The 23rd San Francisco Documentary Festival (SF DocFest)
May 30-June 9, 2024
Presented at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco and virtually at sfindie.com
The 23rd San Francisco Documentary Film Festival (SF DocFest) will be held May 30-June 9, 2024. SF DocFest will screen 90 new non-fiction films (38 features and 52 shorts). There are 30 films local to the Bay Area.
The festival remains a hybrid of live presentations and virtual screenings. There are 53 films that will screen at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. The majority of the in-person screenings held at the Roxie Theater will also include live Q&A sessions with filmmakers and subjects.
For those who are unable to attend in person, all 90 films will be available virtually during SF DocFest and may be attended virtually through on-demand screenings and pre-recorded Q&A sessions: https://watch.eventive.org/sfdocfest2024
The full festival program may be found at https://sfdocfest2024.eventive.org.
BIG NIGHTS
OPENING NIGHT
The Donn of Tiki
Directors: Alex Lamb, Max Well
Documentary Feature (Local film) Donn Beach was so much more than just the godfather of tiki. He was an American maverick, creating opportunities against all odds. He reinvented himself many times, and was well known for embellishing the details of his extraordinary adventures. There are slivers of truth to his tales – a youth spent in Jamaica, running rum with his brother in the days of prohibition, acquisitioning liquor and cigars for his World War II rest camps, and bringing the first commercial luaus to Hawaii. The Donn of Tiki takes on the task of separating fact from fiction to finally decipher his story – warts and all.
Opening Night, Thu, May 30th, 6:00 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmakers will attend
Followed by a party, Tiki Wonderlands, at Smuggler’s Cove 650 Gough Street in San Francisco
Who is Michael Jang?
Director: Michael Jacobs
Documentary Feature (Local film)
For 50 years, San Francisco based artist Michael Jang has been sitting on a hidden body of photographs taken when he was in his 20s. Although Jang built a career as a commercial and portrait photographer, many of his underground snapshots infiltrating and observing communities and subcultures has gotten little notice. Then in 2021, at the age of 70, Jang set out to share his work with the world. Who is Michael Jang? delves into the extraordinary life and work of an elusive artist at a flashpoint in his career.
Opening Night, Thu, May 30th, 8:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker and film subject, Michael Jang, will attend
Kim Jong, Alfaman and The Probe: A LeMons Race
Director: Yasmin Sanie-Hay
Documentary Short (Local film) Inspired by the legendary Le Mans, 24 Hours of LeMons is an endurance car race held on professional race tracks throughout the US. The only rule: entrants can’t exceed $500 budgets on their cars. It all started out in 2006 as a lighthearted joke between friends and a desire to democratize access to racing. Fast forward to today, and LeMons has become one of the most widely attended endurance races, claiming the Guinness World Record for “Most Participants in a Single Car Race.” Affectionately known as “Burning Man for Cars,” it brings together some of the wildest – and most ingenious – car designs out there.
Opening Night, Thu, May 30th, 8:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker and film subjects will attend
CENTERPIECE FILM
Art For Everybody
Director: Miranda Yousef
Documentary Feature (Local film) Thomas Kinkade’s pastoral landscapes made him the most collected and despised painter of all time. After his shocking death, his family discovers a vault of unseen paintings that reveal a complex artist whose life and work embody our divided America.
Centerpiece Screening, Sat, June 1st, 5:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker and film subjects will attend
CLOSING NIGHT
23 Mile
Director: Mitch McCabe
Documentary Feature
Part verité essay film, part political diary, 23 Mile is an experimental nonfiction film following Americans during cataclysmic events in the Midwestern swing state of Michigan throughout 2020– including the plot to kidnap governor Whitmer– painting a portrait of a populace that defies media stereotypes. A document of complex discourse, the film forces viewers to question their own assumptions about race, class, social status and geographical demographics, drawing a surprisingly hopeful human portrait against the foreboding backdrop of societal instability.
Closing Night Thu, June 6th, 6:15 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Wake The Town
Directors: Bryan Wiley, Jason Blalock
Documentary Short (Local film) Three former Oaklanders come home to see how “The Town” has changed. Featuring the late hip hop artist Stephen “Zumbi” Gaines (Zion I).
