American Documentary

At the elite MIT, a Ghanaian alum follows four African students striving to become agents of positive change back home. Even as their dreams are anchored in the societies they left, their daily realities are defined by America. Each must ...

How to Have an American Baby is a kaleidoscopic voyage into the shadow economy catering to Chinese tourists who travel to the US to give birth for citizenship. Told through a series of intimately observed vignettes, the story of a ...

A vibrant tender cine-poem, a filmmaker collaborates with her Nisei mother as they confront the painful curious reality of wisdom ‘gone wild’ in the shadows of dementia. Made over 16 years, the film blends humor and sadness in an encounter ...

Wearing snapback caps and Air Jordans, the Reality Poets aren’t typical nursing home residents. In Fire Through Dry Grass, these young, Black and brown disabled artists document their lives on lockdown during Covid, their rhymes underscoring the danger and ...

At 14, Aurora Madriganian survived the Armenian Genocide and escaped to New York, where her story became a media sensation. Her newfound fame led to her starring in Auction of Souls, one of Hollywood's earliest blockbusters. Blending storybook animation, video ...

How would you handle the trauma of losing a loved one? Murders That Matter documents African American Muslim mother Movita Johnson-Harrell over five years as she transforms from a victim of violent trauma into a fierce advocate against gun violence ...

Uýra shares ancestral knowledge with Indigenous youth in the Amazon to promote the significance of identity and place, threatened by Brazil's oppressive political regime. Through dance, poetry, and stunning characterization, Uýra confronts historical racism, transphobia, and environmental destruction, while emphasizing ...

After 20 years of living in the United States, an undocumented family decides to return home. Little do they know it will be the most difficult journey of their lives. Set between the backdrop of the rodeo rings of North ...

A timely depiction of a newsroom in crisis, While We Watched follows Ravish Kumar for two years as he battles a barrage of fake news, falling ratings and the resulting cutbacks while struggling to maintain fact-based analyses. Will his show ...

Children of the Mist traces the story of Di, a 13-year-old girl coming of age in a remote indigenous Hmong community in the mountains of Northwest Vietnam. As part of the first generation in her village with access to formal ...

Paralyzed by late-stage ALS and reliant on round-the-clock care, Kathryn clings to a mordant wit as she yearns to witness her daughter's wedding. Shot from her fixed point of view, Eat Your Catfish delivers a brutally frank and darkly humorous ...

Near the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine, a safe haven provides refuge for children who have been temporarily separated from their parents. A House Made of Splinters chronicles three displaced kids who, despite the perils surrounding them, find moments of joy ...

Two Korean American children of liquor store owners reconcile their own dreams with those of their immigrant parents. They confront the complex legacies of LA's racial landscape, including the 1991 murder of Latasha Harlins and the 1992 uprisings sparked by ...

As Construction Environmental Officer for St. Helena's troubled airport project, Annina van Neel learns about an unmarked mass burial ground of an estimated 9,000 formerly enslaved Africans. Haunted by this historical injustice, she and African American preservationist Peggy King ...

Returning to the coastal South Carolina land that his family purchased after emancipation, filmmaker Jon-Sesrie Goff's desire to explore his Gullah/Geechee roots transforms into a poetic investigation of Black inheritance, trauma, and generational wisdom, amidst the violent tensions that ...

Town Destroyer probes a passionate dispute over historic murals at a public high school depicting the life of George Washington: slaveowner, General, land speculator, President, and a man Seneca leaders called “town destroyer.” The controversy becomes a touchstone for a ...

“Where are you really from?” Inspired by a young generation’s creative response to this loaded question, From Here follows artists and activists from immigrant families coming of age in an era of rising xenophobia and political turmoil. Set in ...

When housing on the lowest rung of the American dream is being devoured by the wealthiest of the wealthy, whose dream are we serving? A Decent Home addresses urgent issues of class and economic (im)mobility through the lives of ...

Big Chief T is a high school senior and the youngest Mardi Gras Indian Big Chief in New Orleans. During COVID-19, he and the Black Hawk Hunters navigate the impacts of gentrification and systemic racism on their annual masking tradition ...

Blurring the Color Linefollows director Crystal Kwok as she unpacks the history behind her grandmother’s family, who were neighborhood grocery store owners in the Black community of Augusta, Georgia during the Jim Crow era. By centering women’s ...

After 20 years, Sol Guy finally watches his late father’s tapes and embarks on a personal journey of healing and reconciliation. At once a conversation between past and present and a letter to Sol's children, The Death Of My ...