DocLands Documentary Film Festival – 2020 Program by CAFILM

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C R E AT I V E PA R T N E R S ALLISON LEVENSON PHOTOGRAPHY TOMMY LAU PHOTOGRAPHY THE UNDERSTORY

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EVENTS & VENUES

INCAVO

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WELCOME A whole lot has changed around the world since we started putting together our fourth year of DocLands. In a relatively short period of time, our worldview has shifted dramatically in the wake of a global pandemic, but in many ways, it has also reaffirmed our mission in the importance of finding incredible films that cover the spectrum of our human experience. These gifted filmmakers have captured relevant stories and ideas that are artistic, inquisitive, and thought-provoking, and we knew we had to bring them to you in whatever way we can. At last year’s DocLands, audiences got the chance to see 2019’s Academy Award® winner for Documentary Feature, Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar’s American Factory, alongside the opening night world premiere of Bill Gallagher’s Runner. Heartening and inspirational films like David Hambridge’s Kifaru and Richard Ladkani’s Sea of Shadows brought global concerns to the cinema and inspired audiences to engage beyond the screen, showcasing the strength and power documentaries hold in the world of 24-hour news cycles and never-ending sound bites. This year is no different. Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres’ The Fight centers on the people who have been tirelessly standing up for our civil liberties in the U.S.: the hard-working, headstrong lawyers who make up the ACLU. Christopher Smith’s Current Sea and Ralf Wuerth’s Swarm Intelligence bring to light the struggles and triumphs made by ocean activists from different parts of the world. Word has clearly gotten around about DocPitch, as the applicants keep getting stronger with each year. This year at DocLands, we’re thrilled to showcase four films—Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple’s Five Years North, Sanjay Rawal’s Gather, Yael Bridge’s Socialism: An American Story, and Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham’s Crip Camp—that all received funding through previous DocPitch forums, and lucky audience members will get the chance to see how incredible the finished products have turned out. All four films together paint a powerful, diverse, and detailed mosaic of life in the United States today through underrepresented voices who are given a platform to share their vital stories. Events of this nature and size require a dedicated crew to make it all come to life (especially when extraordinary circumstances arrive without warning), so I’d like to issue an enormous thank you to everyone who helped bring DocLands into its fourth year: our incredible, devoted staff, led by our director of programming, Joni Cooper; our enthusiastic volunteer board of directors; our generous donors and sponsors; our engaged and excited audiences; and as always, the visionary filmmakers whose work brings us together and calls us to action.

MARK FISHKIN Executive Director / Founder, California Film Institute

DOCPITCH

DocPitch is designed to connect filmmakers and their ideas to funders, distributors, organizations, philanthropists, fellow filmmakers, and future audiences. Up to five feature-film projects currently in early to late stage of completion have been selected to present their pitches. The audience will vote for their favorite, which will receive a $25,000 cash award. Please join us and become one of the first to witness these new projects in development and vote to help a filmmaker take home the cash! The 2020 DocPitch finalists and films are 500 Days in the Wild, director Dianne Whelan; American ESPionage, director Christopher Carson Smith; Nomads, directors Vanessa Carr, Josh Gleason; Sal y Cielo, director Taylor Rees; and Startup Embassy, director Kenji Yamamoto. The 2020 DocPitch jury was comprised of Julie Campfield, ro*co Films; Joni Cooper, DocLands; Melissa Fondakowski, The Redford Center, and Maida Lynn, Genuine Article Pictures.

During the 2018 DocPitch, directors Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham won the $25,000 prize for Crip Camp that went on to win the 2020 Sundance US Documentary Audience Award, stream on Netflix, and will screen at DocLands 2020.

While all 2019 DocPitchers went home with some funding, Five Years North director Chris Temple was voted winner of the $25,000 prize; and Gather, director Sanjay Rawal took home $50,000 from an individual donor. Gather, Five Years North, and Socialism: An American Story (also pitched last year), director Yael Bridge, are all part of DocLandsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 2020 program Photos: Tommy Lau

DocPitch Sponsored by

DOCTALK

Each year we gather a few DocLands’ filmmakers together for an informal conversation to share thoughts, ideas, and strategies with each other, other filmmakers, and doc lovers. Topics have included different strategies used to sustain thriving filmmaking careers; how to use music and score to boost the power of documentary storytelling; and how best to connect with an audience deeply to help manifest social change.

Photos: Tommy Lau

In response to the unprecedented effects COVID-19 has had on public screenings, DocLands has partnered with The Variety Streaming Room, a new initiative for virtual conversations and events, to present DocTalk From Home on Sunday, May 3 at 4:00pm PDT on Variety.com. This 90-minute event will host a selection of filmmakers from the 2020 DocLands program in conversation with Variety’s Sr. Features Writer Andrew Barker, and will help showcase films that haven’t yet had exposure beyond the Sundance Film Festival this year. Details at doclands.com/ showcase with conversations to be archived on Variety.com.

