Documentary Features

17 Blocks

Director: Davy Rothbart
Documentary Features :: Magnolia
In 1999, 9 year-old Emmanuel Sanford-Durant and his Washington, DC family began to film their daily lives in America's most dangerous neighborhood — just 17 blocks behind the U.S. Capitol...

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Always in Season

Director: Jacqueline Olive
Documentary Features :: Magnolia
Always in Season explores the lingering impact of more than a century of lynching African Americans and connects this form of historic racial terrorism to racial violence today. When 17-year-old...

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Anbessa

Director: Mo Scarpelli
Documentary Features :: Voices
A young boy displaced by a massive condominium complex creates his own reality where as a lion (anbessa) he can face the forces beyond his control.     A lyrical...

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Black Barbie: A Documentary (Work-in-Progress)

Director: Lagueria Davis
Documentary Features :: Voices
This film is a definitive history of Black dolls, told through the charismatic protagonist, Beullah Mae Mitchell, the filmmaker's aunt, who helped introduce the first Black Barbie. The film charts...

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Buzz Repeat

Director: Who? Knows!
Documentary Features :: Magnolia
Who Knows?! Our annual buzz repeat goes to an audience favorite.

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Commuted (Work-in-Progress)

Director: Nailah Jefferson
Documentary Features :: Voices
Commuted tells the story of Danielle Metz, an African American mother of two, whose life was  turned upside down when she was sentenced as a drug kingpin to triple life...

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COOKED: Survival by Zip Code

Director: Judith Helfand
Documentary Features :: Voices
Chicago suffered the worst heat disaster in U.S history in 1995, when 739 residents – mostly elderly and black – died over the course of one week. As COOKED links...

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Crafting an Echo

Director: Marco Williams
Documentary Features :: Vanguard
The Martha Graham Dance Company commissions famed choreographer Andonis Foniadakis to create a new piece. But when Andonis’s fluid, improvisational style collides with Graham’s traditional structure, drama ensues. An impossibly...

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Finding Elijah (Work-in-Progress)

Director: Yolonda Johnson-Young
Documentary Features :: Voices
In today's climate of high profile suicides, it can affect anyone. Finding Elijah will be used to open the dialogue surrounding mental health issues and suicide awareness and prevention. The...

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Hope Frozen

Director: Pailin Wedel
Documentary Features :: Magnolia
A two-year-old girl from Bangkok — nicknamed “Einz” — became the youngest person in the world to undergo cryo-preservation. After her death from brain cancer, her family stores her remains...

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