His House

Director: Remi Weekes | 2020 | 1h 33 min 

When Bol and Rial escaped the raging war in South Sudan and fled to the UK, they hoped they had left the worst behind them. Crossing the English Channel, they lost their daughter, who fell overboard. On British soil, they have to deal with state bureaucracy, subtle and explicit racism, and dire living conditions. But the real horror begins when they both start seeing visions of their daughter in the house. Rial recognizes the ancient evil apeth haunting them. Now both she and her husband need to accept the dark secrets of their own past to get rid of the evil spirit. His House was largely acknowledged for its portrayal of both real life and supernatural horrors.

Crip Camp

Director: Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht | 2020 | 1h 48 min

Crip Camp travels back in time to 1971, to the Camp Jened summer camp for teens with disabilities. It follows the lives of those camp members who went on to become social activists and advocates for accessibility legislation. The idea for this documentary was born out of a casual conversation, when Lebrecht, a former camper of Camp Jened and disability rights activist, told his co-director Newnham about his experience and what the camp stood for. Released at the Sundance Film Festival, the documentary has Barack and Michelle Obama as its executive producers.

Dick Johnson is Dead

Director: Kirsten Johnson | 2020 | 1h 29 min

Dick Johnson is director Kirsten Johnson’s father. A clinical psychiatrist in the past, he now suffers from dementia. Kirsten suggested they make a film where Johnson Senior keeps dying in various imaginative ways, including some violent accidents like falling down the stairs or being stabbed in the neck. Her father liked the idea and even suggested several ways to be included in the script. Although each case is an obvious reenactment with no physical harm to anyone involved, Dick Johnson is Dead is a great way of coming to terms with the inevitability of losing a loved one and at the same time celebrating life and cherishing favorite memories from the past.

Athlete A

Director: Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk | 2020 | 1h 44 min

When investigating a story of schools not reporting sexual abuse, a reporter is tipped off to look into the USAG, a governing body for gymnastics in the United States. As she starts to untangle a thread of leads with her colleagues, the story of Steve Penny, the president of the organization, covering up abusive coaches comes up. After the story is published, several athletes reach out to the journalist team to speak about their stories of molestation at the hands of USAG doctor, Larry Nassar. Police get involved in the investigation, resulting in both Nassar and Penny’s arrest. Athlete A, a reference to the way one of the girls was referred to in the media to protect her identity during the investigation, lays out the problem without softening any rough edges, forcing the viewer to reevaluate a culture where such incidents are still possible.

Knock Down the House

Director: Rachel Lears | 2019 | 1h 26 min

As a society, we have moved from the times when the only career a woman could have was to be a good housewife and mother. However, there still are some professional spheres where women are not accepted with open arms, politics being one of them. Rachel Lears started working on her documentary Knock Down the House the day after Donald Trump’s election. She wanted to show female candidates and their campaigns for the Congress elections. An important detail was that these women were not career politicians but stepped into new roles to represent their communities. The film follows four progressive Democrats through their primary campaigns.

The Square

Director: Ruben Östlund | 2013 | 2h 31 min

Christian, a curator of the X-Royal art museum in Stockholm, is definitely not living through his best period. First his phone and wallet are stolen in the street, then he gets involved with a journalist who immediately wants to jump into something more committed with him. In an attempt to find his belongings, Christian involuntarily creates trouble for a young Arab boy. To top it all off, an exhibition promotion Christian is responsible for goes terribly wrong when the advertising agency creates a controversial video and Christian approves it without checking. The premise of The Square was inspired by several real-life events and artists.

Strong Island

Director: Yance Ford | 2017 | 1h 47 min

Strong Island is based on real-life events. In 1992, filmmaker Yance Ford lost his brother William, an African-American teacher. William was murdered by a young white chop shop mechanic, Mark P. Reilly. Reilly subsequently claimed self-defense, and an all-white grand jury dropped all charges against him. The documentary received positive reviews for addressing a painful issue with utmost sincerity. It won several prestigious awards and was nominated for the 2018 Academy Award for the Best Documentary Feature.

The Forty-Year-Old Version

Director: Radha Blank | 2020 | 2h 9 min

They say your 40th birthday is the time when you evaluate a lot of things in your life. This becomes increasingly true for Radha Blank’s character in The Forty-Year-Old Version. Loosely based on her life, this comedy drama that marked Blank’s feature directorial debut tells the story of a playwright and teacher who struggles to accept the artistic compromises imposed on her by her producer and agent. Unhappy with her life and missed opportunities, Radha rediscovers her passion for rap, which she abandoned in high school. She is at first reluctant to pursue a new career but executives’ continuous meddling with her work finally makes her step out of her comfort zone.

Under the Shadow 

Director: Babak Anvari | 2016 | 1h 24 min

In post-revolution Tehran, former medical student Shideh is not allowed to continue her studies because she used to be involved in student leftist groups before the change of the government. As the Iraqian government launches air raids on Iranian cities, Shideh’s husband, who is drafted to the frontline as a doctor, wants to relocate her and their daughter to his parents in a safer part of the country, but Shideh refuses. Strange things start happening to mother and daughter after a neighbor boy gives the girl a charm. They both start to have nightmares that turn into visions. Shideh finally realizes they have become victims of a sinister supernatural force and tries to escape the house with her daughter. Under the Shadow was praised by critics for its fresh take on the usual horror film tropes and for drawing subtle, yet unmissable parallels between the horrors of the war and oppressive society.

Shirkers

Director: Sandi Tan | 2018 | 1h 36 min

What would you do if you worked on a feature film, but after the shooting was complete, all of the footage disappeared? Filmmaker Sandi Tan decided this was an appropriate situation to… make another film, this time a documentary. Back in the 90s, teenage Sandi and her two friends made an independent film about a teenage assassin. As the girls went to study abroad, their film mentor Georges Cardona, who was actively involved in the filming, disappeared with the footage, never to be heard of again. Two decades later, the now deceased Cardona’s wife contacted Sandi and told her she had the footage. Instead of putting the film together, Tan decided to turn it into a documentary. Released under the same name as the original feature was supposed to be called, Shirkers tells the entire story of their student work, from filming it to losing it. It also focuses on the persona of Georges Cardona.