Joni Cooper, DocLands director of programming, leads a lively discussion during DocTalk 2019

Joni Cooper, DocLands director of programming; Louie Psihoyos, The Game Changers; Velcrow Ripper, Metamorphosis

STRANDS

ART OF IMPACT engages and sparks action by sharing stories that open our eyes to the global community and its disparate cultures, politics, personal narratives, and biographies.

Sponsored by

BREAKING FORM This symbol

indicates films that expand the traditional definition of documentary form in terms of creativity

and entertainment.

ABOUT DOCLANDS Presented by the California Film Institute, DocLands Documentary Film Festival brings compelling stories and

the provocative insights behind them to Marin County, California. Expanding upon the exchange of ideas and inspiration through public screenings, engaged conversations, and grassroots networking events, DocLands aims to build an active, involved, fully supportive community around documentary film, dedicated to initiating connections and partnerships that will illuminate and invigorate the business and art of non-fiction filmmaking.

Films marked with this logo are part of CFI’s gender equity initiative, Mind the Gap, launched at the 2015 Mill Valley Film Festival. CFI is dedicated to actively working towards closing the gender gap in Hollywood and the rest of the global film industry.

OPENING NIGHT

PUBLIC TRUST

US 2020, 96min Director DAVID GARRETT BYARS

One of the most important documentaries of the year, Public Trust is a film that needs to be seen by everyone who enjoys getting out in nature. Although many of us take the 640 million acres of America’s Public Lands for granted, these lands are endangered by powerful forces that are attempting the largest land grab in modern history. By focusing on the eminent destruction of the Boundary Waters Wilderness in Minnesota, the downsizing of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, and the wholesale appropriation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, director David Garrett Byars enlists a slew of journalists, land historians, tribal leaders, and government whistleblowers to present a highly persuasive argument that is impossible to ignore and vital to hear. Above all else, as executive producer Robert Redford tells us, “Public Trust is the story of citizens who are fighting back. It’s a much-needed wake-up call for all of us who want to preserve our unique and wild cultural heritage.” . GREAT OUTDOORS .

DOCSOIRÉE

THE SOCIAL DILEMMA

US 2020, 93min Director JEFF ORLOWSKI As omnipresent as the air we breathe, social media is seemingly inescapable. Every time we check our phones or tap on the keyboard, Big Tech is listening, watching… and manipulating. In this timely, provocative new film, award-winning filmmaker Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Coral, Chasing Ice) showcases experts on the frontlines of these issues in a riveting story-driven approach that is bound to have far-reaching consequences. The Social Dilemma exposes Big Tech’s insidious influence by examining how the underlying technologies they use are intended to manipulate human psychology in the service of their business models. Surprisingly, the main critics are many of the very same engineers and tech executives who created these platforms in the first place. Masterfully juggling interviews with a fictional storyline of a family caught in the grips of social media, Orlowski employs the full range of his narrative skills to sound the alarm, calling for immediate individual and collective action.

. ART OF IMPACT .

DOCLANDS HONORS FREIDA LEE MOCK The DocLands Honors Award is presented to a filmmaker in recognition of exceptional storytelling within the documentary genre, an artist whose films resonate universally, emphasizing our common humanity--no matter the subject. The 2020 DocLands Honors Award is presented to five-time Academy Award® nominee Freida Lee Mock for her determination in bringing to light the stories behind some of the most remarkable American artists, politicians, humanitarians, and social justice activists. From Rose Kennedy: A Life to Remember; Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner; ANITA - Speaking Truth to Power; G-Dog; and Return With Honor, to her 1995 Academy Award-winning documentary feature Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, and her most recent film RUTH: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words, Mock’s intimate, yet powerful cinematic biographies allow us to experience extraordinary lives, often from contrasting walks of life. Freida Lee Mock, partner in the Los Angeles-based Sanders and Mock Productions and co-founder of the nonprofit American Film Foundation, was the first Governor elected to the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and served as Chair and Co-chair of the DGA Documentary Awards selection Committee for 6 years. She graduated from UC Berkeley in history and English and did graduate work in law and history.

SPECIAL DOCLANDS HONORS PREVIEW SCREENING RUTH: JUSTICE GINSBURG IN HER OWN WORDS

US 2019, 89min Director FREIDA LEE MOCK Near the beginning of Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock’s intimate profile of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Justice becomes visibly moved when a group of high school students presents her with a painting of herself. Unlike a portrait by a different artist some years earlier that had depicted her bigger than her actual diminutive size, this painting is an accurate portrayal. It is a revealing moment: Ginsburg wants to be seen not as larger than life, but really as she is. By relying on Ginsburg’s own words and actions, as illuminated by carefully culled archival footage and interviews, Mock covers the full breadth of Ginsburg’s life, views, and career. Furthermore, Mock succeeds in creating a compelling portrait as authentic, poignant, and powerful as the Justice herself.

. WONDERLANDS .

