Synopsis

Chicago journalist Seymour Hersh has uncovered some of the most momentous political scandals in American history, from exposing the U.S. military’s My Lai massacre in Vietnam to its torturing of Iraqi citizens at Abu Ghraib. After decades spent trying to get Hersh to agree to make a documentary, Oscar winner Laura Poitras (CitizenFour), together with Mark Obenhaus, finally get their moment, sitting with the occasionally combative Hersh to do a deep dive into his history, his investigations, and his sources, telling a story not only about the legendary indefatigable reporter but also about the need to hold those in power accountable for their actions.

No hagiographic portrait, Cover-Up shows Pulitzer Prize winner Hersh as a complex and contentious figure whose reputation has taken a fair share of knocks, even as he’s been one of America’s most important truth-tellers. As President Nixon says of Hersh in an archived audio recording, “The son of a bitch is a son of the bitch, but he’s usually right.” As we observe brief scenes of Hersh still working to expose abuses in Gaza, the film serves as a testament to the vital need for investigative journalism in our precarious modern world.

Synopsis

At 11-years-old, Crowley McCuistion has a bright future ahead of him as a cowboy in the plains of Colorado. Training since he was a toddler and encouraged by his strict father Curt, mother Farrah, and supportive older brother Yancie, the young Crowley knows exactly who he wants to be when he grows up. As he says, “Cowboys have to be tough… you have to shake it off and go on with life.” But when an unexpected tragedy hits the family in his teenage years, Crowley learns it’s not so easy to shake things off. Turns out the challenges of bull riding are nothing compared to the struggles of everyday life.

For 10 years, director André Hörmann (who returns to the Festival after his Chicago-set Ringside) visited with Crowley and his family members, observing them with sensitivity and sympathy. While the film initially shows many of the tropes familiar to cowboy life—a culture rooted in masculinity and ruggedness—such hardened layers quickly peel away, revealing the vulnerabilities and fragilities that lie beneath the surface. A longitudinal and piercing coming-of-age docu-drama, The Cowboy penetrates stereotypes to reveal a complex portrait of life in the American heartland.

Synopsis

In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with (Miles Teller) and her first love (Callum Turner), who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive. Guided by an Afterlife Coordinator (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), they have just one week to confront the ultimate dilemma: where, and with whom, to spend eternity. From this whimsical concept blooms a bold, heart-stirring rom-com, a journey into a charming pop vision of post-earthly existence and how we take the measure of a lifetime of love and happiness.

Synopsis

An inspirational chronicle of reclamation and renewal, The Eyes of Ghana follows Chris Hesse, a film pioneer in Ghana who documented the entirety of pan-African leader Kwame Nkrumah’s run, win, and work as the young nation’s first President. Hesse, now in his nineties, is on a new quest to restore never-before-seen footage of Nkrumah’s endeavors—which were thought to have been destroyed—and recover a history of post-colonial struggle that has long been suppressed.

Directed by two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot (A Concerto is a Conversation), executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, and featuring an original score by much-lauded composer Kris Bowers (The Color Purple), the film follows Hesse and his young ally, director Anita Afonu, as they work together to preserve the cultural richness, societal complexities, and everyday resilience of the Ghanaian people through their own lens. The Eyes of Ghana poses provocative questions about how history shapes the present and who gets to tell a country’s story.

Synopsis

A feature film in the form of a triptych. The three stories all concern the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents), and each other.