerpt from our column reviewing When We Were Kings and its legacy:
“By the time Gast settled a legal battle for the footage, struggled to find money to finish it, and finally had a premiere at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, the documentary still featured Foreman as a secondary character. However, the fight was now the main event. And Ali was the main concentration. Whether he’s the main character is another story. It’s certainly about him, but I might argue that Norman Mailer and George Plimpton are the stars of When We Were Kings as much as Ali is. The two writers are among the five talking heads who were interviewed for the film in the ’90s (Spike Lee is another), and at one point, they provide a rat-a-tat-tat telling and analysis of the bout’s climax that is even more captivating than the boxer’s poetic showboating that makes up much of the earlier-shot material. Meanwhile, the concert acts, including James Brown, B.B. King, and The Spinners, are almost relegated to tertiary status.”
When We Were Kings is currently available to stream on HBO Max with a subscription, and for free with ads on Shout! TV and JustWatch.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem, which William Greaves conceived and filmed more than 50 years ago, was completed by his son, David Greaves, this year and was released in theaters last week courtesy of Neon. Timed to that occasion and his centenary (100th birthday) earlier this month, NYC’s Film Forum is hosting a one-week retrospective of the elder Greaves’s work. Some of the screenings will be presented by his granddaughter, Liani Greaves, who was also a producer on Once Upon a Time in Harlem. Most of the films are unavailable to stream at home, so if you can, definitely check out them out on the big screen. For those that are available, I recommend anyone incapable of getting to Film Forum watch along at home.
The series begins with William Greaves’s most famous and pioneering documentary, the brilliantly constructed, ahead-of-its-time, National Film Registry-selected 1968 feature Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (now streaming on The Criterion Channel). Also screening on the first day is Nationtime (now streaming on Kanopy), on the 1972 National Black Political Convention, the 1986 medium-length film Black Power in America: Myth…or Reality?, and the 1974 short From These Roots. On Saturday, you can find his early shorts Putting It Straight (now streaming for free on the National Film Board of Canada website) and Smoke and Weather (also on the NFB website), plus Still a Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class (now streaming for free via the American Archive of Public Broadcasting), In the Company of Men, and the shorts The First World Festival of Negro Arts and Wealth of a Nation (now on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives).
Sunday offers the first showings in the series of Greaves’s 2001 biographical feature Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (now streaming on Kanopy), while Monday brings the sequel/remake Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2 (now streaming on The Criterion Channel), the short You’ve Got a Number, and the medium-length In the Company of Men follow-up The Deep North. On Tuesday, you can see Voice of La Raza. On Wednesday, you can see Frederick Douglass: An American Life (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives) and Booker T. Washington: The Life and the Legacy (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives). And on Thursday, you can see the shorts Where Dreams Come True (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives) and Space for Women (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives).
The retrospective also includes films in which Greaves is an actor (such as Lost Boundaries, Souls of Sin, and Miracle in Harlem) and documentaries that he edited, such as Stanley Jackson’s short Profile of a Problem Drinker and Terence Macartney-Filgate’s short Blood and Fire (also now streaming on the NFB website). For those in New York City, Once Upon a Time in Harlem will also be screening for free this Saturday and Sunday at a few theaters in Manhattan, presented by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
William Greaves 100 begins on Friday, October 23, 2026, and runs through Thursday, October 29, 2026.
The first nominees and honorees for the 2027 Cinema Eye Honors were announced last week, including the contenders for its broadcast documentary categories. Among the features and series recognized there are Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story (now streaming on HBO Max), Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV), The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO Max), Trust Me: The False Prophet (Netflix), Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time (Hulu), Katrina: Come Hell or High Water (Netflix), The Man Will Burn (HBO Max), Critical Incident: Death at the Border (HBO Max), Breakdown: 1975 (Netflix), and Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World (HBO Max).
This year’s Unforgettables include the subjects and participants of the documentaries American Doctor (now in theaters), Ask E. Jean (VOD), A Fox Under a Pink Moon, Give Me the Ball!, Steal This Story, Please! (VOD), and One in a Million (now in theaters). The Cinema Eye Honors also shared their longlist for the Audience Choice Prize, which includes You Can See Everything (in theaters), The History of Concrete (in theaters), The Bend in the River, Cookie Queens (VOD), The Cycle of Love (in theaters), Time and Water (Disney+ and Hulu), NAZA (in theaters), Everybody to Kenmure Street (in theaters), Wild Inside (in theaters), and Once Upon a Time in Harlem. They also unveiled the shortlist for shorts, which includes A Derailment, La Tierra del Valor (The Home of the Brave) (streaming online via the Los Angeles Times), They’re Here, and Bill Morrison’s Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon (now on YouTube via The New Yorker).
Agatha’s Almanac – A documentary feature about a 90-year-old woman and her devotion to her farm. Read our review. *NONFICS PICK* (OVID)
First We Bombed New Mexico (2023) – A documentary feature about Indigenous and Latino Nuevomexicano people who have suffered from the radiation caused by the atomic bomb testing in New Mexico. (In Theaters)
The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony (2026) – A documentary feature about girl gymnasts in Pakistan. (In Theaters)
Making Marie Antoinette (2026) – A Critics Choice-nominated making-of documentary directed by Eleanor Coppola about her daughter Sofia’s 2006 film Maria Antoinette. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. (In Theaters)
Nuns vs. the Vatican (2025) – A documentary feature about nuns who expose the priests who abused them. (In Theaters)
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story (2026) – A documentary feature directed by Judd Apatow (Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!) and Neil Berkeley (Gilbert) about the titular comedian. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. *NONFICS PICK* (Netflix)
Pasión (2026) – A documentary about what soccer means to Mexico. (In Theaters)
The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd Season 4, Episode 4: “Astonishing Beings” – The latest installment of a docuseries about mysterious and bizarre people and things. (History)
48 Hours Season 40, Episode 3: “What the Cameras Saw” – The latest installment of an investigative documentary series. (CBS)
Austin City Limits Season 52, Episode 8: “Red Clay Strays” – The latest installment of a long-running music series. (PBS)
Earth Odyssey with Dylan Dreyer Season 9, Episode 4: “A High-Climbing Adventure” – The latest installment of an adventure series that takes viewers to exotic locations. (NBC)
Heathens (2026) – A documentary about five strangers who have lost their religious faith as they gather at a mountain retreat. (In Theaters)