DOCSHORTS BETWEEN THE NOTES

ONE WORD SAWALMEM

Screening with GIVING VOICE

Screening with GATHER

US 2020, 15min Director JORDAN HWANG Cho-Liang Lin, a world class violinist and soloist, invites four young students who are all at pivotal stages in their lives to rehearse and perform together in his home country of Taiwan.

DICK OGG: FISHERMAN

US 2019, 9min Director CYNTHIA ABBOTT Living and fishing in the Bodega Bay area for 55 years, Dick Ogg faces challenges with solutions and actions to keep the local fisheries alive as he is forced to confront the realities of a warming ocean. Screening with CURRENT SEA

FROM KURILS WITH LOVE

US 2020, 24min Director TAYLOR REES Set in one of the most remote and inaccessible volcanic island chains in the world, a scrappy Russian marine biologist encounters sea lion chaos, joyous raptures, and ultimately a greater hope for the earth. Screening with CLIMBING BLIND

THE LAST GLACIERS IN YOSEMITE

US 2020, 17min Directors NATASHA DEGANELLO GIRAUDIE, MICHAEL “POM” PRESTON A young man of the Winnemem, Wintu tribe offers a taste of indigenous worldview through his personal story as it relates to a single word of his ancestral language: Sawalmem (Sacred Water).

OUT ON A LIMB

Canada 2019, 21min Director JORDAN MANLEY Engineer Kai Lin teams up with climber Craig DeMartino to design a game-changing prosthetic foot that won’t just level the playing field, but will provide a holy grail for adaptive rock climbers. Screening with AUGMENTED

THE ROADS MOST TRAVELED

US 2020, 25min Director BILL WISNESKI A Pulitzer Prize®-winning photojournalist shares heart-wrenching stories of the migration of Central Americans to the United States, revealing the never-ending saga of illegal immigration by individuals desperate to improve their lives. Screening with FIVE YEARS NORTH

US 2020, 5min Director ALEXANDER SCHWARTZ Yosemite’s first park geologist may be the last to study its iconic glaciers—which are threatened by climate change.

THE UNDOCUMENTED LAWYER

Screening with QUEEN WITHOUT LAND MERHAWI South Africa 2019, 5min Director JAMES WALSH On a trip to Asmara, Eritrea, we meet a precociously talented 21-yearold cyclist who has dominated the early stages of Africa’s biggest cycle race.

Screening with THE FIGHT

Screening with THE INFINITE RACE

US 2020, 18min Directors CHRIS TEMPLE, ZACH INGRASCI A portrait of Lizbeth Mateo, an attorney who has sworn to uphold the U.S. constitution despite being undocumented herself, providing a new angle to the immigration story—from the courts to City Hall.

UNNÚR

US 2019, 17min Director CHRIS BURKARD After a near-death experience, an Icelandic photographer and former kayaker discovers a newfound passion for surfing and a new perspective worth living for with the birth of his daughter Unnúr. Screening with DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD

ONE WORD SAWALMEM

AKICITA: THE BATTLE OF STANDING ROCK

US 2020, 122min Director CODY LUCICH With thousands of protesters and hundreds of tribes at its peak, the 2016 resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock represents the largest indigenous resistance in history. Over the course of its many months, the protest movement was actually a series of movements within the movement. In this fierce, riveting, and nuanced chronicle of what happened at Standing Rock, Native filmmaker Cody Lucich, who was embedded in the movement, documents in a sweeping cinematic vision all of the major events, gives voice to the key players, and spotlights the critical importance of direct action. Re-centering Standing Rock as a distinctly Native American movement, Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock takes its rightful place as the occupation’s definitive and most authentic account. . ART OF IMPACT .

AUGMENTED

US 2019, 81min Director MATTHEW ORR Hugh Herr was a 17-year-old mountain climber when he and a friend got lost in a blizzard on Mount Washington. Suffering from severe frostbite, Herr had to have both of his legs amputated. From his hospital room, he was initially shocked at the primitive prosthetic limbs he was given. Soon, shock gave way to a fierce determination to make a difference in the lives of others. Augmented follows Herr’s dramatic lifelong quest to become a scientist at MIT and an expert in the area of prosthetics. His pathbreaking success in the field of prosthetics leads to a major scientific breakthrough and a radical new way of performing amputations that will allow bionic limbs to move and feel like the real thing. . WONDERLANDS . Preceded by OUT ON A LIMB Canada 2019, 21min Director JORDAN MANLEY

BILLIE

UK 2019, 97min Director JAMES ERSKINE Based on hitherto unreleased audio recordings of interviews from the 1970s, the enigma that is Billie Holliday is explored through personal insights from friends and family—including Count Basie, Charles Mingus, Sarah Vaughan, and Tony Bennett—in a rare look at a genius whose first-hand experience of racism and segregation continues to pull at our heart strings through that voice, that presence. In this tender portrait of the iconic chanteuse, Billie chronicles Holliday’s turbulent life through the work of journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who set out in 1971 to write the definitive Lady Day biography, tracking down those closest to her and recording hundreds of hours of testimony with them. Kuehl died before finishing the book, and the tapes went unused until they were rescued for Billie. . WONDERLANDS .