Closing Night Thu, June 6th, 6:15 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmakers will attend
Black Rio! Black Power!
Director: Emílio Domingos
Documentary Feature Soul music dances gave rise to the Black Rio Movement after they became spaces for the political affirmation and resistance of the young black community in Rio de Janeiro in the 70’s. Black Rio! Black Power! reveals just how important the music scene was in fighting for racial equality during Brazil’s military dictatorship and, subsequently, its influence on Hip Hop and Funk music; as well as the impact black pride had on newer generations and the aesthetical valorization disseminated throughout past decades.
Closing Night, Thu, June 6th, 8:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Compton’s ’22
Director: Drew de Pinto
Documentary Short (Local film) On an unknown date in August 1966, trans women in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district rioted against police violence at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria. There was no news coverage, and the arrest records no longer exist. Decades later, historians Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman unearthed the history of the riot and interviewed the surviving “Compton’s queens.”
Closing Night, Thu, June 6th, 8:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
LOCAL FEATURE FILMS AND LOCAL FILMMAKERS
Art and Life: The Story of Jim Phillips
Director: John Makens
Feature Documentary
A pioneer of contemporary graphic art, Jim Phillips, known for his bold and visceral imagery, left an indelible mark on the world of rock posters, surf, and skateboard art. Drawing inspiration from his life in Santa Cruz, Jim’s journey from publishing his first artwork in Surfer Quarterly in 1962 to becoming the art director for Santa Cruz Skateboards shaped the golden era of skateboarding.
Screens Sat, June 1st, 2:00 PM @ Roxie Theater
Film subject, Jim Phillips, will attend
Born For This
Director: Jen Gilomen
Feature Documentary
Determined not to become another statistic of the Black maternal health crisis, Janeé Washington and her husband Josh choose the rare option of hiring an experienced midwife and doula and planning to give birth at home, away from the hospital and all of its interventions. But the baby has other plans, and despite the team’s efforts, they end up transferring to the hospital at the eleventh hour. This is the story of the birth of one baby, with its family caught between two very different approaches to childbirth.
Screens with We Exist In Memory Wed, June 5th, 6:15 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker and film subjects will attend
Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros
Directors: Daniel Weintraub
Documentary Feature
Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros tells the story of the iconic composer, performer, teacher, philosopher, technological innovator and humanitarian, Pauline Oliveros, one of the founding members of San Francisco’s Tape Center in the 1960s.As an openly queer Latina, she was one of the world’s original electronic musicians, the only female amongst notable post-war American composers, a master accordion player, a teacher and mentor to musicians, a gateway to music and sound for non-musicians and a technical innovator who helped develop everything from tools that allow musicians to play together while in different countries to software that enables those with severe disabilities to create beautiful music.
Fri, May 31st, 8:45 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Film is Dead. Long Live Film!
Director: Peter Flynn
Feature Documentary
An exploration of the vanishing world of private film collecting – an obsessive, secretive, often-illicit world of basement movie vaults, piled high with forgotten reels, and inhabited by passionate cinephiles devoted to the rescue and preservation of photochemical film.
Screens Fri, May 31st, 6:00 PM @ Roxie Theater
Film subject, Rick Prelinger, will attend
If I Could Stay
Director: Theo Rigby, Florencia Krochik
Feature Documentary
This is the heart-wrenching and inspiring story of two undocumented Latinx mothers, Jeanette and Ingrid, who courageously enter local churches to evade deportation and protect their families. Over five years, Jeanette and Ingrid face the constant threat of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids while fighting for their legal status and inspiring allies in the predominantly white faith communities. Through an intimate and raw lens, the film showcases the unwavering strength, love, and sacrifice of mothers, who risk everything to keep their families together in the country they call home.
Screens Sat, June 1st, 3:00 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmakers will attend
My Own Normal
Director: Alexander Freeman
Feature Documentary
When disabled filmmaker Alexander Freeman tells his parents his girlfriend is pregnant, their reaction is not what he expected. Confronting that pain, he sets out to create his version of a “normal life” as a parent and partner.
