2022 Movies : Documentary

With Ryan White • Darryl Frank • Justin Falvey • Brandon Carroll • and Matthew Goldberg

Good Night Oppy tells the inspirational true story of Opportunity, a rover that was sent to Mars for a 90-day mission but ended up surviving for 15 years. The film follows Opportunity’s groundbreaking journey on Mars and the remarkable bond forged between a robot and her humans millions of miles away.

With Jonah Hill

World-renowned therapist Phil Stutz sits down for an unusual, heartfelt session with friend and patient Jonah Hill, bringing to life Stutz’s visualization exercises, called The Tools, and sharing how to apply them to pursue “active love.”

With Luca Gudagnino

The documentary tracks Salvatore Ferragamo’s fascinating personal, artistic and business story, from his childhood in Bonito, where he made his first pair of shoes, to his journey to America to seek his fortune, from his experiences in Hollywood to his return to Italy, from the verge of bankruptcy to resurgence in his Florence factory and rise to definitive acclaim.

With Selena Gomez • Alek Keshishian

After years in the limelight, Selena Gomez achieves unimaginable stardom. But just as she reaches a new peak, an unexpected turn pulls her into darkness. This uniquely raw and intimate documentary spans her six-year journey into a new light.

With Marcel Mettelsiefen • Tamana Ayazi

Filmed across two turbulent years, In Her Hands tells the story of Zarifa Ghafari, who at 26 became one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors and the youngest to ever hold the position. The film documents her fight for survival against the backdrop of her country’s accelerated unraveling. As Western forces announce their retreat and the Taliban start their sweep back to power, Zarifa and women across the country face a new reality. Amid these tectonic changes, Zarifa must make the most difficult decision of her life.

With Alexandra Rojas • Rachel Lears • Rhiana Gunn-Wright • Varshini Prakash • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Filmed over four years of hope and crisis, TO THE END captures the emergence of a new generation of leaders and the movement behind the most sweeping climate change legislation in U.S. history. Award-winning director Rachel Lears (Knock Down The House) follows four exceptional young women— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, activist Varshini Prakash, climate policy writer Rhiana Gunn-Wright, and political strategist Alexandra Rojas— as they grapple with new challenges of leadership and power and work together to defend their generation’s right to a future. From street protests to the halls of Congress, these bold leaders fight to shift the narrative around climate, revealing the crisis as an opportunity to build a better society. Including up-to-the-minute footage that culminates in 2022’s landmark climate bill, TO THE END lifts the veil on the battle for the future of our world, and gives audiences a front seat view of history in the making.

With TJ Regan • Rodney Bonnifield • Mike Rocha • Ryan Cory • Rainee Blake • Chris Grounds • Sharmila Sahni

Two bounty hunter brothers encounter an ailing old man named Rodney Bonnifield while coordinating his bail after a violent encounter on a dairy farm involving a machete. Close to his sentencing, he reveals to the bondsmen that he is in fact the infamous DB Cooper, the man responsible for the 1971 plane hijacking in the Pacific Northwest, and the ransom cash is still buried along the Columbia River. Up against the clock with Rodney’s prison sentence looming, the group sets out on a modern-day treasure hunt to recover the money he buried near the river 50 years ago, uncovering bizarre truths about Rodney Bonnifield and his connection to the only unsolved plane hijacking in U.S. history.

With Josh Alexander

Rabble rouser or activist? Opportunist or trailblazer? During his six-decade journey from pastoral prodigy to racial justice firebrand to elder media statesman, the Reverend Al Sharpton has been a polarizing figure on the national stage

With Laura Poitras

A documentary about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, interviews, photography and rare footage of her fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.

With Idina Menzel • Anne McCabe

The intimate and inspirational film follows Tony Award®-winning icon Idina Menzel on her path to realize a lifelong dream: headlining a concert at Madison Square Garden in her hometown of New York City. Featuring never-before-seen performance footage alongside raw and vulnerable interviews, the documentary follows Idina on an intimate journey as she juggles the challenges of being a working mom and wife on a grueling travel schedule while preparing to take the stage at the legendary arena.