THE BOOK MAKERS

US 2019, 58min Director JAMES KENNARD Don’t you just love the smell of a good book? Bay Area-bred filmmaker James Kennard taps into the tangible connection humans have to physical books, profiling the talented artists, authors, collectors, and historians who retain and preserve the artistry and craft of bookmaking. These individuals create books that manifest wonder and awe, carrying on traditions of producing physical books to coexist in harmony with a newly digital world. From the producers of California Typewriter, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and The Kingmaker, and featuring interviews with Dave Eggers, Daniel Handler, Peter Koch, and many more, The Book Makers explores the world of book fairs and book obsessives, whose passion and dedication converge to keep the pleasurable and palpable acts of physical bookmaking and book-reading alive. . WONDERLANDS .

CITIZEN PENN

US 2020, 93min Director DON HARDY On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti and changed millions of lives. International aid workers descended on Haiti to help in any way they could. One of those people driven to help was American actor and filmmaker Sean Penn. Citizen Penn chronicles the moment Penn and his team of volunteers landed in Haiti just days after the earthquake and the decade since. This documentary delivers unparalleled access to one of America’s most polarizing figures and offers audiences an intimate, honest, and self-reflective look into the triumphs and challenges of a man who decided to do something. He got involved in a way few activists ever will. Viewers can decide for themselves whether Haiti is better off for it. . ART OF IMPACT .

CLIMBING BLIND

UK 2020, 57min Director ALASTAIR LEE Jesse Dufton is a lifelong rock climber who was born with Retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease that breaks down the retinas’ cells leaving him with only 20% central vision. By age 30, Jesse could no longer read, and his vision was reduced to just light perception with around 2% field of view. Rather than be hindered by this, Jesse flies in the face of adversity by training for world cup events and leading climbs with his sight guide and fiancée Molly, with his goal to become the first blind person to climb the iconic Old Man of Hoy sea stack in Scotland. Director Alastair Lee, also a climber, offers a front row seat for Jesse’s exciting and dangerous quest. . GREAT OUTDOORS . Preceded by FROM KURILS WITH LOVE US 2020, 24min Director TAYLOR REES

CRIP CAMP

US 2020, 107min Directors JIM LEBRECHT, NICOLE NEWNHAM DocPitch 2018 winner Crip Camp documents the early 1970s at Camp Jened, a summer camp for disabled teenagers near Woodstock, where a revolution was stirring. Besides experiencing all the usual camp activities, the campers also discovered the power of collective action. They returned home determined to improve a world that was decidedly unwelcoming to those with disabilities. Local filmmakers Jim LeBrecht—a camper at Camp Jened—and Nicole Newnham (The Rape of Europa) provide a remarkably candid portrait of the camp and track the early struggles and triumphs of the burgeoning disability rights movement. This inspiring and joyous film, with strong Bay Area ties, is, ultimately, a universal story of the human spirit and a testament to what can be accomplished when people stick together to fight for their rights. . ART OF IMPACT . Sundance 2020—U.S. Documentary Audience Award

CURRENT SEA

MALAYSIA/US/CAMBODIA 2020, 87min Director CHRISTOPHER SMITH Two very different men—Matt Blomberg, an Australian investigative journalist, and Paul Ferber, a former British police officer—find new lives separately in Cambodia and become unexpectedly bound together by a common cause: putting a stop to illegal fishing by creating a marine conservation area in the Gulf of Thailand. Over the course of several years, Blomberg, Ferber, and local activists defiantly bring to light the dangerous and illegal fishing epidemic that is leaving the sea with almost no fish for the Cambodian fishermen whose livelihood depends on what they catch. Like Richard Ladkani’s Sea of Shadows—one of the highlights of DocLands 2019—director Christopher Smith frames Current Sea as a high-stakes environmental thriller, full of urgency, intrigue, and suspense. . GREAT OUTDOORS . Preceded by DICK OGG: FISHERMAN US 2019, 9min Director CYNTHIA ABBOTT

DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD

US 2020, 89min Director KIRSTEN JOHNSON Dick Johnson is perhaps the most beloved grandpa in New York City. However, the retired psychiatrist is 86 and reaching his final years. As a catalyst to confront the inevitable, his daughter—award-winning documentarian Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson)—devises an ingenious experiment: celebrate Dr. Johnson’s life by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Utilizing moviemaking magic and their family’s dark humor, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all. . WONDERLANDS . Sundance 2020—U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Innovation in Non-fiction Storytelling Preceded by UNNÚR US, 2019 16min Director CHRIS BURKARD

THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE

US 2020, 108min Director MARIA FINITZO With humor and candor in equal measure, The Dilemma of Desire follows a quartet of remarkable women whose work in science, academia, industrial design, and art has paved the way for a better understanding of women’s sexual desire, anatomy, and health in an era when women’s rights are once again under fire. Did you know there wasn’t a single visual reference for the clitoris in the original printing of Gray’s Anatomy? “It’s almost as if they wiped womanhood out of the text,” neuroscientist and professor Dr. Stacey Dutton points out. In a world where we put a man on the moon before understanding how women experience pleasure, director Maria Finitzo highlights the pioneers in the struggle to destigmatize and demystify women’s sexuality. . ART OF IMPACT .

