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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY FILMS
TOGETHER FILMS
PRESENTATIONS
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Emily Kassie (Director/Producer/Cinematographer)
Julian Brave NoiseCat (Director)
Hasan Oswald (Writer/Director/Producer/ Cinematographer)
Mediha (Subject)
ABRAMORAMA
BOAT ROCKER STUDIOS AND ANONYMOUS CONTENT
NEXIKO
DAILYWIRE+
AMAZON MGM STUDIOS
America’s Burning
War Game
Lettering By ANDREW FOOTIT
The Last Journey
Am I Racist? FRIDA
I AM: CELINE DION
David Smick (Director)
Michael Douglas (Executive Producer)
Jesse Moss (Co-Director, Producer)
Janessa Goldbeck (Film Participant/Game Producer)
Lt. Col. (ret.) Alexander Vindman (Film Participant/ Game Consultant)
Tony Gerber (Co-Director)
Filip Hammar (Co-Writer/Co-Director/Subject)
Fredrik Wikingsson (Co-Writer/Co-Director/Subject)
Justin Folk (Director/Producer)
Matt Walsh (Star/Producer)
Carla Gutiérrez (Director/Editor)
Irene Taylor (Director/Producer)
Nick Midwig (Cinematographer)
SCHEDULE AND SPEAKERS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
It’s A Horse Race
The Academy Awards race for documentary gold features 169 films, but no clear favorite
By Matt Carey
In some years, a single film seemingly dashes unimpeded to the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature — Summer of Soul in 2022, for instance, or Citizenfour in 2015. But this is not one of those years.
In a notably wide-open race, 169 feature documentaries have qualified for Academy Awards consideration in 2024, all vying for a place on the shortlist, the key step before moving on to a nomination. There are some favorites, of course, including Sugarcane, directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie. The film from National Geographic is among the documentaries we’re spotlighting in Deadline’s Contenders: Documentary virtual event, an essential guide to navigating a diverse and dynamic field of Oscar hopefuls.
Sugarcane is both timely and timeless—a story of family reconciliation set in the context of the abusive Indian Residential School system that operated in Canada
and the U.S. for more than a century, depriving Indigenous children of their language, culture and, sometimes, their lives. President Biden recently made a formal apology for the U.S. government’s role in running the boarding schools.
A young Yazidi girl’s extraordinary story of survival and resilience is told in Mediha, a film set in Northern Iraq. At age 10, the
titular Mediha was kidnapped by ISIS militants and sold into slavery, a fate shared by thousands of Yazidi women and girls. The documentary from Together Films, directed by Hasan Oswald, has won more than a dozen awards worldwide, including the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC.
In our documentary event, we’re also spotlighting The Last Journey, which has earned
double recognition as a contender for Best Documentary Feature and as Sweden’s official entry for Best International Feature. In this humorous and poignant road movie from independent production company Nexiko Films, director Filip Hammar takes his aging father Lars on a trip to France, hoping to revive his dad’s flagging spirits. They’re joined on the expedition by Filip’s buddy and fellow documentary director, Fredrik Wikingsson.
Am I Racist?, from DailyWire+, also amounts to a road movie, documenting conservative commentator Matt Walsh as he goes around the country on a mission to expose what he and director Justin Folk consider “race hustlers”—authors, educators, seminar-holders and others engaged in promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The film is far and away the year’s most successful documentary at the box office but has attracted criticism for mocking DEI programs as a scam.
Am I Racist? is one of several films showcased in Contenders: Documentary with an urgent political dimension. Oscarwinning executive producer Michael Douglas and director David Smick will also join to discuss America’s Burning, their film that identifies the cause of the country’s polarization, offering solutions in an attempt to repair and restore
our common bonds. That film is an Abramorama release.
Boat Rocker Studios and Anonymous Content bring us War Game, a bracing documentary that takes viewers inside an exercise meant to test what would happen if this scenario unfolded: a losing presidential candidate enlists elements of the U.S. military and paramilitary groups to help him grab power. We’ll hear from the filmmakers as well as the designer of the simulated war game, and from film participant Lt. Col. (ret.) Alexander Vindman, who provided testimony in the first impeachment trial of President Trump.
Amazon MGM Studios shares two Oscar-contending documentaries this year—one focusing on a beloved artist and the other on one of the world’s greatest singers.
Emmy nominee Carla Gutiérrez directs FRIDA, her film on the legendary Mexican painter Frida Kahlo who created indelible works
of self-portraiture that have been embraced around the globe. Kahlo’s canvases come to life in vivid color through the filmmaker’s use of innovative animation. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Irene Taylor directs I AM: CELINE DION, a remarkably intimate look at the French-Canadian chanteuse at a moment of extreme vulnerability in her life as she struggles with a debilitating neurological condition that threatens to end her singing career. It’s a story of willpower, grace and her extraordinary artistic achievement.