With David Fincher • Steven Soderbergh • Ciara Lacy • Elvis Mitchell • Angus Wall

From celebrated writer and film historian Elvis Mitchell, Is That Black Enough for You?!? is both a documentary and deeply personal essay. The film examines the craft and power of cinema from a perspective often overlooked: the African American contribution to films released from the landmark era of the 70s.

With Bentley Dean • Chris Veerhuis

A feature length documentary that digs deep into the psyche of enigmatic West Australian ‘slab wave’ surfer Kerby Brown, a man whose connection with the ocean runs as deep as his love for his family. This film is far more than just a surfing story. It’s an unapologetic musing into the essence of Kerby and his family as we join them on his quest to ride a ferocious slab wave in the deep southern ocean that no one on the planet has surfed before. It’s a film about fear, addictions, and family bonds as we explore what drives Kerby, what anchors him and why he’s obsessed with pitting himself against one of nature’s most intimidating forces.

With Rene Amor Fernandez • Lorenzo Arana Orellano • Jose Antonio Sanchez Sanchez • Francisco Perez de los Cobos Avila • Juan Muñoz Santiago • Jose Ruiz Orejon Casado

One of the best trans films you’ve likely never heard of, Antonio Giménez-Rico’s landmark 1983 documentary Dressed in Blue (Vestida de Azul) explores the lives and loves of a group of six transgender women living in Madrid in the years following Spain’s transition to democracy.

With Marcel Mettelsiefen • Tamana Ayazi

Filmed across two turbulent years, In Her Hands tells the story of Zarifa Ghafari, who at 26 became one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors and the youngest to ever hold the position. The film documents her fight for survival against the backdrop of her country’s accelerated unraveling. As Western forces announce their retreat and the Taliban start their sweep back to power, Zarifa and women across the country face a new reality. Amid these tectonic changes, Zarifa must make the most difficult decision of her life.

With Ove Rishøj Jensen • Magnus Gertten

This extraordinary documentary follows opera singer Nelly Mousset-Vos and writer Nadine Hwang, who met and fell in love while imprisoned in Ravensbrück, a German concentration camp, in 1944. Despite being separated in the last months of the war, they later reunite and spend the rest of their lives together. All that is left of the unlikely love story — kept secret for decades — are photos, letters, and Super-8 film reels kept in boxes. Stumbling upon these years later, Nelly’s granddaughter Sylvie begins piecing together Nelly and Nadine’s legacy and uncovering the records of their remarkable love.

With Robert Patrick • Stefen Fangmeier • Steve Williams • Mark Dippe • Scott Ross • James Hyneman • Phil Tippett • Bill Kimberlin • Scott Leberecht

Steve Williams is considered a pioneer in computer animation. This intimate account examines his life story and events surrounding the historical moment when digital dinosaurs walked onto the silver screen in Jurassic Park. Steve and a chorus of expert witnesses recount a dramatic tale of rebellion and revolution at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic in the early 1990s-- a time when creating realistic creatures with a computer was considered impossible. Decades later, Steve struggles to reckon with his chaotic past.

With Leigh Gill • Nadia Albina • Raphael Warner • Ben Goffe • Corey Johnson • Jimmy Vee • George Appleby • Anthony Barclay • Ako Mitchell • Linda Thorson • David Boynes • Anders Erden • Raimund Berens and Pat Wintersgill

Lion vs The Little People uncovers the shocking truth behind one of the greatest internet hoaxes of all time.