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild Season 4, Episode 4: “Weird and Wonderful” – The latest installment of a nature series focused on wildlife conservation. This episode involves animals specific to Australia, including cassowaries, echidnas, and platypuses. (NBC)
Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler Season 3, Episode 4: “Triangle of Guilt” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries involving murder trials in Texas. (Oxygen)
Super Animals Season 4, Episode 10 – The latest installment of a nature docuseries for kids about animals with special traits. This episode involves jungle animals including jaguars, pythons, monkeys, and toucans. (National Geographic)
Catfish Murders Season 1, Episode 2: “A Hopeless Romantic” – The latest installment of a true-crime series about murders involving catfish scenarios. (Oxygen)
A Course Called Ireland (2026) – A six-part docuseries starring Bill Murray as he tours golf courses in Ireland. (Paramount+)
Late Night Law Season 2, Episode 7 & 8 “Neck Chair” & “Running with Warrants” – The latest installments of a docuseries that follows law enforcement during the night shift. (A&E)
Snapped: Killer Moms Season 1, Episode 2: “Cynthia Cdebaca” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about mothers who kill to protect or avenge their children. (Oxygen)
Warren Miller’s Days Off (2026) – A documentary that showcases professional skiers on their days off. (In Theaters)
The Wolves of Real Estate: The Alexander Brothers (2026) – A docuseries about three brothers, their ascent in the world of luxury real estate and private security, and their convictions for sex trafficking. (Peacock)
Harlan Coben’s Final Twist Season 2, Episode 4: “Caught on Camera” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries exposing shocking murders and scandals. This episode involves a couple shot dead in a crashed car. (CBS and Paramount+)
Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana Season 2, Episode 1: “Montana & Wyoming — Small Acts, Wide Ripples” – The latest installment of a docuseries starring the titular chef about Pan-American food, culture, and history. (PBS)
Seeds (2025) – A documentary feature about Black generational farmers in Georgia. Presented as an episode of Independent Lens. Read our review. *NONFICS PICK* (PBS)
A Well-Spent Life (1971) – A medium-length documentary by Les Blank and Skip Gerson about blues singer and guitarist Mance Lipscomb. *NONFICS PICK* (TCM)
40 Watts from Nowhere (2025) – A documentary about an independent FM station in Los Angeles in the 1990s. (Blu-ray)
Fools’ Paradise (lost?) (2024) – A documentary feature about the healing power of the natural world. (DVD)
In Pursuit: Lessons of American Leadership (2026) – A documentary special about what can be learned from the past to make for a better America. (PBS)
Kordell Stewart / Slash & Burn (2026) – A short documentary about NFL quarterback Kordell Stewart and a rumor that followed him for decades. (HBO and HBO Max)
Le Joli Mai (The Lovely Month of May) (1963) – A documentary feature by Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme about Paris in 1962 after the ceasefire with Algeria. Read our essay on the film. *NONFICS PICK* (Blu-ray)
Magical Universe (2013) – A documentary about the artist Al Carbee. (DVD and Blu-ray)
Megadoc (2025) – A documentary feature by Mike Figgis about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. Read our review. (Blu-ray)
The One About Matthew Perry (2026) – A three-part docuseries about the titular actor. See our highlights section for more info. (Netflix)
Scary Stories (2018) – A documentary feature about the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series. Read our review. (Blu-ray)
Blind AF (2024) – A feature-length documentary about a blind Paralympic champion attempting a record-breaking cross-country bike ride. (Prime Video)
Closure (2026) – A documentary feature by Michal Marczak (All These Sleepless Nights) that follows a man as he searches for his missing son. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. (In Theaters)
The Eyes of Ghana (2025) – A documentary feature by two-time Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot (The Queen of Basketball; The Last Repair Shop) about filmmaker Chris Hesse and his nearly lost coverage of post-colonial Africa. See our highlights section for more info and a link to our review. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
Ghost Adventures Season 31, Episode 5: “Mountain Meadows Massacre” – The latest installment of a docuseries following paranormal investigators. (Discovery Channel)
Hanging By a Wire (2026) – A documentary feature about the rescue operation to save a group of students trapped in a cable car high above a valley. Read our review. (Paramount+)
Nature Season 45, Episode 3: “Tiger Island” – The latest installment of a nature series. This episode continues to involve tigers. (PBS)
Nova Season 53, Episode 15: “Evolution: Bodybuilders” – The third installment of a five-part series within Nova about evolution on Earth over billions of years. This episode looks at the evolution of body shapes and sizes. (PBS)
Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning (2025) – A concert film starring Ozzy Osborne and his band Black Sabbath. (In Theaters)
Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana Season 2, Episode 2: “New Mexico & Colorado — Life Along the Rio” – The latest installment of a docuseries starring the titular chef about Pan-American food, culture, and history. (PBS)
After The First 48 Season 13, Episode 2: “No Road Home” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about murder cases attempted to be solved in the first 48 hours. This episode involves a woman gunned down on the side of the road. (A&E)
Archive X: Unexplained Phenomena Season 1, Episode 5: “Near Death Experience” – The latest installment of a docuseries that explores prophetic dreams, ESP, near-death experiences, alien encounters, and messages from beyond. (Sundance Channel)
Black Cats and Broomsticks (1955) – A short documentary about superstitions, personal rituals, taboos, and talismans. (TCM – Technically airing early Friday morning.)
George Hall and His Orchestra (1937) – A short music film featuring performances by the titular group. (TCM – Technically airing early Friday morning.)
Killer Investigations Season 2, Episode 2: “The Missing Mom” – The latest installment of a true-crime series about the country’s most gripping homicide cases. (A&E)
MGM Parade Show #13 (1955) – This installment of the Hollywood-focused docuseries showcases the MGM films The Great Waltz and I’ll Cry Tomorrow. (TCM)
10/30 – Paging Hezbollah – A documentary feature about Israel’s use of electronic devices, including pagers, in attacks against Hezbollah. (In Theaters)
11/4 – Taken: Natalee Holloway – A three-part true crime docuseries about the 2005 disappearance of the titular teenager during her high school graduation trip to Aruba. Watch the new trailer for the series below. (Netflix)
11/6 – Kratom: Side Effects May Include – A documentary feature about the titular substance known as “gas station heroin.” (VOD)
11/6 – Wolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory – A nature documentary special about wolves. (National Geographic)
11/8 – The Biggest Little Farm Series – A 12-part docuseries sequel to the film The Biggest Little Farm that continues the story of the Chester farm. Watch the new trailer for the series below. (YouTube)
11/10 – We Chose to Go to the Moon – A live documentary about America’s mission to go to the Moon. (PBS)
11/11 – Avedon – A Critics Choice-nominated biographical documentary feature by Ron Howard (Pavarotti) about the photographer Richard Avedon. Watch the new trailer for the film below. *NONFICS PICK* (Netflix)
11/13 – Expedition: Saving Our Seas – A medium-length documentary special about the impact of rapid environmental change on the world’s oceans. (National Geographic)
11/16 – Crime and Punishment in America – A four-part docuseries directed by Lynn Novick (The U.S. and the Holocaust), executive produced by Ken Burns and Sam Pollard, and narrated by Keith David about the history of the American criminal justice system. Watch the trailer for the series below. (PBS).