THE FIGHT

US 2020, 96min Directors ELYSE STEINBERG, JOSH KRIEGMAN, ELI DESPRES The Fight presents an insider look at the tireless efforts of the lawyers making up the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) since the first week of the Trump administration. Filmmakers Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres (Grand Jury Prize winners at Sundance in 2016) track key ACLU legal battles against the Trump administration concerning abortion, immigration bans, family separation, and LGBTQ+ discrimination. Instead of a close examination of legal process or a history of the organization, The Fight favors painting a refreshing and reassuring portrait of the heart of the ACLU: the dedicated and sometimes quirky lawyers whom producer Kerry Washington calls “our avengers...[whose] day job is saving the world!” . ART OF IMPACT . Sundance 2020—U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Social Impact Storytellingg Preceded by THE UNDOCUMENTED LAWYER US 2020, 18min Directors ZACH INGRASCI, CHRIS TEMPLE

FIVE YEARS NORTH

US 2020, 85min Directors ZACH INGRASCI, CHRIS TEMPLE Winner of DocPitch 2019, Five Years North is a film a decade in the making. After meeting and befriending a young Guatemalan boy named Luis while filming their first film Living on One Dollar, co-directors Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple followed a now-15-year-old Luis to New York City to forge a new life as an undocumented immigrant. Ambitious and complex in its scope, Five Years North captures many of Luis’ struggles in the U.S., from trying to learn English to finding temporary jobs, and juxtaposes them with a portrait of Judy, a Cuban American ICE agent patrolling the neighborhood where Luis now lives. With intimate access to their subjects, Ingrasci and Temple delicately capture two sides of one of America’s most heated and complicated issues. In English, Spanish, and Kaqchikel with English subtitles . ART OF IMPACT . Preceded by THE ROADS MOST TRAVELED US 2020, 25min Director BILL WISNESKI

GATHER

US 2020, 74min Director SANJAY RAWAL Through poignant stories from tribes across the U.S., director Sanjay Rawal (Food Chains) explores the growing food sovereignty movement among Native Americans that is a direct response to this appropriation and decimation of their food and health. With sweeping cinematography, Gather is a beautiful triptych of inspiring personal tales, from a White Mountain Apache chef starting his own restaurant with a staff of Natives bouncing back from addiction to a young Northern California man’s determined fishing quest after a dam kills off his tribe’s supply of salmon. Gather is a testament to the resilience of these communities, showcasing how Native Americans are reclaiming control of their ancestral food systems and, in the process, restoring their cultural well-being. . GREAT OUTDOORS . Preceded by ONE WORD SAWALMEM US 2020, 16min Directors NATASHA DEGANELLO GIRAUDIE, MICHAEL “POM” PRESTON

GIVING VOICE

US 2020, 87min Directors JAMES D. STERN, FERNANDO VILLENA Created as a way of celebrating the life and work of one of America’s greatest playwrights, the August Wilson Monologue Competition provides an opportunity for young thespians, primarily students of color, to discover, embrace, and perform Wilson’s powerful words that speak directly to them about the African American experience. Hopefuls select a monologue from one of Wilson’s ten Century Cycle plays and compete regionally for selection to the final round of competition performed at the August Wilson Theater on Broadway. In this remarkable film, co-directors James Stern (Every Little Step) and Fernanado Villena (Any One of Us) profile several aspiring young actors on their journey, interspersing their performances with scenes from their personal lives as well as interviews about Wilson’s works with Oscar® winners Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. . WONDERLANDS . Sundance 2020—Festival Favorite Award Preceded by BETWEEN THE NOTES US 2020, 15min Director JORDAN HWANG

HE DREAMS OF GIANTS

UK 2019, 83min Directors KEITH FULTON, LOUIS PEPE Following their exceptional portrait of Terry Gilliam’s doomed struggle to bring his adaptation of Don Quixote to the screen, directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe pick back up with Gilliam 15 years after Lost in La Mancha. Full of behind-the-scenes moments of inspiration, collaboration, anguish, and triumph, He Dreams of Giants is the sequel we never thought we’d see, as Gilliam successfully continues his 30-year quest to complete The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, now starring Oscar® nominees Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce. With cues from Fellini’s 8½, Fulton and Pepe document the culmination of Gilliam’s life in film, illuminating his copious talents, obsessions, and humor, as he confronts self-doubt, mortality, and artistic compromise in order to fully realize his long-held dream. . WONDERLANDS .