Screens with Far From Home, Sun, June 2nd, 5:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
My Secret Country
Director: Marlo McKenzie
Feature Documentary
My Secret Country follows three children as they embark on a thrilling adventure into their imaginations. When desserts from around the world mysteriously disappear, their imaginary friends, brought to life through charming 2D animation, rally to save the day. Suspecting the mischievous inner voice of doubt, Kritik, the group sets out on a quest to find three magical ingredients that can rescue the world’s treats from vanishing forever. Co-written with the young protagonists, this film offers a delightful blend of fantasy and reality that will surely spark wonder in audiences of all ages.
Screens Sun, June 2nd, 12:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker and film subjects will attend
Narrow Path to Happiness
Director: Kata Olah
Feature Documentary
A young gay Romani couple from a remote village in Hungary has a dream so absurd that it seems impossible: making a musical film based on their lives. Against all odds, they move to Budapest just as the Hungarian government is becoming increasingly hostile toward LGBTQ+ people.
Screens Sun, June 2nd, 4:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Welcome Space Brothers
Director: Jodi White
Feature Documentary
This charming look at The Unarius Academy of Science, an extraterrestrial-channeling spiritual school established in the 1970s in El Cajon, California shows how a self-healing community became a wildly prolific filmmaking collective under the outlandish direction of spiritual leader and filmmaker Ruth E. Norman, a.k.a Archangel Uriel.
Screens Wed, June 5th, 8:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker and film subjects will attend
Where Olive Trees Weep
Director: Zaya Benazzo, Maurizio Benazzo
Feature Documentary
Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. Following Palestinian journalist and therapist Ashira Darwish, grassroots activist Ahed Tamimi and others, the film explores the themes of loss, trauma, and quest for justice. Ancient landscapes bear deep scars, having witnessed the brutal reality of ancestral land confiscation, expulsions, imprisonment, home demolitions, water deprivation, and denial of basic human rights. Yet, through the veil of oppression, we catch a glimpse of resilience — the deep roots that have carried the Palestinian people through decades of darkness and shattered lives.
Screens Sat, June 1st, 6:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmakers will attend
LOCAL SHORT FILMS AND LOCAL FILMMAKERS
One Fighting Irishman
Directors: Sharon Yamato
Documentary Short
The story of one man’s legal battle to regain American citizenship for more than 5,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry forced to renounce amidst turmoil and violence at the Tule Lake Segregation Center, considered the worst of America’s ten WWII concentration camps. It took attorney Wayne M. Collins more than 23 years to restore citizenship for nearly all of them.
In Bay Area Stories 2, Sun, June 2nd, 8:00 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
A Certain Personality
Director: Gaby Scott
Documentary Short
A story of four Northern Californian surfers who all share a wildness and passion for the bigger days at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.
In Bay Area Stories 1, Sat, June 1st, 12:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker and film subjects will attend
Abstract Tendencies
Director: Daniel Freeman
Documentary Short
An abstract painter embarks on a technicolor, soul-searching journey to recover his lost art and confront past demons.
In Bay Area Stories 1, Sat, June 1st, 12:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Ambassadors of Hope
Directors: Cassidy Friedman, Amber Allen-Peirson
Documentary Short
Through Harambee Arts, a group of Kenyans holds space for children in Kibera slum to express themselves freely. Among these dedicated mentors is Samson, who grew up in Kibera himself. In a room full of attentive eyes, he speaks quietly but powerfully about the impact that art had on his life. He knows he can help these brave kids escape their day-to-day struggles and connect with others through art. And his friendship resonates with the hearts of these children. With Samson’s mentorship and passion, art is lending a helping hand to those living in this part of Kenya—providing meaning and offering hope.
In Bay Area Stories 2, Sun, June 2nd, 8:00 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmakers will attend
The Bridge Between Two Worlds
Director: antwan williams
Documentary Short
The Bridge Between Two Worlds is a thought-provoking and inspiring documentary that follows the extraordinary journey of Antwan and Eric, two formerly incarcerated men determined to break the chains of the school-to-prison pipeline. Paroled from the notorious San Quentin State Prison in 2019, Antwan and Eric embark on an awe-inspiring mission that challenges societal norms and redefines the power of second chances. Their destination? An elite private school nestled in the heart of Marin, California, The Branson School.