11/27 – 14th – A Critics Choice-documentary feature by Ava DuVernay (13th) about the 14th Amendment. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
12/6 – Lucy Worsley’s Keys to the Castle – A four-part docuseries that spotlights four of Europe’s most iconic castles. (PBS)
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Between the awards and box office success for You Can See Everything, I’m really happy for Lance Oppenheim. At the same time, I feel like the ‘90s teenage version of me who would get annoyed at the sudden popularity of bands I liked for years. Oppenheim isn’t going to be this little secret for me anymore. I have to share him with more people than have probably seen a documentary in a theater in decades. But I am glad these people might now discover his previous films, including Some Kind of Heaven, which just began streaming for free with ads on Tubi and Fandango.
There is also some concern that Oppenheim will leave documentary behind. You Can See Everything is a bit different from his other nonfiction features, and some critics claim it isn’t even a documentary (they’re wrong, of course). Oppenheim also recently directed the drama Primetime, which has given him additional success and promise in the “narrative feature” arena. But how sad would it be if he’s the one to, as many pundits predict, finally have a documentary nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and then leave nonfiction cinema behind? I don’t think that will happen. I hope not.
Speaking of my favorite documentarians doing other things, I’ve been wanting to share Don Argott’s side hustle for a while (and no, I’m not being paid to mention this). It’s an apparel brand called Depressed Heroes, and it’s focused on music and movie t-shirts. Some designs feature clever mashups for fans of both. The only documentary represented is Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (eventually I’d love for Nonfics to make classic doc tees if anyone wants to help us figure that out). Most of the film-focused shirts involve New Hollywood auteurs, ‘80s teen movies, ‘90s indie directors, or horror. The last of which is perfect for Halloween, of course. He’s got a sale on horror apparel for the season, so check that out now.
Below are this week’s documentary highlights, followed by daily listings for all known releases and broadcasts, along with a brief look at what’s coming soon for doc fans (including the latest from Ron Howard). Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for more in-depth highlights and reviews, plus full access to special posts like our best-of lists, and to give me more time to watch more (if not everything) available. If you have an upcoming documentary needing coverage or a mention, reach us at nonficseditor (at) gmail and let us know its release plans.
Ben Proudfoot is best known for his prolific work directing short documentaries, including Oscar winners The Queen of Basketball and The Last Repair Shop and Oscar nominee A Concerto Is a Conversation. One of his latest, The Baddest Speechwriter of All, was just nominated for a Critics Choice Award and is considered a strong contender in this year’s Academy Awards race. He also has The Eyes of Ghana in contention. It’s not his feature debut, but given it’s been a decade since his only other feature, Rwanda & Juliet, and he’s made so many shorts in that time, it may as well be. It also ought to be his breakout feature, and deserves to be.
Here is an excerpt from our review of The Eyes of Ghana published after its festival premiere last year (and which is quoted in the trailer shared above):
“With The Last Repair Shop, Proudfoot and Bowers gave us a love letter to music education. His and Thrash’s The Turnaround is a love letter to sports fandom. Now he has made a love letter to the power of cinema. If you’re not familiar with Proudfoot’s work, your expectations for The Eyes of Ghana may differ. It’s not a deep examination of post-colonial Ghana, nor a history lesson about its first prime minister, Kwame Nkrumah. It’s not even the complete story of the discovery of a treasure trove of surviving films that had been thought destroyed after Nkrumah’s government was overthrown by the military. All of those things are part of the documentary, but as firstly a portrait of 93-year-old Ghanaian filmmaker Chris Hesse, it’s a lighter affair than, say, Concerning Violence or even Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.”
The Eyes of Ghana will be released in theaters on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, for a limited time, via IShowSpeed.
These two new releases couldn’t be more different in their subject matter (though both involve a parent-child relationship). But in my attempt to consolidate, I’m grouping them because they’re both tedious watches, for different reasons. Closure, the latest from All These Sleepless Nights director Michal Marczak, follows a father relentlessly searching a river for the body of his missing teenage son. It’s repetitive and seems to go nowhere until a contrasting search gives us a greater understanding of the tedium we’ve experienced.
Critics Choice nominee Making Marie Antoinette, the final making-of feature by Hearts of Darkness director Eleanor Coppola, emphasizes the tiresome routine of moviemaking as it follows the production of daughter Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Having been on many a set, I can attest that it’s a faithful representation — tedious, yes, but never dull if you’re like me and can never get enough. Also, Diane Lane provides a wonderful voiceover reading of Eleanor Coppola’s filming diary.
Closure will be released theatrically in New York City on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, via 1-2 Special, ahead of a national rollout.
Making Marie Antoinette will be released in theaters nationwide on Friday, October 23, via Mubi, ahead of its debut on the streaming service.
Another grouping for this week highlights two new Netflix celebrity biographies, both of which see their subjects in and out of institutions for their mental health disorders. The One About Matthew Perry is a three-part docuseries about the titular actor best known for the sitcom Friends and secondarily known for his struggles with addiction. I can’t say more since reviews are embargoed until its release date.
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story, the second documentary from Judd Apatow on the life of a comedian in as many weeks, is about the titular performer. She is known for her stand-up bits and television specials and series addressing and poking fun at her own diagnoses of OCD and bipolar II disorder. Apatow directed Paralyzed by Hope with Neil Berkeley, who also just recently put out another comedian biography with Who Is Martin Mull? on Netflix. This is one of the best from both of them, as they together and separately continue to elevate the genre with hilarious, moving, and compelling stories that are never stale in their structures.
The One About Matthew Perry will premiere and begin streaming exclusively on Netflix on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story will premiere and begin streaming exclusively on Netflix on Friday, October 23, 2026.
One of the first articles published on Nonfics for its launch in September 2013 was our first Documentary Classics column, spotlighting Leon Gast’s When We Were Kings. More than 13 years later, this week the film is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its release. Following its premiere at Sundance that January, it opened theatrically on October 25, 1996. That was 20 years after Gast had originally intended to put out the documentary, which would have been more of a concert film focused on the three-day Zaire 74 event. Instead, it wound up being about the simultaneous boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman called “The Rumble in the Jungle.” When We Were Kings also went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and remains one of the most memorable Oscar-winning docs of the 1990s.
