The American Film Institute Unveils Full Slate of AFI Docs 2015 Films

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Category: Entertainment News

Published on Wednesday, 20 May 2015 15:09

Written by AFI

3 ½ MINUTES, TEN BULLETS: DIR Marc Silver. USA. The 2012 murder of African-American teen Jordan Davis by a middle-aged white man, following an argument over loud music, sparked a national debate about Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law.

ALL THINGS MUST PASS: DIR Colin Hanks. USA. Explore the rise and fall of Tower Records in this fascinating account of the iconic titan of the music business, which closed its doors in 2006. East Coast premiere.

ALTHEA: DIR Rex Miller. USA. Tennis great Althea Gibson rose from the tough streets of Harlem to become the first athlete of color to win Wimbledon. Rex Miller's documentary tells the story of a strong and resilient champion.

AMONG THE BELIEVERS: DIRS Hemal Trivedi, Mohammed Ali Naqvi. Pakistan. Within Pakistan's borders, a violent clash of ideologies between radical Muslim extremists and moderates is shaping the path of the country's future.

ATTACKING THE DEVIL: HAROLD EVANS AND THE LAST NAZI WAR CRIME: DIRS Jacqui Morris, David Morris. UK/Canada.SundayTimes editor Sir Harold Evans uses his newspaper to shed light on the harmful effects of the drug thalidomide during the late 1960s and early '70s. U.S. premiere.

THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION: DIR Stanley Nelson. USA. Director Stanley Nelson offers a fascinating account of activist group the Black Panthers and its place in America's history.

CARTEL LAND: DIR Matthew Heineman. USA/Mexico. A citizen vigilante group in Mexico fights back against the encroaching drug cartels, which have brought widespread fear, violence and corruption to the area for years. The Washington Post Film Strand.

THE CHINESE MAYOR: DIR Hao Zhou. China. Mayor Geng Yanbo has ambitious plans to refurbish and develop the Chinese city of Datong, but progress comes with a price

CITY OF GOLD: DIR Laura Gabbert. USA. Join Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold as he ventures off the beaten path in search of the most adventurous cuisine that Los Angeles has to offer and enjoy the fascinating personal stories that are often served up for dessert.

CODE: DEBUGGING THE GENDER GAP: DIR Robin Hauser Reynolds. USA. Though computer science touches every aspect of life, women are barely represented in a coding community urgently seeking millions of skilled workers. CODE asks, "Why?"

DRONE: DIR Tonje Hessen Schei. Norway. Drone technology has been a highly controversial issue in recent years as it has come to define the modern War on Terror.

DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON: DIR Douglas Tirola. USA. Take a fascinating look into the history of National Lampoon, the hilariously twisted, profane and influential humor magazine that launched an astounding number of successful comedy careers.

FRAME BY FRAME: DIRS Alexandria Bombach, Mo Scarpelli. USA. Four photojournalists in Afghanistan work to re-establish a free press after years of oppression under the Taliban regime. The Washington Post Film Strand.

FRESH DRESSED: DIR Sacha Jenkins. USA. This fun and colorful history of hip-hop fashion looks at how the fresh trends that were born on urban streets found their way into mainstream America.

FROM THIS DAY FORWARD: DIR Sharon Shattuck. USA. Filmmaker Sharon Shattuck explores her father's gender identity struggles and how her parents have remained married through it all.

HOT TYPE: 150 YEARS OF THE NATION: DIR Barbara Kopple. USA. Two-time Oscar® winner Barbara Kopple tracks the iconic progressive weekly The Nation from its 1865 founding by abolitionist Republicans to present-day challenges facing print media of all stripes.

HOW TO DANCE IN OHIO: DIR Alexandra Shiva. USA. As they prepare for their first formal dance, a high-functioning co-ed group of autistic teenagers learns the intricacies of social interaction.

I WANT TO BE A KING: DIR Mehdi Ganji. Iran. Abbas runs a B&B-like tourist destination out of his Iranian home, but with the success of his business, his plans grow increasingly ambitious and outlandish. U.S. premiere.

INDIA'S DAUGHTER: DIR Leslee Udwin. UK/INDIA. INDIA'S DAUGHTER tells the tragic story of a 2012 gang rape and murder of a medical student and presents a searing indictment of the culture of misogyny behind the assault.

IN TRANSIT: DIRS Albert Maysles, Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Ben Wu, David Usua. USA. Legendary documentary pioneer Albert Maysles captures a cross-section of people in transitional stages of life as they journey across America by train.

KING GEORGES: DIR Erika Frankel. USA. Take a look behind the scenes of five-star French restaurant Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia, run by its famously demanding owner and chef, Georges Perrier.

LARRY KRAMER IN LOVE & ANGER: DIR Jean Carlomusto. USA. A portrait of outspoken writer and AIDS activist Larry Kramer, one of the most fiery, passionate, complicated and fascinating people you will ever get to know.

LISTEN TO ME MARLON: DIR Stevan Riley. UK. Drawing on hundreds of hours of previously unheard personal audio recordings, filmmaker Stevan Riley lets actor Marlon Brando tell his extraordinary life's journey from beyond the grave.

