June 1, 2019
The AFI DOCS Interview: SLAY THE DRAGON With Directors Barak Goodman and Chris Durrance
Gerrymandering influences elections and sways outcomes. SLAY THE DRAGON tackles this hot-button political topic and dramatizes precisely what is making our political system sick and, possibly, how it can be healed. Profiling those on the front lines fighting to change the system, Barak Goodman and Chris Durrance’s new documentary hopes to galvanize audiences and show…
May 30, 2019
The AFI DOCS Interview: GAY CHORUS DEEP SOUTH With Director David Charles Rodrigues
David Charles Rodriguez’s new film chronicles the journey of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus who decide to tour the deep south in the wake of the 2016 Presidential election. In this Tribeca Film festival Audience Award winner, chorus members confront their pasts with the church, meet residents working for change, and discover kindness and…
May 27, 2019
The AFI DOCS Interview: MAIDEN With Director Alex Holmes
Alex Holmes’ MAIDEN follows Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old skipper who led the first all-women crew to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race, shattering records — and glass ceilings — along their 167-day, 32,018-mile voyage. We spoke to director Alex Holmes about the film. MAIDEN plays as part of the Portrait program at AFI DOCS at…
June 5, 2018
Announcing AFI DOCS 2018 Impact Lab Film Projects
Five films have been selected for the fourth annual AFI DOCS Impact Lab in partnership with RABEN_IMPACT. The selections for this distinguished fellowship and training program are four feature documentary films — CHARM CITY, DON’T BE NICE, THE PROVIDERS, and PERSONAL STATEMENT, which will have its world premiere and open AFI DOCS this year —…
November 20, 2017
AFI DOCS and NBCUniversal Announce 2017 Impact Lab Grant Recipients
Four documentary projects screened at the AFI DOCS 2017 film festival, with presenting sponsor AT&T, will receive funding from the AFI DOCS/NBCUniversal Impact Grants. Now in its third year, this grant program supports outreach and social action campaigns for projects that participated in the AFI DOCS Impact Lab, a two-day filmmaker workshop produced by The…
May 4, 2017
Here Are the AFI DOCS 2017 Opening Night and Closing Night Films
AFI DOCS, AFI’s annual documentary celebration in the nation’s capital, announces the Opening and Closing Night films for its 15th annual edition. The festival will open with the East Coast premiere of Netflix’s ICARUS, directed by Bryan Fogel, and will close with ESPN Films’ YEAR OF THE SCAB, directed by Emmy® winner John Dorsey. Both…
October 16, 2015
Calling All Documentary Fans and Filmmakers
The American Film Institute's annual documentary film festival, AFI DOCS 2016, will take place June 22–26, 2016 in the nation's capital and is now open for entries. Each year, AFI DOCS presents a diverse slate of documentaries from around the world that draws documentary fans from the Washington metropolitan region and across the US and...
July 22, 2015
The AFI DOCS Interview: THE RUSSIAN WOODPECKER’s Chad Gracia
In the AFI DOCS film THE RUSSIAN WOODPECKER, a young, eccentric Ukrainian artist named Fedor Alexandrovich — just four years old when the Chernobyl disaster struck — seeks to learn more about what happened at the nuclear plant. Fedor becomes fascinated with the Duga — a massive, Soviet-constructed radio antenna near the Chernobyl site that remains...
July 19, 2015
50 Years Later, AFI is Back at the White House:
Right now, AFI DOCS is in full swing showing some of the best documentaries in the heart of Washington, DC. It’s a unique and influential festival but this year’s entry is particularly meaningful. That’s because the 2015 festival marks the 50 year anniversary of the origin of AFI in the nation’s capital – right in the White House Rose Garden. AFI…
July 17, 2015
The AFI DOCS Interview: THE STORM MAKERS’ Guillaume Suon
Every year, hundreds of thousands of young Cambodians go abroad, lured by promises of well-paid work. Nearly a third will be enslaved, forced to work without pay and subjected to beatings and sexual violence. In his film THE STORM MAKERS, French-Cambodian filmmaker Guillaume Suon exposes the human-trafficking industry perpetuating this misery through revealing interviews with a...
July 17, 2015
The AFI DOCS Interview: FRESH DRESSED’s Sacha Jenkins
In the AFI DOCS film FRESH DRESSED, filmmaker Sacha Jenkins offers a fun and colorful history lesson in hip-hop fashion through the decades. The fashion trends which were initially born out of a mix of ingenuity, creativity and swagger soon found their way onto high-fashion runways and into suburban closets in middle America. The film...
July 15, 2015
The AFI DOCS Interview: THE DIPLOMAT’s David Holbrooke
Richard Holbrooke was a crucial diplomatic negotiator for two Democratic presidents, but his charisma and his talent for foreign policy also came with a brashness that earned him nicknames such as “The Bulldozer.” Through the eyes of Holbrooke’s filmmaker son David Holbrooke, THE DIPLOMAT examines a career with global reach and unquestioned historical impact. Holbrooke’s…
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