With Leonardo DiCaprio • Brian Grazer • Ron Howard • Mark Bailey • Jennifer Davisson • Rory Kennedy • Phillip Watson • Dallas Brennan Rexer

In the tense and gripping documentary feature The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Rory Kennedy tracks the minute-by-minute unfolding of the tragic volcanic eruption off the coast of New Zealand in December of 2019, ultimately claiming 22 lives. During a routine sightseeing day-trip to a remote volcanic island, 47 tourists and guides were trapped in the epicenter of a boiling pyroclastic surge of toxic dust and ash. Both terrifying and inspiring, the film uses first-hand accounts to convey the experience of living through such a lethal eruption.

Offering more than a startling and brutal portrait of mother nature’s profound indifference, The Volcano also serves as testimony to human nature’s innate generosity. Guided by survivors — men and women who were tested in ways they never imagined — as well as the courageous and quick-thinking ordinary citizens who sprang to action that day, the viewer comes to understand the value of our human connection.

With Nick Sweeney

Every summer, a horde of professional Santas, Mrs. Clauses, and elves descend on a campsite in the New Hampshire woods to learn the tricks of their trade. But this year is different. The organizers, members of the one-hundred strong New England Santa Society, have decided to tackle a complicated and historic problem – the lack of diversity in the Santa industry. They enlist a Black Santa, a Santa with a disability, and a transgender Santa, each with their own surprising Santa origin story.

With David Siev

Bad Axe captures a closely knit Asian-American family living in a rural Michigan community as they now fight to keep their American dream alive. As owners of a local prominent restaurant, they reckon with a global pandemic, racial tensions, and generational scars from Cambodia’s “killing fields.”

With Robert Downey Jr. • Susan Downey • Emily Barclay Ford • Chris Smith • Kevin Ford

From documentarian Chris Smith (American Movie) comes a lovingly irreverent portrait of the life, career, and last days of maverick filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., whose rebellious spirit infused decades of counterculture movie-making. “Sr.” widens the lens from Downey's art to the life with which it was deeply intertwined, including an intimate examination of his relationship with son Robert Downey, Jr. Shot over the course of three years, the film truly honors Senior's nonlinear, outlaw-like approach, including capturing his decision to embark on his own concurrent and final film project. Smith’s portrait of a family and an artist is a meditation on life that’s as surreal as it is sentimental, a celebration of making art with no rules that tosses out its own rulebook along the way.

With Jeff Malmberg

Documentary about Mickey Mouse.

With Laura Poitras

A documentary about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, interviews, photography and rare footage of her fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.

With Ryan White • Darryl Frank • Justin Falvey • Brandon Carroll • and Matthew Goldberg

Good Night Oppy tells the inspirational true story of Opportunity, a rover that was sent to Mars for a 90-day mission but ended up surviving for 15 years. The film follows Opportunity’s groundbreaking journey on Mars and the remarkable bond forged between a robot and her humans millions of miles away.

With Helen Mirren • Evgeny Afineevsky

Crafted from stark footage and exclusive interviews with people displaced by the enduring conflict, Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom reveals how the spirit of unity strengthens morale even amid the country’s darkest hours.

When Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, its citizens instinctively renewed the survival strategies that sustained them eight years prior during the Maidan Uprising. This companion piece to director Evgeny Afineevsky’s Academy Award nominated documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom explores why a jubilant day on Kyiv’s Maidan square instigated warfare that has lasted the better part of a decade. Broadening his focus from a single city, Afineevsky and his veteran Winter on Fire crew turn their lenses on multiple countries, trailing both the Ukrainians trying to escape and those who have vowed to stay behind.

A sweeping look at a humanitarian crisis, the documentary amplifies the views of children, mothers, soldiers, doctors, artists, volunteers, clergymen, and journalists who are transformed while witnessing ceaseless destruction and bloodshed. Featuring narration from Oscar-winning Dame Helen Mirren, Freedom on Fire is a saga of resilience that challenges the international community to oppose tyranny together.

With Ernest Riera • Luis Ansorena Hervés

José Luis Barbero, one of the world’s most famous dolphin trainers, is at the peak of his 30-year-career. He has just been hired as a Vice-President by the prestigious Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta (USA), when a 99-second blurry video is released online. It allegedly shows him abusing the dolphins under his care.

