Screen’s chief critic and reviews editor Fionnuala Halligan compiles some of the standout documentary features to premiere at this year’s festivals so far, including Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, SXSW and Visions du Reel.
1970 (Visions du Reel)
Dir. Tomasz Wolski
Our critic said: “The ghosts of Polish history haunt the documentary screen to eerie effect in Tomasz Wolski’s unsettling and revealing hybrid film.”
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Dark Blossom (Hot Docs)
Dir. Frigge Fri
Our critic said: “Frigge Fri’s playful and impressionistic approach to her documentary embraces the theatre that these three outsiders create to insulate themselves from an unsympathetic world.”
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Faya Dayi (Visions du Reel)
Dir. Jessica Beshir
Our critic said: “Jessica Beshir’s hypnotic, immersive and very beautiful documentary marks an impressive feature debut.”
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The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual For Military Occupation (Visions du Reel)
Dir. Avi Mograbi
Our critic said: “This sobering, essential documentary focuses on the testimony of Israeli men who served in Gaza and the West Bank.”
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Four Seasons In A Day (Hot Docs)
Dir. Annabel Verbeke
Our critic said: “The hefty consequences of Brexit are viewed with the lightest of touches in Annabel Verbeke’s kaleidoscopic documentary, which vibrantly captures the human ebb and flow on a ferry crossing between Northern Ireland and the Republic Of Ireland.”
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I’m Wanita (Hot Docs)
Dir. Matthew Walker
Our critic said: “Walker’s film is stranger and more nuanced than its ‘late-life A Star Is Born’ set-up would suggest. What makes it stand out from a host of imitators is its shape-shifting moral and emotional arc: the story we get at the end is richer, messier and more interesting than a mere fairytale.”
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The Last Shelter (CPH:DOX)
Dir. Ousmane Samassekou
Our critic said: “A humane, deeply moving film, this should resonate with audiences and festival programmers following a world premiere at CPH-DOX and a North American premiere at Hot Docs.”
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Les Enfants Terribles (Visions du Reel)
Dir. Ahmet Necdet Cupur
Our critic said: “The intimacy of the interactions and the obvious emotional connection that the filmmaker has with his subjects provides this documentary with a remarkably unfiltered candour, highlighting a culture clash that extends to an entire regressive community.”
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Lost Boys (CPH:DOX)
Dir. Joonas Neuvonen
Our critic said: “Dark, daring and deeply disturbing, Joonas Neuvonen’s follow-up to his award-winning debut Reindeerspotting: Escape From Santaland, about young drug users in Lapland, delves into the same hellish underbelly of addiction and crime.”
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Our Memory Belongs To Us (CPH:DOX)
Dirs. Rami Farah, Signe Byrge Sorensen
Our critic said: “Recorded in Daraa, Syria from 2011-12, the film invites a dialogue between the material and three of the men who shot it. The result is a personal, powerful and thought-provoking interrogation, not just of the grassroots movement against the Assad regime, but also of the role played by citizen journalists in raising awareness of it.”
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Rebel Dykes (BFI Flare)
Dirs. Harri Shanahan, Sîan Williams
Our critic said: “This boisterous oral history of a little-known underground London lesbian scene which spawned from a collision between punk and feminism is a blast.”
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Reconciliation (CPH:DOX)
Dir. Marija Zidar
Our critic said: “Slovenian director Marija Zidar’s feature documentary debut feels particularly resonant in the wake of the George Floyd trial.”
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The Return: Life After Isis (SXSW)
Dir. Alba Sotorra Clua
Our critic said: “In a desolate camp in Northern Syria, stateless ‘Isis Brides’ open up to Alba Sotorra’s sympathetic lens.”
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Viral (Hot Docs)
Dirs. Udi Nir, Sagi Bornstein
Our critic said: “Focussing on seven main characters, all in their early 20s, Viral not only provides an idiosyncratic global perspective on a tumultuous year, it is also an insightful snapshot of Gen Z and its relationship with social media.”
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Who We Are: A Chronicle Of Racism In America (SXSW)
Dirs. Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler
Our critic said: “Two hours, painful though they may be, simply aren’t enough as this ACLU leader sews America’s troubled racial present into the fabric of its bloody past via a staged monologue.”
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