Documentaries

Afterlives

Media artist, filmmaker and critic Kevin B. Lee presents an unflinchingly complex and thought-provoking tapestry that interrogates the many faces of violence confronting our lives.

Always

Deming Chen’s sophomore feature, the recipient of the top prize at CPH:DOX, is a lyrical portrait of a gifted young poet growing up in rural China.

Below the Clouds

This breathtaking documentary explores past and present lives of the communities living in the shadow of Vesuvius.

Black is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story

A touching tribute to a forgotten photographer, freedom fighter and activist, who helped popularise the transformative ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement.

Broken English

Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth deliver an inventive and soulful portrait of cultural icon Marianne Faithfull.

Cover-up

Acclaimed documentary directors Mark Obenhaus and Laura Poitras team up to deliver an engrossing portrait of investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh.

D is for Distance

This deeply personal rumination on memory and the moving image offers a frank and uncompromising insight into medical bureaucracy.

Endless Cookie

The classic hangout film gets a charming, witty and politically sharp make-over with this inventive animation that explores the complex and enduring bond of family.

The Eyes of Ghana

Ben Proudfoot’s film is a love letter to cinema and Ghanaian icon Chris Esse who, in his nineties, still works tirelessly to preserve the country’s film legacy and the lessons of colonialism.

Hair, Paper, Water…

Trương Minh Quý and Nicolas Graux create a mythical work of non-fiction – an ode to an elderly healer and to Rục, her endangered mother tongue.

Island of the Winds

Hsu Ya-Ting’s poignant documentary follows the lives of residents at Taiwan’s Lesheng Sanatorium, where leprosy patients have been confined since the 1930s.

John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office

This superbly crafted documentary on utopian neuroscientist John C. Lilly is a fascinating tale of paranoia, obsession and discovery.

Khartoum

In this playful yet quietly radical film, five citizens of Khartoum, deeply affected by the ongoing conflict and forced to flee their homes, powerfully articulate their memories, hopes and dreams.

Kim Novak’s Vertigo

Alexandre O. Philippe’s latest film essay is a conversation with cinema icon and mental health activist Kim Novak about Hollywood, ghosts and finding herself as an artist.

Landmarks

Artistic ambition and political advocacy meld in Lucrecia Martel’s documentary, a bold and beautiful reflection on the death and legacy of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar.

Life After

Reid Davenport’s thought-provoking and personal project explores the complex debates and hidden motives surrounding assisted dying.

Love+War

From the directors of Free Solo comes this blistering profile of Pulitzer Prize-winning conflict photographer Lynsey Addario, a woman balancing two callings: career and motherhood.

The Memory of Butterflies

Drawing from the shadows of the colonial rubber trade, this evocative film uncovers the lost stories of two Indigenous men taken to London to be ‘civilised’.

Only on Earth

Breathtaking visions of wildfires in Galicia during the hottest summer on record centre this stunning reflection on the delicate balance between humans, animals and the environment.

Orwell: 2+2=5

Raoul Peck channels the clarity and urgency of George Orwell’s prose into a gripping cinematic statement – elegant, forceful and uncompromising.

Seeds

Sundance Film Festival’s documentary Grand Jury Prize winner is an empathetic and soulful debut that vividly captures a community of Black farming families in the American South.

Singing Wings

Rich with humour and heart, Hemen Khaledi’s documentary debut shows life outshining fiction, painting a lyrical portrait of a magical stork village in Kurdistan.

Super Nature

A spellbinding visual and auditory experience, beautifully shot in Super 8, which invites you to marvel at nature and the wildlife around us.

The Travelers

David Bingong’s personal film is an intimate and hopeful account of the dangerous journey taken by a group of migrants from Cameroon to Europe.

Ultras

Forget the dramatic headlines and take a joyful deep dive into the ‘world’s most popular subculture’: football’s infamous ultras.

Whispers in the Woods

Celebrated wildlife photographer Vincent Munier embarks on a journey, with his father and son, into the heart of a forest whose beauty is transcendent.

With Hasan in Gaza

Kamal Aljafari returns with a poignant reimagining of Palestinian history – a profound meditation on absence and loss, crafted with quiet integrity.