A scandal ensues, but Barbero claims he doesn’t recognize himself in the video. He says he is innocent and a victim of a revenge scheme by some ex-employees. The affair breaks in the news across the globe dividing those who fight to defend or denounce the master dolphin trainer. The dolphin trainer receives a wave of online hate, including death threats. A few weeks later Barbero disappears. This documentary thriller charts the epic rise and fall of Barbero until the moment of his disappearance. With footage from inside the marine parks where he worked, the film reveals the dark side of the industry from an insider’s perspective.

Was the video of Barbero an attempt to bring down an outdated and cruel industry, or was its real intention a personal vendetta? Those at the heart of this dark and tragic story share their version of events for the first time.

Created between January and September 1971, this docufilm takes viewers on an intimate journey to Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch in Northern California for the “Harvest Barn” sessions, to London for an iconic performance with the London Symphony Orchestra, and to Nashville where the then 20-something Neil Young worked on various tracks of this signature album. Performance and rehearsal content is intertwined into creative storytelling and includes most of the tracks from album Harvest (released in 1972) including “Heart of Gold,” “A Man Needs A Maid,” “Alabama,” and “Old Man.”

With Geeta Gandbhir • Sam Pollard

The passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 represented not the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, but the beginning of a new, crucial chapter. Nowhere was this next battle better epitomized than in Lowndes County, Alabama, a rural, impoverished county with a vicious history of racist terrorism. In a county that was 80 percent Black but had zero Black voters, laws were just paper without power. This isn’t a story of hope but of action. Through first person accounts and searing archival footage, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County.

With Ramin Bahrani

Broke, brave, and brash, Richard Davis shot himself 192 times. Why? To invent the modern-day bulletproof vest and launch a multimillion-dollar company. He was a hero to police and the military, until tragedy brought him down. His is an American story of guns, violence, lies, and self-deception.

With Silas Howard • Chase Joynt • Zackary Drucker • Angelica Ross • Morgan M Page • Jen Richards • Max Wolf Valerio • Stephen Ira • Jules Gill-Peterson

The pseudonymous Agnes was a pioneering transgender woman who participated in an infamous gender health study conducted at UCLA in the 1960s. Her clever use of the study to gain access to gender-affirming healthcare led to her status as a fascinating and celebrated figure in trans history. In this innovative cinematic exercise that blends fiction and nonfiction, director Chase Joynt (No Ordinary Man) uses Agnes’s story, along with others unearthed in long-shelved case files, to widen the frame through which trans history is viewed. Through a collaborative practice of reimagination, an all-star cast of trans performers, artists, and thinkers – including Angelica Ross (Pose), Jen Richards (Mrs. Fletcher), and Zackary Drucker (Transparent) – take on vividly rendered, impeccably vintage reenactments, bringing to life groundbreaking artifacts of trans history.

With Laura Poitras

A documentary about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, interviews, photography and rare footage of her fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.

With Helen Mirren • Evgeny Afineevsky

Crafted from stark footage and exclusive interviews with people displaced by the enduring conflict, Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom reveals how the spirit of unity strengthens morale even amid the country’s darkest hours.

When Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, its citizens instinctively renewed the survival strategies that sustained them eight years prior during the Maidan Uprising. This companion piece to director Evgeny Afineevsky’s Academy Award nominated documentary Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom explores why a jubilant day on Kyiv’s Maidan square instigated warfare that has lasted the better part of a decade. Broadening his focus from a single city, Afineevsky and his veteran Winter on Fire crew turn their lenses on multiple countries, trailing both the Ukrainians trying to escape and those who have vowed to stay behind.

A sweeping look at a humanitarian crisis, the documentary amplifies the views of children, mothers, soldiers, doctors, artists, volunteers, clergymen, and journalists who are transformed while witnessing ceaseless destruction and bloodshed. Featuring narration from Oscar-winning Dame Helen Mirren, Freedom on Fire is a saga of resilience that challenges the international community to oppose tyranny together.

