SF DocFest: 85 Films That Challenge Power and Prejudice
The documentaries being shown at this year’s San Francisco Documentary Film Festival (hereafter “SF DocFest”) come at a much-needed political time in America. The majority of the Rethuglican Party and more than a few Vichy Democrats have been busily molding their public presentations of truth into whatever best serves to protect the powerful and/or promote prejudice. SF DocFest, on the other hand, shows through its 85 films from around the world that even in its non-politically themed films the truth tends to be far bigger and messier (and sometimes wonderfully crazier) than the small packages the powerful prefer to dole out what they pass as truth. Incidentally, viewers who want a one-stop shop for politically-themed films at this year’s SF DocFest are urged to check out the “Welcome To The Resistance” programming sidebar.
SF DocFest 2025 will be up and running from May 29 – June 8. In-person screenings will take place at the Roxie Theater and the Vogue Theater. For those who want to see grammar guru Ellen Jovin in person or meet a cat transported from Oman in need of a forever home, this is the way to go. But for those whose schedule or other circumstances make in-person attendance impossible, most of SF DocFest’s offerings will be available for streaming with some exceptions (e.g. planned broadcast release).
Definitely unlikely to be broadcast on PBS is Marie Losier’s Opening Night Film “Peaches Goes Bananas.” The “Cassandro The Exotico” director returns with a deep-dive portrait of the titular feminist queer taboo-shattering icon, from her electrifying concerts to her close bond to her sister.
The other Opening Night Film, Brandt Johnson’s “Rebel With A Clause,” wonderfully uses questions about grammar to bring Americans from different walks of life together. In 2018, grammarian Ellen Jovin set up a Grammar Table on a Manhattan sidewalk to answer questions from passersby about grammar, such as whether a period goes inside or outside a quotation mark or where the apostrophe is placed for plural nouns. The resulting conversations proved so fun and informative that Jovin and her husband Johnson decided to take the Grammar Table on the road to visit all 50 U.S. states and film the entertaining results.
For those who want more warm fuzzies after watching Jovin’s travels around America, why not check out a documentary about warm fuzzies? Mye Hoang’s new cat documentary “25 Cats From Qatar” follows the efforts of a Wisconsin cat cafe owner working with underground animal rescuers to both transport 25 street cats from Qatar to America for adoption and find a long-term solution to the country’s cat overpopulation problem. Send back to Qatar the Orange Felon’s used jetliner (which might as well have “This Is A Bribe” written on its side) and bring in more lovable furballs from Doha who need a forever home!
Jens-Runes, the titular “Gamemaster” of Magda Wyszynska’s feature, finds playfulness in his life with something other than cats. He does so through the enchanting adventure-filled world he created via his own version of Dungeons and Dragons. His 40 years of imaginative exploration has yielded 40 books of stories and drawings. What Jens-Runes doesn’t have is outside recognition, particularly from his daughters. Will exhibiting his life’s work bring this imaginative man the recognition he wants? Maybe…if he can find a way to do so without either email or even the Internet.
James P. Gannon and Matt Ferrin win this year’s Docfest award for best film title with their short “Wrecked A Bunch Of Cars, Had A Good Time.” It follows four strangers whose paths will cross as they’re all taking part in smashing cars at the same Demolition Derby.
Vietnamese tattoo artist Tran Ngoc operates in a far different subcultural niche. The subject of Lindsay Nyman’s short “They Call Me The Tattoo Witch” specializes in tattooing over scars. Tattoos may be looked down upon in Vietnam. But for the breast cancer survivors and women with self-harm scars Ngoc serves, her work provides a way for her clients to reclaim their bodies.
Reclamation of one’s bodily autonomy is a theme of Bay Area director Reid Davenport’s politically-themed looks at disability issues. SFFILM viewers may remember Davenport’s award-winning documentary essay “I Didn’t See You There.” His new film, Sundance Special Jury Award winner “Life After,” uses the case of Elizabeth Bouvia to investigate the conflict between the sanctity of life and the disabled community’s lack of resources to live a meaningful life.
Drag culture gets reclaimed from capitalistic co-optation in Fil Ieropoulos’ bracing feature “Avant-Drag!” See social strictures get mocked and undermined by ten Greek drag artists portraying such characters as riot housewives and Albanian turbo-folk girls. If the bigots trying to suppress Drag Story Hours met these artists in high-heeled boots praising abortion, they might spontaneously combust.
Wes Overvold’s short “Loving Town” follows a trio of activists from Livingston, Montana. Their fight to preserve drag story hours in their community soon becomes part of a larger struggle against a push in the Montana State Legislature to enshrine into law a package of anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
Sam Javadi’s feature “Mahwash: A Documentary Film” introduces viewers to Afghanistan’s pioneering female singer Mahwash. She rises to fame despite cultural barriers and political turmoil, but a sexist backlash and the Taliban’s rise scupper her dreams of giving a farewell performance in Afghanistan. However, with the support of devoted husband Farooq, the singer finds a way to give the performance that provides closure to her career.