Here is an excerpt from our column reviewing When We Were Kings and its legacy:
“By the time Gast settled a legal battle for the footage, struggled to find money to finish it, and finally had a premiere at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, the documentary still featured Foreman as a secondary character. However, the fight was now the main event. And Ali was the main concentration. Whether he’s the main character is another story. It’s certainly about him, but I might argue that Norman Mailer and George Plimpton are the stars of When We Were Kings as much as Ali is. The two writers are among the five talking heads who were interviewed for the film in the ’90s (Spike Lee is another), and at one point, they provide a rat-a-tat-tat telling and analysis of the bout’s climax that is even more captivating than the boxer’s poetic showboating that makes up much of the earlier-shot material. Meanwhile, the concert acts, including James Brown, B.B. King, and The Spinners, are almost relegated to tertiary status.”
When We Were Kings is currently available to stream on HBO Max with a subscription, and for free with ads on Shout! TV and JustWatch.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem, which William Greaves conceived and filmed more than 50 years ago, was completed by his son, David Greaves, this year and was released in theaters last week courtesy of Neon. Timed to that occasion and his centenary (100th birthday) earlier this month, NYC’s Film Forum is hosting a one-week retrospective of the elder Greaves’s work. Some of the screenings will be presented by his granddaughter, Liani Greaves, who was also a producer on Once Upon a Time in Harlem. Most of the films are unavailable to stream at home, so if you can, definitely check out them out on the big screen. For those that are available, I recommend anyone incapable of getting to Film Forum watch along at home.
The series begins with William Greaves’s most famous and pioneering documentary, the brilliantly constructed, ahead-of-its-time, National Film Registry-selected 1968 feature Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (now streaming on The Criterion Channel). Also screening on the first day is Nationtime (now streaming on Kanopy), on the 1972 National Black Political Convention, the 1986 medium-length film Black Power in America: Myth…or Reality?, and the 1974 short From These Roots. On Saturday, you can find his early shorts Putting It Straight (now streaming for free on the National Film Board of Canada website) and Smoke and Weather (also on the NFB website), plus Still a Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class (now streaming for free via the American Archive of Public Broadcasting), In the Company of Men, and the shorts The First World Festival of Negro Arts and Wealth of a Nation (now on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives).
Sunday offers the first showings in the series of Greaves’s 2001 biographical feature Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (now streaming on Kanopy), while Monday brings the sequel/remake Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2 (now streaming on The Criterion Channel), the short You’ve Got a Number, and the medium-length In the Company of Men follow-up The Deep North. On Tuesday, you can see Voice of La Raza. On Wednesday, you can see Frederick Douglass: An American Life (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives) and Booker T. Washington: The Life and the Legacy (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives). And on Thursday, you can see the shorts Where Dreams Come True (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives) and Space for Women (also on YouTube via the U.S. National Archives).
The retrospective also includes films in which Greaves is an actor (such as Lost Boundaries, Souls of Sin, and Miracle in Harlem) and documentaries that he edited, such as Stanley Jackson’s short Profile of a Problem Drinker and Terence Macartney-Filgate’s short Blood and Fire (also now streaming on the NFB website). For those in New York City, Once Upon a Time in Harlem will also be screening for free this Saturday and Sunday at a few theaters in Manhattan, presented by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
William Greaves 100 begins on Friday, October 23, 2026, and runs through Thursday, October 29, 2026.
The first nominees and honorees for the 2027 Cinema Eye Honors were announced last week, including the contenders for its broadcast documentary categories. Among the features and series recognized there are Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story (now streaming on HBO Max), Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV), The Yogurt Shop Murders (HBO Max), Trust Me: The False Prophet (Netflix), Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time (Hulu), Katrina: Come Hell or High Water (Netflix), The Man Will Burn (HBO Max), Critical Incident: Death at the Border (HBO Max), Breakdown: 1975 (Netflix), and Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World (HBO Max).
This year’s Unforgettables include the subjects and participants of the documentaries American Doctor (now in theaters), Ask E. Jean (VOD), A Fox Under a Pink Moon, Give Me the Ball!, Steal This Story, Please! (VOD), and One in a Million (now in theaters). The Cinema Eye Honors also shared their longlist for the Audience Choice Prize, which includes You Can See Everything (in theaters), The History of Concrete (in theaters), The Bend in the River, Cookie Queens (VOD), The Cycle of Love (in theaters), Time and Water (Disney+ and Hulu), NAZA (in theaters), Everybody to Kenmure Street (in theaters), Wild Inside (in theaters), and Once Upon a Time in Harlem. They also unveiled the shortlist for shorts, which includes A Derailment, La Tierra del Valor (The Home of the Brave) (streaming online via the Los Angeles Times), They’re Here, and Bill Morrison’s Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon (now on YouTube via The New Yorker).
Agatha’s Almanac – A documentary feature about a 90-year-old woman and her devotion to her farm. Read our review. *NONFICS PICK* (OVID)
First We Bombed New Mexico (2023) – A documentary feature about Indigenous and Latino Nuevomexicano people who have suffered from the radiation caused by the atomic bomb testing in New Mexico. (In Theaters)
The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony (2026) – A documentary feature about girl gymnasts in Pakistan. (In Theaters)
Making Marie Antoinette (2026) – A Critics Choice-nominated making-of documentary directed by Eleanor Coppola about her daughter Sofia’s 2006 film Maria Antoinette. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. (In Theaters)
Nuns vs. the Vatican (2025) – A documentary feature about nuns who expose the priests who abused them. (In Theaters)
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story (2026) – A documentary feature directed by Judd Apatow (Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!) and Neil Berkeley (Gilbert) about the titular comedian. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. *NONFICS PICK* (Netflix)
Pasión (2026) – A documentary about what soccer means to Mexico. (In Theaters)
The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd Season 4, Episode 4: “Astonishing Beings” – The latest installment of a docuseries about mysterious and bizarre people and things. (History)
48 Hours Season 40, Episode 3: “What the Cameras Saw” – The latest installment of an investigative documentary series. (CBS)
Austin City Limits Season 52, Episode 8: “Red Clay Strays” – The latest installment of a long-running music series. (PBS)
Earth Odyssey with Dylan Dreyer Season 9, Episode 4: “A High-Climbing Adventure” – The latest installment of an adventure series that takes viewers to exotic locations. (NBC)
Heathens (2026) – A documentary about five strangers who have lost their religious faith as they gather at a mountain retreat. (In Theaters)
