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Documentary
These real-life stories go up-close and personal with the people and issues that define who we are, where we come from, and where we’re going.
In-Person
Virtual
Acts of Love
After his heart is broken in Mexico, American filmmaker Bethel relocates to Chicago and sets up a new video project: He arranges meetings with strangers and then casts them as [...]
In-Person
Virtual
Any Given Day
In this raw, moving, and remarkable examination of struggle and resilience, director Margaret Byrne (Raising Bertie) follows Chicagoans Angela, Daniel, and Dimitar as the trio participates in a probation program [...]
In-Person
Virtual
Babi Yar. Context
In the fall of 1941, German troops, assisted by Ukrainian Police and without any resistance from the local population, shot dead 33,771 Jewish people in the Babi Yar ravine in [...]
In-Person
Virtual
Citizen Ashe
Tennis star Arthur Ashe broke barriers to become the first Black man to win the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open—at the height of the civil rights movement in [...]
In-Person
Virtual
A Cop Movie (Una película de policías)
Police corruption is rampant around the world, but Mexico City’s la policía are among the most notorious. In this thoroughly original and unpredictable docu-fiction hybrid, award-winning filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios (Museo, [...]
In-Person
Virtual
Cow
Following on the hooves of other celebrated animal docs (Gunda, My Octopus Teacher, Kedi), Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold (American Honey, Fish Tank), in her auspicious nonfiction debut, offers this wholly [...]
In-Person
Virtual
Exposure
As the polar ice caps melt, travel to the Arctic has become increasingly treacherous. Even so, in the face of precarious ice floes and punishing frostbite, an expedition of 11 [...]
In-Person
Virtual
Flee
Marrying striking animation and archival footage to breathtaking effect, Flee retraces one man’s harrowing experiences escaping life under Taliban rule. Amin Nawabi, a 36-year-old academic, recounts his childhood flight from [...]
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Virtual
For the Left Hand
When aspiring Chicago pianist Norman Malone was just 10-years-old, his father violently attacked him with a hammer, leaving the young virtuoso paralyzed on his right side. But Malone never gave [...]
In-Person
Julia
Julia brings to life the legendary cookbook author and television superstar who changed the way Americans think about food, television, and even about women. Using never-before-seen archival footage, personal photos, [...]
In-Person
Virtual
The Last Forest (A Última Floresta)
In this luminous follow-up to Ex-Shaman, Bolognesi’s 2018 Chicago IFF winner, the Brazilian filmmaker returns to the rainforest of his homeland to tell another bewitching yet tragic story of Indigenous [...]
In-Person
Virtual
The Last Shelter (Le Dernier Refuge)
On the edge of the Saharan desert in West Africa, at the crossroads of hope and defeat, lies the Caritas Migrant House, a temporary waystation for thousands of people every [...]
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Virtual
Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter
In the 2000s, chef Charlie Trotter was the toast of Chicago, his eponymous restaurant one of the world’s top fine-dining destinations. A gastronomic revolutionary and a culinary bad-boy, Trotter paved [...]
In-Person
Mayor Pete
In the great tradition of electioneering films such as The War Room and Knock Down the House, Mayor Pete brings viewers inside Pete Buttigieg’s mission to be the youngest and [...]
In-Person
Virtual
Oscar Micheaux – The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
The most successful African American director of the first half of the 20th century, Oscar Micheaux wrote, directed, and produced more than 44 films and six novels before his death [...]
In-Person
Virtual
The Other Side of the River
At only 19, Hala fought in one of the Kurdish armed forces’ all-female brigades to liberate her hometown from ISIS. Now, working as a policewoman, she has a new mission: [...]
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Punch 9 for Harold Washington
In this epic story of American politics, race, and triumph against all odds, director Joe Winston chronicles the captivating rise, surprising reign, and enduring legacy of Chicago’s first African American [...]
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Virtual
Shorts 4: Abstract Reflections (Documentary)
These non-fiction films include intimate portraits and daring confrontational works that exhibit the myriad textures of everyday life. Autobiographical memories and reimagined histories shape new perspectives.
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Virtual
Skál
Vivacious poet Dania, 21, who comes from a conservative Christian community, lives on a remote island in the North Sea. When she falls for secular hip-hop artist Trygvi, aka “Silver [...]
In-Person
The Story of Film: A New Generation
In this inspiring survey of cinematic innovation, British cineaste Mark Cousins follows up his 2011 influential work The Story of Film: An Odyssey with this expansive and illuminating journey across [...]
Drive-In
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of rock and roll and made Lou Reed famous for his distinctive lyrics and attitude. Acclaimed filmmaker Todd Haynes [...]
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