In Bay Area Stories 1, Sat, June 1st, 12:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Carrying Capacity
Directors: Ethan Goldwater
Documentary Short
The fortuitous meeting of a neurodivergent Silicon Valley computer engineer suffering from panic attacks and a talented young neuroscientist leads to a discovery that deepens our understanding of human expression across the autism spectrum.
In Bay Area Stories 2, Sun, June 2nd, 8:00 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Driverless
Director: Danny Roberts
Documentary Short
A critical look at the expansion of robotaxis in San Francisco, focusing on the concerns of drivers, local officials, and the public.
In Bay Area Stories 2, Sun, June 2nd, 8:00 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Far From Home
Director: Ankita M. Kumar
Documentary Short
Samira Faizi and her family – husband Javed and sons Zaheed and Sadiq – escaped to India from Afghanistan in 2021, right before the Taliban takeover. India was an obvious choice for Samira as she used to visit the country frequently for medical treatment for a rare neurological condition. Samira hoped to eventually leave India and settle in a new country after filing for asylum. But she is now grappling with the possibility of being stuck forever, as slow asylum processes and the lack of a refugee law in India threaten her existence. This situation and stress has triggered her neurological condition and caused several health problems for her and her family. Samira’s family is also stuck in India at a time when violence against Muslims is steadily increasing in the country.
Screens with My Own Normal, Sun, June 2nd, 5:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Silk And Iron
Director: Kee Streater Heywood
Documentary Short
Gary Llamido is an antiques collector and restoration artist. The film is an intimate conversation with Gary on the important role that Samurai Armor has played in his life, as well as the impact it continues to have on the world.
In Bay Area Stories 1, Sat, June 1st, 12:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Swords in the Sand: The Abstract Work of Todd Williamson
Director: Samantha Girard
Documentary Short
Swords in the Sand follows world-renowned abstract artist Todd Williamson. We get a glimpse into Williamson’s world and what it takes to make the incredible artwork that has been shown all around the globe. We delve into the very essence of his work through color, texture, and method. We discover what it means to put your “sword in the sand” as an artist of the modern age.
In Bay Area Stories 1, Sat, June 1st, 12:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
Thomas Hughes: The Story of a Carpenter from Berkeley
Director: Hong Min (Martin) Kim
Documentary Short
Thomas Hughes, a carpenter, and designer from Berkeley, California, enjoys woodworking, building furniture, and sculptural pieces and has a family lifestyle centered around his home.
In Bay Area Stories 1, Sat, June 1st, 12:30 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
We Exist in Memory
Director: Darian Woehr
Documentary Short
How do you rebuild “home” from nothing but memories? This verite-style film thrusts us into the intimate conversations between Maria and her grandchild, Marucha: two Indigenous refugees living in displacement. To Maria, the Venezuelan delta is her home. To Marucha, these refugee camps are all she knows. Through the rhythms of their daily lives, we witness the complexity of raising a new generation in displacement and explore how land, memory and identity are deeply intertwined.
Screens with Born For This Wed, June 5th, 6:15 PM @ Roxie Theater
Filmmaker will attend
TICKETS AND PASSES
Individual tickets are $5-17. Passes are $95-250.
Individual tickets and passes are available for this year’s festival at https://sfdocfest2024.eventive.org
The full festival program and additional information is available at sfindie.com. You may also contact DocFest at 415-662-FEST, or by emailing info@sfindie.com.
About San Francisco Documentary Film Festival (SF DocFest)
Since 2001, SF DocFest has brought the most weird and wonderful aspects of real life to the big screen. What started as a three-day event in an empty church in Union Square has become a two-week long festival across different venues in the Bay Area.
DOCFest 2024 Staff
Founder/Director: Jeff Ross; Programming: Chris Metzler, Sarah Flores, Gigi Haycock, Dominique O’Neil; House Manager Catie Roads; Publicity: Larsen Associates; Graphic Design: Michael Madfes