THE LOOK OF SILENCE: DIR Joshua Oppenheimer. Denmark/Indonesia/Norway/Finland/UK. In his follow-up to THE ACT OF KILLING, director Joshua Oppenheimer continues to unearth the ghosts of Indonesia's violent past, shifting his focus from the perpetrators to those left in the aftermath.

LOVE MARRIAGE IN KABUL: DIR Amin Palangi. Australia. In Afghanistan, Abdul and Fatemeh have fallen in love and wish to marry, but their voices in the matter all but disappear within the complex negotiations and exchanges of money that must occur between the two extended families before an agreement can be made.

OF MEN AND WAR: DIR Laurent Bécue-Renard. France. The devastating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on returning American combat soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are explored in this essential testimony documented by French filmmaker Laurent Bécue-Renard over the course of five years.

OUT TO WIN: DIR Malcolm Ingram. USA/Canada. The world of professional sports has long been dogged by a reputation of homophobia, steeped in the fear that openly gay players provide a potential "distraction" to the other teammates. However, times are changing.

PEACE OFFICER: DIRS Scott Christopherson, Brad Barber. USA. A former Utah sheriff investigates the increased militarization of police forces following the death of his son-in-law during a police standoff.

PEGGY GUGGENHEIM: ART ADDICT: DIR Lisa Immordino Vreeland. USA. Born into New York's prominent Guggenheim family, Peggy Guggenheim made her own mark as one of the premier art collectors and exhibitors of her day.

A POEM IS A NAKED PERSON: DIR Les Blank. USA. Unseen for more than 40 years, Les Blank's portrait of singer-songwriter Leon Russell is a brilliantly freewheeling and poetic film experience ready for rediscovery. East Coast premiere.

PROPHET'S PREY: DIR Amy Berg. USA. Filmmaker Amy Berg examines the alarming allegations surrounding the rogue polygamist religious sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and its incarcerated leader, Warren Jeffs.

RADICAL GRACE: DIR Rebecca Parrish. USA. When you hear the words "feminist," "activism" and "politics," Catholic nuns are not usually the first thing that come to mind. However, this group of nuns is turning tradition on its ear. U.S. premiere.

REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM: DIRS Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, Jared P. Scott. USA. Noam Chomsky offers a riveting discourse on income inequality and its devastating effects, which threaten to erode democracy itself.

REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD: AMERICAN SPRING 2014: DIRS Nick Doob, Shari Cookson. USA. During the spring of 2014, more than 8,000 individuals lost their lives to gun violence in the United States. REQUIEM focuses on these gun tragedies, weaving a series of vignettes from police footage, 911 calls and social media. East Coast premiere.

THE RUSSIAN WOODPECKER: DIR Chad Gracia. UK. Was Chernobyl really an accident? Ukrainian artist Fedor Alexandrovich investigates an unusual conspiracy theory behind the infamous disaster. East Coast premiere.

STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE: DIR Alex Gibney. USA. Alex Gibney takes a candid and critical look at Steve Jobs, the iconic visionary behind Apple Inc., whose impact helped define the tech industry. East Coast premiere.

THE STORM MAKERS: DIR Guillaume Suon. Cambodia/France. Through revealing interviews with victims and perpetrators, filmmaker Guillaume Suon exposes the human-trafficking industry in Cambodia that ensnares tens of thousands of victims annually.

THE THREE HIKERS: DIR Natalie Avital. USA. In 2009, when American hikers Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal mistakenly wandered off the beaten path near Iraq's poorly marked border with Iran, they quickly experienced the draconian consequences of their error. World premiere. The Washington Post Film Strand.

TYKE ELEPHANT OUTLAW: DIR Stefan Moore, Susan Lambert. Australia. After years of mistreatment, Tyke the circus elephant goes on a rampage in this tragic and unforgettable tale of performing-animal abuse.

UNCERTAIN: DIRS Anna Sandilands, Ewan McNicol. USA. Stunningly beautiful and disarmingly funny, UNCERTAIN delivers a portrait of the literal and figurative troubled waters of Uncertain, Texas, a 94-resident town on the brink of extinction.

VERY SEMI-SERIOUS: DIR Leah Wolchok. USA. This fascinating, funny film explores the history and process of The New Yorker's iconic cartoons through the lens of its cartoon editor, Bob Mankoff.

WELCOME TO LEITH: DIRS Michael Beach Nichols, Christopher K. Walker. USA. When notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb decides to settle in Leith, North Dakota, the townspeople work together to evict their unwanted neighbor.

WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE?: DIR Liz Garbus. USA. Nina Simone trained as a classical pianist but evolved into one of jazz music's most beloved and complex figures. Lending her voice to the civil rights movement, Simone battled demons that ultimately drove her into a self-imposed exile.

THE WOLFPACK: DIR Crystal Moselle. USA. Tucked inside an apartment in Manhattan's Lower East Side live the Angulo siblings, a tight-knit group who have barely left home due to the overbearing hand of their father. They spend countless hours re-creating scenes from their favorite movies, which have shaped their view of the outside world.

THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING: DIRS Laura Nix, The Yes Men. USA. The prankster activists known as The Yes Men are at it again. Traveling the globe posing as corporate and government spokesmen, the mischievous pair stages elaborate stunts designed to draw attention to the issue of climate change.