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild Season 4, Episode 4: “Weird and Wonderful” – The latest installment of a nature series focused on wildlife conservation. This episode involves animals specific to Australia, including cassowaries, echidnas, and platypuses. (NBC)
Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler Season 3, Episode 4: “Triangle of Guilt” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries involving murder trials in Texas. (Oxygen)
Super Animals Season 4, Episode 10 – The latest installment of a nature docuseries for kids about animals with special traits. This episode involves jungle animals including jaguars, pythons, monkeys, and toucans. (National Geographic)
Catfish Murders Season 1, Episode 2: “A Hopeless Romantic” – The latest installment of a true-crime series about murders involving catfish scenarios. (Oxygen)
A Course Called Ireland (2026) – A six-part docuseries starring Bill Murray as he tours golf courses in Ireland. (Paramount+)
Late Night Law Season 2, Episode 7 & 8 “Neck Chair” & “Running with Warrants” – The latest installments of a docuseries that follows law enforcement during the night shift. (A&E)
Snapped: Killer Moms Season 1, Episode 2: “Cynthia Cdebaca” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about mothers who kill to protect or avenge their children. (Oxygen)
Warren Miller’s Days Off (2026) – A documentary that showcases professional skiers on their days off. (In Theaters)
The Wolves of Real Estate: The Alexander Brothers (2026) – A docuseries about three brothers, their ascent in the world of luxury real estate and private security, and their convictions for sex trafficking. (Peacock)
Harlan Coben’s Final Twist Season 2, Episode 4: “Caught on Camera” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries exposing shocking murders and scandals. This episode involves a couple shot dead in a crashed car. (CBS and Paramount+)
Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana Season 2, Episode 1: “Montana & Wyoming — Small Acts, Wide Ripples” – The latest installment of a docuseries starring the titular chef about Pan-American food, culture, and history. (PBS)
Seeds (2025) – A documentary feature about Black generational farmers in Georgia. Presented as an episode of Independent Lens. Read our review. *NONFICS PICK* (PBS)
A Well-Spent Life (1971) – A medium-length documentary by Les Blank and Skip Gerson about blues singer and guitarist Mance Lipscomb. *NONFICS PICK* (TCM)
40 Watts from Nowhere (2025) – A documentary about an independent FM station in Los Angeles in the 1990s. (Blu-ray)
Fools’ Paradise (lost?) (2024) – A documentary feature about the healing power of the natural world. (DVD)
In Pursuit: Lessons of American Leadership (2026) – A documentary special about what can be learned from the past to make for a better America. (PBS)
Kordell Stewart / Slash & Burn (2026) – A short documentary about NFL quarterback Kordell Stewart and a rumor that followed him for decades. (HBO and HBO Max)
Le Joli Mai (The Lovely Month of May) (1963) – A documentary feature by Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme about Paris in 1962 after the ceasefire with Algeria. Read our essay on the film. *NONFICS PICK* (Blu-ray)
Magical Universe (2013) – A documentary about the artist Al Carbee. (DVD and Blu-ray)
Megadoc (2025) – A documentary feature by Mike Figgis about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. Read our review. (Blu-ray)
The One About Matthew Perry (2026) – A three-part docuseries about the titular actor. See our highlights section for more info. (Netflix)
Scary Stories (2018) – A documentary feature about the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series. Read our review. (Blu-ray)
Blind AF (2024) – A feature-length documentary about a blind Paralympic champion attempting a record-breaking cross-country bike ride. (Prime Video)
Closure (2026) – A documentary feature by Michal Marczak (All These Sleepless Nights) that follows a man as he searches for his missing son. See our highlights section for more info and a brief review. (In Theaters)
The Eyes of Ghana (2025) – A documentary feature by two-time Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot (The Queen of Basketball; The Last Repair Shop) about filmmaker Chris Hesse and his nearly lost coverage of post-colonial Africa. See our highlights section for more info and a link to our review. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
Ghost Adventures Season 31, Episode 5: “Mountain Meadows Massacre” – The latest installment of a docuseries following paranormal investigators. (Discovery Channel)
Hanging By a Wire (2026) – A documentary feature about the rescue operation to save a group of students trapped in a cable car high above a valley. Read our review. (Paramount+)
Nature Season 45, Episode 3: “Tiger Island” – The latest installment of a nature series. This episode continues to involve tigers. (PBS)
Nova Season 53, Episode 15: “Evolution: Bodybuilders” – The third installment of a five-part series within Nova about evolution on Earth over billions of years. This episode looks at the evolution of body shapes and sizes. (PBS)
Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning (2025) – A concert film starring Ozzy Osborne and his band Black Sabbath. (In Theaters)
Pati Jinich Explores Panamericana Season 2, Episode 2: “New Mexico & Colorado — Life Along the Rio” – The latest installment of a docuseries starring the titular chef about Pan-American food, culture, and history. (PBS)
After The First 48 Season 13, Episode 2: “No Road Home” – The latest installment of a true-crime docuseries about murder cases attempted to be solved in the first 48 hours. This episode involves a woman gunned down on the side of the road. (A&E)
Archive X: Unexplained Phenomena Season 1, Episode 5: “Near Death Experience” – The latest installment of a docuseries that explores prophetic dreams, ESP, near-death experiences, alien encounters, and messages from beyond. (Sundance Channel)
Black Cats and Broomsticks (1955) – A short documentary about superstitions, personal rituals, taboos, and talismans. (TCM – Technically airing early Friday morning.)
George Hall and His Orchestra (1937) – A short music film featuring performances by the titular group. (TCM – Technically airing early Friday morning.)
Killer Investigations Season 2, Episode 2: “The Missing Mom” – The latest installment of a true-crime series about the country’s most gripping homicide cases. (A&E)
MGM Parade Show #13 (1955) – This installment of the Hollywood-focused docuseries showcases the MGM films The Great Waltz and I’ll Cry Tomorrow. (TCM)
10/30 – Paging Hezbollah – A documentary feature about Israel’s use of electronic devices, including pagers, in attacks against Hezbollah. (In Theaters)
11/4 – Taken: Natalee Holloway – A three-part true crime docuseries about the 2005 disappearance of the titular teenager during her high school graduation trip to Aruba. Watch the new trailer for the series below. (Netflix)
11/6 – Kratom: Side Effects May Include – A documentary feature about the titular substance known as “gas station heroin.” (VOD)
11/6 – Wolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory – A nature documentary special about wolves. (National Geographic)
11/8 – The Biggest Little Farm Series – A 12-part docuseries sequel to the film The Biggest Little Farm that continues the story of the Chester farm. Watch the new trailer for the series below. (YouTube)
11/10 – We Chose to Go to the Moon – A live documentary about America’s mission to go to the Moon. (PBS)
11/11 – Avedon – A Critics Choice-nominated biographical documentary feature by Ron Howard (Pavarotti) about the photographer Richard Avedon. Watch the new trailer for the film below. *NONFICS PICK* (Netflix)
11/13 – Expedition: Saving Our Seas – A medium-length documentary special about the impact of rapid environmental change on the world’s oceans. (National Geographic)
11/16 – Crime and Punishment in America – A four-part docuseries directed by Lynn Novick (The U.S. and the Holocaust), executive produced by Ken Burns and Sam Pollard, and narrated by Keith David about the history of the American criminal justice system. Watch the trailer for the series below. (PBS).