HOME

UK 2019, 91min Director JEN RANDALL In 2011, 26-year-old Sarah Outen decided she needed a life-changing adventure, and what could be more thrilling and life-altering than circumnavigating the globe by human power alone? This meant traveling over 20,000 miles by bike, kayak, and rowboat across Europe, Asia, North America, and, finally, the Atlantic. The course of her voyage was followed by thousands, who were hooked on her infectious humor and joie de vivre. Not everything went as planned, however, and her solo journey began to take its toll with months of solitude, violent weather, and unforeseen setbacks that stretched her quest out to more than four years. Woven out of hundreds of hours of footage, Home intimately and unflinchingly captures Outen’s journey, telling a story of heart and soul, of struggle and joy. . GREAT OUTDOORS .

I AM NOT ALONE

ARMENIA 2019, 90min Director GARIN HOVANNISIAN In 2018, a revolution was sparked in Armenia when the journalist and activist Nikol Pashinyan began a march across the country in protest of their corrupt government and the re-election of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan for a third term. During the two week trek, Pashinyan demanded Sargysan’s resignation and advocated for peaceful resistance. He inspired a groundswell of support that culminated in massive country-wide demonstrations that were met with brutal opposition by Sargsyan, the Republican Party, and the police force. I Am Not Alone chronicles the unbelievable story of how Pashinyan’s fight for his country changed the course of history. Riveting and informative, I Am Not Alone is a film for our times: a meticulously documented dissection of class and power struggle. In Armenian and English with English subtitles . ART OF IMPACT . TIFF 2019—Audience Award, Runner-Up; AFI Fest 2019—Audience Award; DOC NYC 2019—Audience Award; Palm Springs Int. Film Featival—Audience Award

THE INFINITE RACE

US 2020, 70min Director BERNARDO RUIZ A decade after Christopher McDougall’s bestseller Born to Run helped introduce the world to the phenomenal athletic feats of the marathon runners of the reclusive indiginous Tarahumara tribe of Northern Mexico, Emmy®-nominated director Bernardo Ruiz (Harvest Season) offers an in-depth portrait of the community’s attempts to overcome external threats of nearby drug cartels and diminishing crops. The Infinite Race centers around the 2015 Ultra Maratón Caballo Blanco, an annual 50-mile race in Urique that Oakland-born runner Micah True started to help preserve and celebrate the Tarahumara heritage, as cartel violence risks canceling the event altogether. Ruiz balances a nuanced and inspiring portrait of the Tarahumara people with a compelling look at the ways their endurance running has left a mark on runners across the globe. In English and Spanish with English subtitles . GREAT OUTDOORS . Preceded by MERHAWI South Africa 2019, 4min Director JAMES WALSH 15

JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE

US 2020, 96min Director DAWN PORTER Few living Americans have fought as hard or endured as much for the sake of our democracy and civil rights as Congressman John Lewis of Georgia. Mixing riveting archival footage alongside contemporary interviews with a new generation of leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as well as long-time leaders including Congressman James Clyburn and President Jimmy Carter, Bay Area filmmaker Dawn Porter (Trapped) creates a moving tribute to the multifaceted and down-to-earth congressman, who balances his fiery determination with humor and general human decency. A Magnolia Pictures/Participant release. Executive produced by CNN Films, AGC Studios, and Time Studios. . ART OF IMPACT .

LAUREL CANYON: A PLACE IN TIME

US 2020, 80min Director ALISON ELLWOOD Nestled in the Hollywood Hills, high above the hustle and bustle of Sunset Boulevard, the woodsy community of Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles became home to a who’s who of the nascent rock-and-roll musical scene in the mid-to-late 1960s. The Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young all lived for a time in this magical place, hanging out at each other’s houses making great music together. Alison Ellwood (The Go-Go’s) brings together a highly entertaining array of contemporary interviews, home movie footage, and vintage performance clips to create the experience we have all been waiting for: a free pass to the coolest living room assemblage of musicians imaginable. . WONDERLANDS .

OKAVANGO

AUSTRIA 2019, 93min Directors DERECK JOUBERT, BEVERLY JOUBERT In this stunning visual tapestry, Emmy®-winning filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert (The Last Lions) turn their panoramic lens on Africa’s majestic Okavango River Delta and the incredibly diverse flora and fauna that depend on the river for their sustenance. Beyond their luscious cinematography, the Jouberts bring the Okavango’s story to life by tracking the daily struggles of everything from big cats to elephants, hippos, crocodiles, and many more. The ever-changing fortunes of this menagerie are directly tied to Botswana’s mightiest river and to the life-and-death search for water during the dry season. Unpredictable weather patterns make survival during the dry season all the more dire in this beautiful and cautionary tale of the fragility of one of Earth’s great ecosystems. . GREAT OUTDOORS .