With Kelvin Mao • Robert Windom • Rob Chatlin

Dave Stevens was a once-in-a-lifetime artist who created the hit comic book series The Rocketeer that reintroduced the world to ’50s pin-up queen Bettie Page and was adapted into a beloved feature film. Dave carried with him a style born of 1930s American Pop Culture, an era he never experienced firsthand, but lived on in his heart and through his illustrations. His award-winning, 35-year career spanned advertising, comics, animation, movies, and TV working with luminaries like Jack Kirby, Doug Wildey, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Landis, and Joe Johnston. Widely considered one of the best illustrators of his generation, Dave Stevens lived life the way he drew, meticulously pursuing a perfection he saw in his mind. His elegant brush work and iconic imagery continue to attract fans and inspire new generations of artists.

With Robert Downey Jr. • Susan Downey • Emily Barclay Ford • Chris Smith • Kevin Ford

From documentarian Chris Smith (American Movie) comes a lovingly irreverent portrait of the life, career, and last days of maverick filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., whose rebellious spirit infused decades of counterculture movie-making. “Sr.” widens the lens from Downey's art to the life with which it was deeply intertwined, including an intimate examination of his relationship with son Robert Downey, Jr. Shot over the course of three years, the film truly honors Senior's nonlinear, outlaw-like approach, including capturing his decision to embark on his own concurrent and final film project. Smith’s portrait of a family and an artist is a meditation on life that’s as surreal as it is sentimental, a celebration of making art with no rules that tosses out its own rulebook along the way.

With Ben Smallbone • Robert Deaton

By the time Johnny Cash released his iconic “Man in Black” album in 1971, the international superstar was broken down, hollow-eyed, and wrung out - often torn between Jesus and the “Cocaine Blues.” Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon tells the true story of a music legend’s spiritual quest, and his ultimate return to an “unshakeable faith.”

With Amy Rice • Sam Bisbee • Jesse Tyler Ferguson • Justin Mikita • Christopher G. Cowen

There is no New York without Broadway. It’s both a landmark and a community, an industry and a people. During the pandemic, over 96,000 people lost their jobs, and an entire industry was brought to a standstill. Broadway Rising tells the story of the Broadway community and its harrowing journey back to the stage following the COVID-19 shutdown. Herculean challenges are not new to Broadway. It has weathered 9/11; the arrival of the motion picture industry; and the devastation of AIDS on a generation of artists. Even amidst the pandemic, many Broadway organizations helped forge a path towards racial equity in the wake of BLM movement. But when employees whose livelihoods depend upon Broadway found themselves unemployed – it was a steep hill to climb back to opening night. This is their story, from early quiet moments of anxiety and self-reflection, to the determination that “the show must go on,” and finally the triumph of September 12, 2021; opening night.

With Chivas DeVinck

From below the earth to the stars, The Great Basin is a documentary feature that builds a complex panorama of rural Nevada, in the Western United States, through a tapestry of characters who work, live, and play there. The Great Basin is the location of the "Loneliest Road in America" and can be seen as a microcosm of the economic, social, and ecological marginalization of 21st-century rural communities.

With Ash Patino • Bruce Nagel

8-year-old Aaron Averhart was just a year shy of being able to move up from Cub Scout to Boy Scout when he received a special request from an admired Boy Scout leader William (Bill) Sheehan. As Aaron rose up the Boy Scout ranks he slowly became aware of Sheehan’s grooming techniques and began to realize he had much more sinister intentions in store for him.If Aaron’s parents had known that since the 1920s the Boy Scouts of America had been keeping hidden files on dangerous pedophiles in their ranks while failing to warn the public the police the scouts their parents or even fully removing them from the Boy Scouts program they would have never allowed young Aaron to be part of such a complicit and corrupt organization.Aaron now tells his four year harrowing account of the pain and horror he suffered at the hands of Boy Scout leader Bill Sheehan. After spending decades thinking he was alone a late night internet search for his abuser leads to the uncovering of dozens of additional victims in a town 1500 miles away.