11/27 – 14th – A Critics Choice-documentary feature by Ava DuVernay (13th) about the 14th Amendment. *NONFICS PICK* (In Theaters)
12/6 – Lucy Worsley’s Keys to the Castle – A four-part docuseries that spotlights four of Europe’s most iconic castles. (PBS)
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Possible Love
(South Korea, 160 min.)
Dir. Lee Chang-dong
Prod. Lee Joon-dong, David Levine, Chadwick Pritchard
A documentary camera serves as the mediator of and catalyst for deeply rooted class divides in Possible Love. This drama from South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong (Burning) observes the power and authority a camera wields. Documentary filmmaker Ye-ji (Parasite’s Cho Yeo-jeong) endeavours to make a movie about the fallout of a labour strike at a local factory. Her production intersects with the interpersonal drama of Mi-ok (Secret Sunshine’s Jeon Do-yeon) and her husband, Ho-seok (Memoir of a Murder’s Sul Kyung-gu). A marital squabble breaks out between the two at a funeral reception for a departed colleague. Sensing juicy drama, Ye-ji hovers in the background, camera in hand. She proves both an invasive presence and a therapeutic one.
Possible Love offers a fascinating spin on the dynamics of documentary and the relationship between filmmaker and participant. Ye-ji instantly sees Mi-ok and Ho-seok as ideal figures for her film. She’s especially keen to learn Ho-seok’s story, as she gleans that he played a key role in the labour strikes. He resists, as the dispute lingers like cancerous tumour that can neither be removed nor treated. He wants nothing to do with the movie. Playing hard to get, however, inevitably makes him an interview that Ye-ji covets.
Mi-ok, meanwhile, is perfectly game to participate. She takes a shine to Ye-ji and her media mogul husband, Sang-woo (Hope’s Zo In-sung). She sits down and bares herself for Ye-ji’s camera, offering stories about growing up in a working class family before becoming a factory labourer herself. Mi-ok cautiously unfolds bits of information that reveal the story of the strike that still traumatizes Ho-seok. She speaks of jail time and brutal beatings. But it’s the betrayal of colleagues and former friends that still stings. She knows, however, that some stories aren’t hers to tell. Ye-ji has to earn their trust for the full picture.
The exchange between filmmaker and participant becomes more complicated as production passes. Mi-ok clearly finds herself seduced by her director. Ye-ji and Ho-seok live in another world and enjoy the riches of the upper class. For example, Mi-ok takes a moment to check the price online of the chic handbag that Ye-ji carries on a shoot. It’s worth roughly $6,000, so probably more than Mi-ok and Ho-seok’s monthly income combined. Fellow labourers and even members of the film crew frequently remark upon Ye-ji’s fashionable outfits while interviewing labourers about the strikes. The more she immerses herself in the plights of the working class, the more she subconsciously brings class distinctions into the fold.
But Mi-ok and Ye-ji become genuine friends throughout the production. The languid film mixes work and play. The women dine together and gradually call one another sisters. They introduce their husbands and their kids–one human, one dog–to the relationship. Lee unfolds the quietly moving drama in a manner that allows brief moments where happiness exists outside of bills to pay and having someone to answer to. And yet for Mi-ok and especially Ho-seok, reminders of hardships wrought by their work and their push for equality are never far away. Each reminder brings a new story to the film within the film.
Relating the story of the previous labour strife also inspires Mi-ok to fight for a union at her new workplace. That’s great material for Ye-ji, too, as she seeks additional storylines to expand the documentary. She also has a hand in setting the unionization in motion, as the repetitive action of the factory proves bit too boring for her liking. Meanwhile, Mi-ok offers direction of her own, like advising Ye-ji to dress down around workers with financial struggles.
The relationship between Mi-ok and Ye-ji probes the challenges of keeping a remove while making documentaries. The friendship between the women seems genuine, and there’s some fetishization on either side of the class divide. Mi-ok clearly romanticizes Ye-ji’s comfortable life with Sang-woo. She photographs all their meals together and envies the freedom the high life affords. From where she stands, money does, in fact, buy happiness.
Ye-ji, similarly, displays sympathy for her friends’ blue-collar life, but doesn’t fully understand their plight. Her displays of generosity tread the line between earnest and condescending. Sang-woo, who doesn’t pretend that his wealth makes him different from the other couple, teases that it’s all a performance. Ye-ji insists there’s some possibility for a genuine friendship at the other side of the documentary.
Lee, speaking in the post-screening Q&A at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year where Possible Love had its North American premiere, says his affinity for labourers long inspired him to make a film about their situation. However, he noted during the conversation that he initially felt that documentary was the only way to do their story justice and, being a dramatic filmmaker, could never quite find the angle. He explained that co-writer Oh Jung-Mi introduced the idea of a documentary filmmaker as a framing device for the labour struggles and the in-movie director’s point-of-view arguably expands the class commentary.
On one hand, the intimate confessionals of the interviews illustrate the power relations that extend beyond the factory floor. Ye-ji holds authority over Mi-ok and Ho-seok and she knows it. Saying when to roll and when to cut, deciding which aspects of their lives are worthy of airtime, her calls as a filmmaker visibly weigh on her friends. Possible Love observes the fickle complexity of distinguishing “subjects” from “participants” through Ye-ji’s interactions with the couple. Her approach favours the former role, while Lee’s film suggests that such passive relationships between filmmaker and actor inevitably perpetuate hierarchies and divides. Lee smartly critics the documentary filmmaker without putting down the artform she practices.
On the dramatic side, seamless flashbacks create visual and narrative parallels in the present. As the two families explore life within strange economic brackets, Lee evokes the ways in which class structures are ingrained and perpetuated through labour, particularly manual blue-collar work.
Moreover, the nuanced and deeply empathetic performances by Jeon and Cho illustrate how two women living under the same moon can be worlds apart. As Mi-ok gradually summons her confidence in her standings and her comfort with her modest life, Jeon commands the film with a moving portrayal of a woman who values love, freedom, and loyalty above the material wealth her friends flaunt.
Cho, meanwhile, beautifully captures Ye-ji’s inability to connect on an interpersonal level with the people whose lives and struggles she seeks to represent. She can’t quite seem to learn from all the interviews she conducts and the challenges that she observes. For all her immersion into class structure and labour strife, her film seems fully void of personality. She won’t reckon with her own privilege while probing lower rungs on the social ladder and can’t translate the lessons of the filmmaking process into her own life.
