2021 Movies : Documentary

With Jenifer Lewis • Malcolm D. Lee • Amy McCampbell • Morgan J. Freeman • Jason Pollock

On January 11th, 2013, Kendrick Johnson was found dead in his high school gymnasium rolled up in a gym mat. The state of Georgia ruled his death as an accident, having died from positional asphyxia. When the family hired their own Forensic Pathologist, not only did he find KJ’s organs missing from his body during the autopsy, he determined the cause of death to be from non-accidental blunt force trauma. To this day, no one knows where KJ’s organs have gone.. So what really happened to KJ?

With John Hoffman • Janet Tobias

With his signature blend of scientific acumen, candor and integrity, Dr. Anthony Fauci became America’s most unlikely cultural icon during COVID-19. A world-renowned infectious disease specialist and the longest-serving public health leader in Washington, D.C., he has valiantly overseen the U.S. response to 50 years’ worth of epidemics, including HIV/AIDS, SARS and Ebola. FAUCI is an unprecedented portrait of one of our most vital public servants, whose work saved millions while he faced threats from anonymous adversaries.

With Dave Lindsay • John Terrell • Joseph Paul Branca

Dog Valley is a feature-length documentary film about the 1988 kidnapping, torture, rape and murder of gay college student, Gordon Church. Set in a rural Mormon community in Southern Utah, Dog Valley examines one of the most brutal hate crimes in the United States. It explores the life of the victim and his legacy, and delves into the minds of the killers, Michael Archuleta and Lance Wood. It also shows the crimes' impact on the community and modern-day hate crimes legislation.

With Betsy West • Julie Cohen • Talleah Bridges McMahon

Fifteen years before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat, a full decade before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned separate-but-equal legislation, Pauli Murray was already knee-deep fighting for social justice. A pioneering attorney, activist, priest and dedicated memoirist, Murray shaped landmark litigation—and consciousness— around race and gender equity. As an African American youth raised in the segregated South— who was also wrestling with broader notions of gender identity—Pauli understood, intrinsically, what it was to exist beyond previously accepted categories and cultural norms. Both Pauli’s personal path and tireless advocacy foreshadowed some of the most politically consequential issues of our time.

With Jessica Kingdon

Mesmerizing in its imagery and shot in 51 locations across the country, ‘Ascension’ is a cinematic exploration of China’s industrial supply chain that reveals the country’s growing class divide through staggering observations of labor, consumerism and wealth. The film ascends through the levels of the capitalist structure: workers running factory production, the middle class selling to aspirational consumers, and the elites reveling in a new level of hedonistic enjoyment. In traveling up the rungs of China’s social ladder, we see how each level supports and makes possible the next while recognizing the contemporary ‘Chinese Dream’ remains an elusive fantasy for most.

With Shannon Walsh

Technology laced documentary uncovers the real costs of the platform economy through the lives of workers from around the world for companies including Uber, Amazon and Deliveroo.

With Glenn Holsten • Chayne Gregg

Hell or High Seas follows U.S. Navy veteran Taylor Grieger and writer Stephen O’Shea as they embark on the adventure of a lifetime — sailing around Cape Horn, the world’s most treacherous ocean waters. The film is a moving portrait of a veteran using his own painful journey with PTSD to find healing for himself, and pave a smoother path for veterans returning to civilian life.

With Justin Bieber • Michael D. Ratner

Justin Bieber: Our World takes viewers backstage, onstage and into the private world of the global superstar as he prepares for a record-breaking New Year’s Eve 2020 concert. After a three-year hiatus from a full concert, Bieber delivers an electrifying performance on the rooftop of the Beverly Hilton Hotel for 240 invited guests — and millions of fans across the globe watching via livestream.

With Theodore Bogosian

The iconic Mister Kelly’s, once called a “supernova in the local and national night life firmament,” illuminated legendary Chicago’s Rush Street, and the entire country, by launching talent like Barbra Streisand, Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart, Bette Midler and Steve Martin. Its visionary owners George and Oscar Marienthal smashed color and gender barriers to put unknown, controversial voices on stage and transform entertainment, as America knew it in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ’70s. Now, with the club long gone, and its star talent reaching its golden years, George’s son David and director/screenwriter, Theodore Bogosian, go on a quest to collect the memories of the clubs before they are lost.

With Todd Haynes

The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock 'n' roll's most revered bands. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Todd Haynes, "The Velvet Underground" shows just how the group became a cultural touchstone representing a range of contradictions: the band is both of their time, yet timeless; literary yet realistic; rooted in high art and street culture. The film features in-depth interviews with the key players of that time combined with a treasure trove of never-before-seen performances and a rich collection of recordings, Warhol films, and other experimental art that creates an immersive experience into what founding member John Cale describes as the band's creative ethos: "how to be elegant and how to be brutal."

With Conrad Stanley • David Philipps • Steven Latham

"The Mustangs: America's Wild Horses" is a feature documentary that is executive produced by Robert Redford, Patti Scialfa Springsteen and Jessica Springsteen. This film takes audiences on an odyssey throughout America to places few people have seen or even know about. There are more than 80,000 wild horses on our federal lands and more than 50,000 in government.

With Rachel Fleit

An intimate and powerful feature of one woman's journey of personal acceptance and resilience, which follows the singular actress as she reckons with the next chapter of her life after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The film explores complex issues ranging from dissecting deep-rooted myths about beauty, and the collective fear around disability and mortality. Complete with her trademark wit and humor, the documentary follows Blair as she reconciles a journey of monumental transition.

With Amanda Lipitz

In Amanda Lipitz's documentary, three adopted American teenagers discover they're blood-related cousins, and their online meeting inspires the young women to embark on a once in a lifetime journey to China in search of their lost history.

With Rachel Fleit

An intimate and powerful feature of one woman's journey of personal acceptance and resilience, which follows the singular actress as she reckons with the next chapter of her life after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The film explores complex issues ranging from dissecting deep-rooted myths about beauty, and the collective fear around disability and mortality. Complete with her trademark wit and humor, the documentary follows Blair as she reconciles a journey of monumental transition.

With Posy Dixon • Beverly Glenn-Copeland

Keyboard Fantasies tells the story of Beverly Glenn-Copeland, a black transgender septuagenarian (and musical genius) who finally finds his place in the world. When Glenn receives an unexpected email in 2016 from a record collector in Japan enquiring about copies of his 1986 self-release, Keyboard Fantasies, everything changes. Now signed to a major indie label, and sharing a timely message with the world, Glenn's emergence from obscurity transpires as an intimate coming of age story that spins the pain and suffering of prejudice into rhythm, hope and joy.

With Dana Gould • Bobcat Goldthwait

Frenemies and veteran comedians Dana Gould and Bobcat Goldthwait, having learned very little from their near-fatal car accident, get back on the road and journey throughout the American South.

With Stanley Nelson

In the fall of 1971, tensions between inmates and guards at the Attica Correctional Facility are at an all-time high. On the morning of September 9, it all comes to a head when inmates erupt into one of the largest U.S. prison riots ever witnessed.