With Steve Sayre • Garrett Stewart Sayre

Described as the definitive documentary on the subject of the afterlife based on all currently available scientific and historical evidence and has taken 12 years of in-depth research and investigation to complete. The feature-length film explores the paranormal and the relationship of life after life to science. Various religious and scientific perspectives are examined through interviews with some of the preeminent experts in their fields asserting that "death is not the end."

With Leonardo DiCaprio • Brian Grazer • Ron Howard • Mark Bailey • Jennifer Davisson • Rory Kennedy • Phillip Watson • Dallas Brennan Rexer

In the tense and gripping documentary feature The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Rory Kennedy tracks the minute-by-minute unfolding of the tragic volcanic eruption off the coast of New Zealand in December of 2019, ultimately claiming 22 lives. During a routine sightseeing day-trip to a remote volcanic island, 47 tourists and guides were trapped in the epicenter of a boiling pyroclastic surge of toxic dust and ash. Both terrifying and inspiring, the film uses first-hand accounts to convey the experience of living through such a lethal eruption.

Offering more than a startling and brutal portrait of mother nature’s profound indifference, The Volcano also serves as testimony to human nature’s innate generosity. Guided by survivors — men and women who were tested in ways they never imagined — as well as the courageous and quick-thinking ordinary citizens who sprang to action that day, the viewer comes to understand the value of our human connection.

With Joshua Altman • Melissa Lesh • Trevor Beck Frost • Alysa Nahmias

Wildcat follows the emotional and inspiring story of a young veteran on his journey into the Amazon. Once there, he meets a young woman running a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, and his life finds new meaning as he is entrusted with the life of an orphaned baby ocelot. What was meant to be an attempt to escape from life, turns out to be an unexpected journey of love, discovery, and healing.

With Amy Rice • Sam Bisbee • Jesse Tyler Ferguson • Justin Mikita • Christopher G. Cowen

There is no New York without Broadway. It’s both a landmark and a community, an industry and a people. During the pandemic, over 96,000 people lost their jobs, and an entire industry was brought to a standstill. Broadway Rising tells the story of the Broadway community and its harrowing journey back to the stage following the COVID-19 shutdown. Herculean challenges are not new to Broadway. It has weathered 9/11; the arrival of the motion picture industry; and the devastation of AIDS on a generation of artists. Even amidst the pandemic, many Broadway organizations helped forge a path towards racial equity in the wake of BLM movement. But when employees whose livelihoods depend upon Broadway found themselves unemployed – it was a steep hill to climb back to opening night. This is their story, from early quiet moments of anxiety and self-reflection, to the determination that “the show must go on,” and finally the triumph of September 12, 2021; opening night.

With Lizzie Gottlieb

Turn Every Page explores the remarkable fifty-year relationship between two literary legends, writer Robert Caro and his longtime editor Robert Gottlieb. Now 86, Caro is working to complete the final volume of his masterwork, The Years of Lyndon Johnson; Gottlieb, 91, waits to edit it. The task of finishing their life’s work looms before them. With humor and insight, this unique double portrait reveals the work habits, peculiarities and professional joys of these two ferocious intellects at the culmination of a journey that has consumed both their lives and impacted generations of politicians, activists, writers, and readers.

With Joshua Altman • Melissa Lesh • Trevor Beck Frost • Alysa Nahmias

Wildcat follows the emotional and inspiring story of a young veteran on his journey into the Amazon. Once there, he meets a young woman running a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, and his life finds new meaning as he is entrusted with the life of an orphaned baby ocelot. What was meant to be an attempt to escape from life, turns out to be an unexpected journey of love, discovery, and healing.