PIANO TO ZANSKAR

UK 2018, 86min Director MICHAL SULIMA Opening on the vast and awesome landscape of the Himalayas, Piano to Zanskar is a journey in every sense of the word. Follow 65-year-old piano tuner Desmond “Gentle” O’Keefe, his young assistants Anna and Harald, a team of local Sherpas, and various yaks and ponies, as they travel across precarious and steep mountain paths beyond the Trans-Himalayan highway to reach the majestic, remote village of Lingshed and deliver a promised piano to the town. Shot in a hypnotic and meditative style that honors the odyssey as much as the destination, this beautiful document of a noble quest also ponders the increasing impact of modernity on ancient ways of life and the inevitable progression of time. . WONDERLANDS .

QUEEN WITHOUT LAND (DRONNING UTEN LAND)

NORWAY 2018, 70min Director ASGEIR HELGESTAD The majestic landscape of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, is home to gentle Frost, a polar bear mother, and her romping, rambunctious cubs, captured in affectionate and intimate detail by wildlife photographer and filmmaker Asgeir Helgestad. Over the course of four years, Helgestad tracks and documents the lives of the bears, as well as native foxes, reindeer, seals, walrus, birds, and blue whales—a breathtaking and beautiful ecosystem imminently impacted by rising temperatures and glaciers melting at record speed. Queen Without Land dramatically showcases this epic territory of towering mountains, narrow fjords, and flowering meadows, the dynamic wildlife that populates the land, and the myriad modern threats to its future. . GREAT OUTDOORS . Preceded by THE LAST GLACIERS IN YOSEMITE US 2020, 4min Director ALEXANDER SCHWARTZ

THE REASON I JUMP

UK 2020, 82min Director JERRY ROTHWELL Based on the remarkable book by then 13-year-old autistic author Naoki Higashida—whose desire is to provide the world with a comprehensive understanding of how he reacts to the workings of the world around him and why—The Reason I Jump offers an extraordinarily intimate journey inside his mind that you won’t soon forget. The book acts as an envoy from another world, written to help us understand that world, and Deep Water director Jerry Rothwell’s film is a visually mesmerizing experience that allows us to explore and listen in on that other world. You’ll come to understand the reason Higashida jumps, but you’ll also be compelled to ask the question, “why haven’t I been listening?” In English and Krio with English subtitles . WONDERLANDS . Sundance 2020—World Cinema Documentary Audience Award

SOCIALISM: AN AMERICAN STORY (Working Title)

US 2020, 85min Director YAEL BRIDGE Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign brought unprecedented focus on the notion of socialism in the context of the United States. Since then, socialists have won seats in both houses of Congress, while others equate socialism with the totalitarian regimes of South America. This thorough, thoughtful, and engaging film tracks the history of socialism in America and dispels many of the myths that are so often promulgated in public discourse. . ART OF IMPACT .

SPACESHIP EARTH

US 2020, 116min Director MATT WOLF Environmental science, 1960s counterculture, and American capitalism collide in this fascinating documentary about a group of ambitious young dreamers and eventual entrepreneurs. These individuals would, among many other things, found the Theater of Possibilities, build a seaworthy boat by hand which they sailed around the world, start a successful commune in New Mexico, and, ultimately, create a self-sustaining human terrarium and ecosystem in 1991 known as Biosphere 2, funded by a Texas oil scion hoping to develop technologies for space colonization. The visionary project became a media sensation, when eight “biospherians” were selected to live within the compound for two years, wholly sustained by the isolated environment within. By turns cautionary and inspirational, Matt Wolf’s well-balanced film offers an engrossing tribute to what an idealistic creative collective can achieve. . WONDERLANDS .

SWARM INTELLIGENCE

GERMANY 2019, 97min Director RALF WUERTH Following a chance meeting with legendary ocean activist and Greenpeace co-founder Paul Watson, charismatic New York City brand and product developer Cyrill Gutsch has an awakening that turns his life upside-down and starts an eco-revolution. This serendipitous encounter leads Gutsch to found Parley for the Oceans, an organization where creators, thinkers, and leaders from various backgrounds—art, film, music, fashion, and technology—come together to raise awareness for the beauty and fragility of our oceans. Through Parley, Gutsch partners with businesses like ADIDAS to turn the ocean’s plastic debris into fashion and running shoes. Featuring stunning underwater cinematography and enlightening conversations with Watson and oceanographer Sylvia Earle, Swarm Intelligence proposes an outside-of-the-box approach to environmentalism that can help preserve our oceans before it’s too late. . GREAT OUTDOORS .

TIME

US 2020, 85min Director GARRETT BRADLEY Fox Rich is a fighter. The entrepreneur, activist, and mother of six boys has spent the last two decades campaigning for the release of her husband, Rob, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a robbery they both committed long ago in a moment of desperation. Combining the video diaries Fox has recorded for Rob over the years with intimate glimpses into her present-day life, director Garrett Bradley paints a mesmerizing portrait of the resilience and radical love necessary to prevail over the endless separations of the prison-industrial-complex—a legacy of slavery in America. . ART OF IMPACT . Sundance 2020—U.S. Documentary Directing Award

DOCLANDS ADVISORY GROUP JOHN ANTONELLI Mill Valley Film Group JULIE CAMPFIELD ro*co films