Lee’s film suggests that relationships within the artistic process must ultimately be active and engaged. Ye-ji may conduct the interviews from behind the camera, yet Mi-ok proves to be the active and attentive listener and observer. She hasn’t seen the film—obviously, it’s still in production—and yet she understands the moral of the story better than her own director does. And yet in creating this expansive canvas for women like Mi-ok and Ye-ji to navigate the intricacies of class and labour, Lee dexterously shows how to tell a story with a voice that feels authentically one’s own.
The post Possible Love Review: Class Seen through the Documentary Lens appeared first on POV Magazine.
GRAMMY-nominated singer Forrest Frank has released an official movie teaser for “The Jesus Generation,” a documentary slated for theaters in 2027 that chronicles the artist and the young fans who filled arenas and stadiums on his recently completed headlining tour of the same name. The film is releasing through Kingdom Story Company and Lionsgate. The […]
If all you know of José Padilha is that he directed the RoboCop remake, then you could do with a lesson in Brazilian cinema. Padilha helped put the nation on the global movie stage last decade with his popular Elite Squad films as well as his essential documentaries Bus 174 and Secrets of the Tribe. His RoboCop also had some great ideas, but unfortunately, it also had some problems. Since then, Padilha has found greater success producing the Netflix series Narcos.
While he’s not one to give out advice, Padilha does have some ideas about filmmaking to share, along with some lessons he’s learned and has imparted through interviews over the years. Check out these tips below.
If all you know of José Padilha is that he directed the RoboCop remake, then you could do with a lesson in Brazilian cinema. Padilha helped put the nation on the global movie stage last decade with his popular Elite Squad films as well as his essential documentaries Bus 174 and Secrets of the Tribe. His RoboCop also had some great ideas, but unfortunately, it also had some problems. Since then, Padilha has found greater success producing the Netflix series Narcos.
While he’s not one to give out advice, Padilha does have some ideas about filmmaking to share, along with some lessons he’s learned and has imparted through interviews over the years. Check out these tips below.
Between the massive success of You Can See Everything, the swell of support for Run Terry Run, the sell-outs for NAZA, and the chatter for Musk, there are lots of doc options at the theatres – but these popular hits might have full houses in the days ahead. In case readers don’t already have a ticket for some of these much-buzzed docs this week, don’t fret. There are no less than three film festivals running in Toronto’s “Festober” season.
If the recent shifts in the weather pique your curiosity about something in the air, look no further than the Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival. If the current theatrical landscape gives you a desire to see more diverse representation in movies, check out Reelworld Film Festival. And if keeping pace with the dizzying regional festival circuit and endless cycle of event screenings leaves you feeling exasperated, take in some stories about mental health and addiction at Rendezvous with Madness.
Here are some documentary highlights screening at each of this week’s festivals, listed in calendar order.
Tues, Oct. 20 – Paradise Theatre
Planet in Focus kicks off with one of the year’s best films: Nuisance Bear! This absolute delight of a film won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at to fuel a worldwide tour. Canadian filmmakers Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman expand their equally terrific short and return to Churchill, Manitoba to take in the migration of polar bears from the arctic as climate changes forces a new path in their travel plans. Especially ambitious, and admirable, is the film’s effort to expand the story of displacement to the stories of Inuit and Indigenous populations, all the while balancing an offbeat tone that provides a light touch without making light of the situation. “The feature furthers many of the ideas explored in the short, but with a cinematic eye that elevates the material on every level,” I wrote in our review from Sundance. “This is a beautifully shot and artistically innovative environmental fable that masterfully connects the layers of colonial history within the contemporary climate crisis.” Read more about Nuisance Bear in our interview with the filmmakers and how the documentary sits within a larger body of films that illustrate urgent stories about the North.
Thurs, Oct. 22 – Paradise Theatre
Planet in Focus adds a bittersweet tribute to the festivities with the Toronto debut of The Blueberry Blues (Les blues du bleuet) from late filmmaker Andres Livov. The film previously served as the closing night selection of last fall’s RIDM where it won the Women’s Inmates Award. Livov’s final work focuses on the rich blueberry crop of Lac-Saint-Jean, Québec and observes as local hands gather to harvest the berries, which yield wonderful jams, pies, and preserves to fuel residents and tourists alike for the seasons ahead. The blueberry harvest intersects with different winds factoring into climate change, including the helping hands of migrant workers and the larger social dynamics their presence represents, while looming wildfires evoke a wider crisis. The festival screening pays tribute to filmmakers who understand that the implications of the stories they tell far outlast their own time on earth.
Fri, Oct. 23 – Paradise Theatre
Wayuu warriors in Colombia’s La Guajira desert provide three sets of eyes through which one sees this visually arresting environmental tale. The Wind’s Thirst, which has its Toronto premiere at the festival, offers another perspective in the interconnected network of stories about growing water scarcity in the face of climate change and radical new forms of human industry. Director Alejandro Valbuena lets the camera witness the fight of three Wayuu elders when a local reservoir becomes diverted to assist a mine that’s polluting the region. Their efforts to protect their land and people by preserving clean water illustrates a larger force happening worldwide in which communities, often Indigenous ones, are expected to compromise the natural systems that sustain them for the benefit of outside forces with no interest in the region’s long-term health.
Sat, Oct. 24 – Paradise Theatre
There’s a true canary in the coalmine tale in this eye-opening tale about a local population devastated by aggressive water consumption habits and environmental shifts that dramatically reduced the supply at Great Salt Lake. The rapid decline of the lake means that threatening amounts of dust whip into the air as windstorms carry harmful carcinogens to nearby areas. The Lake, which has its Canadian premiere at PiF after opening Sundance, follows director Abby Ellis as she observes the situation through three very different sets of eyes as the confront a shared emergency through differing perspectives of science, politics, and faith. “The Lake finds in the Great Salt Lake area an ideal microcosm for the climate crisis. Many of the film’s participants are deeply religious and are members of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints. Initially, as Ellis observes the participants praying, referring to Bible verses, or advising others to say a good word to the man upstairs, one anticipates the film to feature a collision between science and faith. Instead, the characters’ faith implores them to listen to the science. Their spirituality calls upon them to protect the land and their neighbours. They know that if God created the planet, it’s not on him to bail them out,” I wrote in POV’s review from Sundance. “What follows is an essential portrait of finding common ground in service of protecting our future.”
Sat, Oct. 24 – Cineplex Scotiabank
After winning three prizes at Montreal’s RIDM last fall, including the People’s Choice Award, this film by Nadia Louis-Desmarchais has its Ontario premiere at the festival. A Thousand Colours offers a personal exploration of race, identity, and belonging as Louis-Desmarchais reflects upon her story as a biracial woman who was raised in a white family. She recalls how having a Haitian mother and Italian-Quebecois father leaves her feeling like an odd one out when she and her siblings were put up for adoption and she grew up without really having any concept of her Blackness and its role in shaping her present and future. Reviewing the film at RIDM, Matthew Hays called it a “profound bit of filmmaking, indicating that each person’s journey is unique…Louis-Desmarchais’s approach is multi-faceted: she is grappling with the biological parents who abandoned her; she’s processing growing up in a predominantly white household; she’s realizing her own internalized racism; making sense of her identity as biracial; and she’s reuniting with siblings who were adopted into other households.”