Each panel discussion opens with a clip from the documentary, setting the stage for an illuminating conversation about artistic choices, storytelling challenges, and the stakes for filmmakers and their protagonists. Think of Contenders: Documentary as an entertaining voter guide for a different kind of election, one where the ultimate prize is Oscar gold.
MEET YOUR MODERATOR
MATT CAREY
Documentary Editor, Awards
Matthew Carey joined Deadline fulltime in 2020, after a long association as a freelancer, to specialize in coverage of the nonfiction film landscape. Matthew is a writer and producer whose work has appeared on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español. He has written extensively about documentary film for CNN and CNN.com, Documentary magazine, NBCNews.com and TheWrap.
FILMS The
ABRAMORAMA
● America’s Burning
Narrated by award-winning actor Michael Douglas, David Smick’s America’s Burning deconstructs how the American Dream has disillusioned the population due to an unequal economic system primarily controlled by the corporate elite. The documentary also pays homage to America’s history of social and financial resilience. James Baker, Ian Bremmer, Arthur Brooks, Amy Chua, James Carville and Katherine Gehl feature in interviews.
AMAZON MGM STUDIOS
● FRIDA
Carla Gutiérrez’s FRIDA celebrates the Mexican painter’s iconic work while navigating her life not only as an acclaimed figure, but as a woman who also endured physical suffering and devastating personal loss. The film is made up of of Kahlo’s own illustrated diaries, letters, essays and interviews to tell the story. The film is narrated by actress Fernanda Echevarría.
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● I AM: CELINE DION
The film, directed by Academy Award nominee Irene Taylor, gives a raw and honest behindthe-scenes look at the iconic superstar’s struggle with a lifealtering illness called stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes muscle spasms and impacts her ability to sing. The documentary also showcases the music she’s made throughout her career. Since its release in June, I AM: CELINE DION has become the most popular documentary ever for Prime Video.
BOAT ROCKER STUDIOS AND ANONYMOUS CONTENT
● War Game
Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber’s documentary hinges on the proposed execution of a coup d’etat in the United States. Taking place in the future on January 6, 2025, four years after the 2021 Capitol insurrection, Moss and Gerber create a detailed simulation that escalates the threat posed by the recent storming of the Capitol and re-imagines a nationwide takeover in which members of the U.S. Army defect to support the losing presidential candidate, while the winning candidate and their advisors strategize over the crisis in a makeshift White House situation room. The film stars
The FILMS
members from the U.S. defense, policymakers and intelligence agents as they participate in a six-hour, unscripted role-play exercise to save democracy.
DAILYWIRE+
● Am I Racist?
Directed by Justin Folk, the film follows conservative commentator and Daily Wire contributor Matt Walsh as he investigates the underbelly of Eiversity, Equity and Inclusion practices (DEI) while exposing absurdities through undercover social experiments. The film has grossed more than $12M at the theatrical box office since its release in September, making it the highest-grossing documentary in the U.S in the last six years.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY FILMS
● Sugarcane
The film, directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, centers on an investigation into the discovery of unmarked graves at the St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School in British Columbia, an institution run by the Catholic Church where generations of Indigenous children suffered sexual, physical and psychological abuse. The film also uncovers evidence that priests impregnated some girls
1 Sugarcane
2 Am I Racist?
3 The Last Journey
4 Mediha
at the school and, after the girls gave birth, incinerated their babies.
NEXIKO
● The Last Journey
This documentary dramedy serves as Swedish filmmaker Filip Hammar’s homage to his 80-yearold father, Lars. In the film, Filip and his best friend and co-director Fredrik Wikingsson drive Lars to a French coastal town where they used to spend their vacations in an effort to reignite his ailing father’s passion for life. During their travels, the two filmmakers come to grips with aging and the meaning of life. The Last Journey is the highest-grossing documentary in the Swedish market.
TOGETHER FILMS
● Mediha
Hasan Oswald’s Mediha follows the harrowing journey of a Yazidi girl’s quest for justice after being kidnapped by ISIS and sold into slavery. Mediha, the film’s subject, turns the camera on herself as she processes the trauma of living through her ordeal and surviving captivity across Iraq, Turkey and Syria through her personal video diaries while also pursuing justice against her captors. The film, also produced by Academy Award winner Emma Thompson, won the DOC NYC Grand Jury Award in 2023.