CARRIE LOZANO Filmmaker IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund MAIDA LYNN Genuine Article Pictures

ABBY GINZBERG Ginzberg Productions Berkeley Film Foundation

PAOLA MOTTURA Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program MINETTE NELSON Filmmaker Fund WILL PARRINELLO Mill Valley Film Group

CALIFORNIA FILM INSTITUTE BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR / FOUNDER

Mark Fishkin BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kenneth Broad (Vice President) Lynne Hale Richard J. Idell (Secretary) Daniel Kenyon Amy Keroes Maida Lynn Jennifer Coslett MacCready (President) Kurt Mobley Cathy Nourafshan

Maggie O’Donnell (Vice President) Jonathan Parker (Vice President) Susan Schwartz Dr. Joel Sklar Jann Stanley Steve Weinswig Zach Zeisler (Treasurer)

FOUNDING BOARD

EMERITUS BOARD

ADVISORY BOARD

Rita Cahill Sid Ganis Bruce Katz Gary Meyer

Gordon Radley Christopher B. Smith Henry Timnick Rita Cahill Mark Fishkin Lois Kohl Shore Barbara Boxer Stewart Boxer Drusie Davis Jeff Fisher

Peter Flaxman Robert Greber Linda Gruber Peggy Haas Jessica Igoe Michael Klein Roxanne Klein KC Lauck Andrew McGuire Mary Poland Eric Schwartz Michael Schwartz Skip Whitney

CALIFORNIA FILM INSTITUTE: Mill Valley Film Festival | Smith Rafael Film Center | DocLands | CFI Education | CFI Releasing DocLands Documentary Film Festival is presented by the California Film Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that also produces the Mill Valley Film Festival, owns and operates Smith Rafael Film Center, and produces CFI Education programs throughout the year. © Copyright 2020. All rights reserved. No portion of DocLands publications may be duplicated in any form without written consent from DocLands and/or the California Film Institute.

CFI COMMITMENT: California Film Institute is committed to providing guests with a safe and enjoyable experience. We also appreciate,

respect, and honor the vibrant diversity of our world community of guests. We are committed to a festival environment that is free of harassment and discrimination based on sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, national origin, religion, class, age, and physical or mental disability. We reserve the right to revoke access to festival events and venues for those who engage in such conduct. If you have an experience while attending the festival that violates this expression of commitment, you can reach out to us directly at operations@cafilm.org. Our partner, Community Violence Solutions, provides a 24-hour, 7-day a week crisis hotline to help sexual assault victims. Call 800-670-7273

The Environmental Youth Forum (EYF) is an educational component of DocLands, offering a unique interactive learning experience for students in grades 1-12 that utilizes film to foster awareness and activism around a range of environmental and global issues, with an emphasis on innovations, solutions, and youth engagement. EYF programs are open to school groups only, and admission and bus transportation are FREE for all participating schools. Prior to the necessary school and theater closures, this year’s EYF was originally scheduled to take place over five days at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael and the David Brower Center in Berkeley. It included the program of inspiring and enlightening films listed on the next page along with a host of guest speakers, live presentations, and two special interactive spaces:

ACTIVE CINEMA ROOM

A series of exhibits and hands-on demonstrations by local and regional environmental organizations with resources for students to engage directly with the issues they’ve learned about on screen. Grades 1–12

IMMERSIVE MEDIA STUDIO

A selection of environmentally themed VR experiences and interactive web documentary projects for students to explore. Grades 6–12 We hope to share some, if not all, of these films and interactive experiences with our educational community once school is back in session this fall.

To get on our mailing list for updates or to get your school involved, contact us at education@cafilm.org.

Photos: Tommy Lau

2020

A REINDEER’S JOURNEY

FILM PROGRAM

MICROPLASTIC MADNESS

THE SNAIL AND THE WHALE (in ANIMAL DUETS)

2040

MICROPLASTIC MADNESS

AMERICAN INDIAN FILM INSTITUTE PRESENTS:

OUR STOLEN FUTURES

Grades 6–12

Grades 2–6

OUR STORIES (Shorts Program) Grades 6–12

ANIMAL DUETS (Animated Shorts) Grades 1–5

Shown with: THE EMERGENCY BRAKE GENERATION GREEN NEW DEAL (work-in-progress) Grades 6–12

PUBLIC TRUST

FORWARD: TOMORROW BELONGS TO US Grades 4–8

Grades 9–12

QUEEN WITHOUT LAND Grades 6–12

GATHER

A REINDEER’S JOURNEY

Grades 9–12

JANE GOODALL: THE HOPE

Grades 3–6

Grades 5–12

For complete program information, visit cfieducation.org/eyf

EYF SUPPORT PROVIDED BY N A N C Y P. a n d R I C H A R D K . R O B B I N S FA M I LY F O U N D AT I O N

T H E H O R A C E W. G O L D S M I T H F O U N D AT I O N | R E S O N A N C E P H I L A N T H R O P I E S

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY OF CINEMA LOVERS

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