Sunday, Oct. 25 – Cineplex Scotiabank
This documentary complements a film that recently screened to a full house at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, The Sickling, about a filmmaker’s experience with sickle cell disease and his encounters with medical racism. The Perfect Match captures another side of that story as it observes what happens to communities that grow to distrust the health care system after decades of racism and discrimination. Director Sandro Silva observes as a Ghanaian father in Edmonton desperately seeks treatment for his young son, who has a rare form of leukemia. A stem cell transplant could save the boy’s life, but Black matches within the system are extremely rare because of the history of neglect for Black patients and their needs. The father finds himself racing against time as he rallies for hospitals to change their practices and become more inclusive in order to gain the trust of prospective donors.
Sunday, Oct. 25 – Cineplex Scotiabank
Love is in the air as Reelworld offers a refreshingly light alternative to what looks like an overall heavy weekend on the festival scene. The doc by Joella Cabalu, however, shows that being lighthearted doesn’t mean that a film’s lightweight. First Comes Love: Nakabingwit gives documentary a rom-com spin by following three mixed-race couples with one Filipina partner and one white partner as they look for love. Their honeymoon phases inevitably get their respective wake-up calls, however, as the partners encounter the ways in which race and lived experiences shape their paths and worldviews. Some couples find tests of faith, while others learn that opposites attract, and others have some frank conversations about the future might look like for them and any children they might have. Swipe right and maybe you’ll meet a fellow movie lover while running from film to film!
Sat, Oct. 24 – CAMH Arrell Family Auditorium
The subway line often gets a bad rap, especially when it intersects with conversations about mental health. We’ve all seen videos circulating on social media about mishaps and altercations at on the TTC that reflect a broken care system. On the flipside, subway rides are opportunities to take part in community. New York photographer Travis Huggett defies the custom that tells riders to avert their eyes from other passengers on public transit as he takes his son and his camera along the rails of the Big Apple. As Huggert photographs Orson, who is on the Autism spectrum, and captures the joys of other children along public transit, this film by Ian Daffern shows a magical form of street photography that captures the interconnectedness of urban life.
Sun, Oct. 25 – CAMH Arrell Family Auditorium
One probably needs a sense of humour to take in a film about anxiety as weekend viewing during regional festival season. Anyone feeling crushed by the flurry, however, might want to embrace the challenge that O Fear, O Night offers. This NFB doc by Christine Chevarie-Lessard sees the filmmaker bravely confront that voice of fear and dread that always lingers in her mind. She embarks on a personal quest with an Anxiety Anonymous group, and meets a cast of eclectic characters who help her learn how to live with the ever-present sense of panic that ripples through her mind. It’s an exploration of drives both personal and universal, and one that oddly confronts a basic emotion that’s shared by all of us, but holds many of us back.
Tues, Oct. 27 – Small World Centre
A family undertakes a powerful exercise in confronting and processing their grief in this remarkable first feature from Carol Nguyễn. The film expands upon a story shared by Nguyễn’s father in her breakout short No Crying at the Dinner Table as he reveals the truth about his brother, Thatch, who died in a suicide. The family traces the long-held secret of Thatch’s mental health struggles while going back to their home in Vietnam to lay his spirit to rest, and heal their own souls in the process. “Still Night, Burning House may swim in the family pool of sadness, but the soothing towel of hope is always nearby,” wrote Courtney Small in POV’s review of the film. “Documenting a family trip to Vietnam, where specific items are gathered to give her uncle a proper send off, Nguyễn’s documentary manages to reclaim a sense of dignity for a man whose life after death was mentioned in whispers. In doing so, the audience feels as if they too are mourning a relative.” Read more about Still Night, Burning House in this feature from our current issue.
Weds, Oct. 28 – Small World Centre
This award winner from the Berlin Film Festival takes an artistic approach to grief as filmmaker Anna Fitch, who directed the doc with Banker White, builds a replica of her friend Yolanda’s house after her death. A puppet version stands in for Yolanda, or “Yo” to her friends, as Fitch makes sense of her loss. “The film juxtaposes vérité footage from the final year of Yo’s life with miniatures, animation, and handcrafted interpretations of her stories. Here, artificiality gives material form to the memory of someone who cannot respond to the finished representation,” wrote Davide Abatescianni in an article for our current issue. “The distinction is ethically significant. Sandu speaks as both the child who experienced the past and the adult reshaping it. Fitch works as the survivor, using her grief to determine how Yo continues to exist onscreen. The miniature house is an act of devotion but also possession: preserving someone through cinema means selecting the version that will survive. The replica can be entered and inhabited, yet the woman whose world it reconstructs can no longer alter its arrangement.”
The post Festober Cometh: Doc Highlights on the Circuit appeared first on POV Magazine.
Hello friends,
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to start a new edit.
As I noted in that post, setting milestones is a big part of my process with editors. On my current film, the First Assembly Cut milestone is looming — it’s in January, omg!!! — so I’m right in the thick of it.
And as with so many other things in my job as a documentary director, having a weekly newsletter to write has me thinking about all the things I’ve learned that make this stage easier… and all the ways I still make it harder than it needs to be.
An assembly is an early, rough version of the film where you put all or most of the material you think belongs in the film into a sequence to see what you have and how it might fit together. In documentary, it usually means:
Scenes or sections are assembled loosely, often following a first provisional outline;
It’s long and uneven — story beats run on and on, scenes repeat ideas, transitions are missing, and there’s probably a bunch of text cards indicating missing scenes;
The structure is still being discovered. You’re seeing which characters, themes, and structures actually work with the footage you’ve got so far.
An assembly is the first major editing milestone before the first rough cut, which makes a more deliberate argument for what the film is. An assembly asks, “What have we actually got here? Is it working? In this movie, what does ‘working’ even mean?”
Today I’ll share how I break this essential and often misunderstood work into manageable chunks, decide what deserves time right now and what really doesn’t, and how to start finding the story structure. I’ll use examples from the assembly cutting of one of my trickier films to cut: Confessions of a Good Samaritan.
I’ll also share the one scene I cut immediately after the assembly, and another one everyone told me to cut that I instead fought for and made the emotional climax of the film.
Plus: who should actually get to see this glorious mess, and how to watch it yourself without deciding you should find another career stat!