The music known as Stray Fado allows ordinary people to sing their hearts out and transform their pain for something lost or will never return into timeless and beautiful music. Marius Bottcher’s short “Echoes Of Saudade” takes viewers to a small taverna in the heart of the Lisbon district of Alfama, where the music can still be heard even as the rest of Alfama gets undermined by the tourist hordes.
Los Angeles has another iconic marker besides its famed Hollywood sign. It’s called the Happy Foot/Sad Foot sign, and it has its own cult following. Can writers and activists who love the sign save it from gentrifying a**holes who want to tear it down? Find out in John Squire’s short “Happy Foot Sad Story.”
Who knew “The Weather Underground” filmmaker Sam Green was a fan of finding manhole covers around the world? He is, and Jonn herschend’s short “Looking For Cover With Sam Green” follows the filmmaker on his quest to find the oldest manhole cover in New York City.
Serving as the Centerpiece Film for SF DocFest 2025 is Greg Roden’s “No Bad Takes: An American Picture Show With William T. Vollman.” The film primarily follows the acclaimed writer and journalist as he does research for his new epic “A Table For Fortune,” a project that’s projected to run about 3,000 pages. That research involves talking to those who’ve dropped out of mainstream society (e.g. the unhoused, sex workers) and listening to their stories.
Chris Coats’ feature “Flamingo Camp” recounts the story of the titular queer- and trans-friendly camp set up in the California desert off-the-grid community known as Slab City. A Canadian nomad named Nova helps set up the camp and becomes its reluctant leader. But after Nova travels to Mexico, a terrible incident makes the place far less of a haven for the camp’s remaining queer residents.
Footage for an uncompleted documentary provides the raw material for Les Blank’s short “Motorcycle Moment.” It’s a tribute to the vastness of the American West as seen in 1964 and the opportunities for adventure provided by the motorcycle. Music by The 13th Floor Elevators.
Director Charlie Shackleton delivers in his feature “Zodiac Killer Project” a different path in creative recycling. A planned documentary on a California Highway Patrolman’s hunt for the Zodiac Killer fell through when Shackleton failed to get the rights to adapt the book. Instead, the director walks viewers through his ideas for the movie he would have created. In the process, this cinematic essay winds up being an entertaining deconstruction of the tropes of the true-crime documentary genre.
One of the wilder films shown at this year’s Slamdance is Elijah Sullivan’s real-life mystery “The Hole Story.” Who dug a 60-foot hole into the side of Mount Shasta and why? The contradictory possibilities mentioned in this documentary range from would-be gold miners to seekers of the secret entrance to Lemuria. Which of these stories is the true one and which is the fable, the viewer must decide for themself.
Another Slamdance 2025 alumnus is Sue Carpenter’s “40 Watts From Nowhere.” In 1995, the director took advantage of the legal low-power radio movement to establish pirate radio station KBLT, which operated out of her Silver Lake apartment closet. This Los Angeles 40-watt radio station ran on the principle of having strangers play whatever music they wanted, whether it was jungle, French pop, or vintage country. The station DJs would run the gamut from music fans to Mike Watt of The Minutemen. This film primarily uses footage from the station’s 1998 heyday…and its FCC-ordered closure.
The Amazon Labor Union is another group of people fighting silencing by the powerful, in this case union-hating Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. Stephen Maing and Brett Story recounted in the acclaimed “Union” the successful unionization of an Amazon warehouse. Their sequel short “Local One” shows that 2 ½ years later, Amazon management still refuses to either recognize the Amazon Labor Union or to bargain a contract. So with the Teamsters’ support, it’s time to kick things up a notch by starting a nationwide strike at Amazon during peak holiday season.
The subject of Jayson McNamara and Andrea Tortonese’s “Norita” also underwent a long fight for justice. Nora Cortinas’ son had been disappeared by Argentine military junta goons during that country’s Dirty War. Cortinas would help cofound the legendary human rights organization Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which would both seek justice for the past and inspire later generations of women activists. Executive Produced by Jane Fonda and Gustavo Santaolalla.
Speaking of social justice protest movements, you might want to thank activist photographer Misan Harriman. His lens has gone around the world and documented grassroots protest movements fighting for equality, justice, and civil rights. The photographer’s life and work is the subject of Andy Mundy-Castle’s film “Shoot The People.”
A far different sort of shooting is part of the legacy of the subject of Trisha Ziff’s feature “Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man.” Controversial Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams led the Northern Irish people towards peace. The British and their supporters may have publicly damned Adams as a terrorist. But Adams played a key role in convincing the IRA to lay down their arms and in getting the British government to negotiate the peace treaty known as the Good Friday Agreement.
Far trickier than ending The Troubles in Northern Ireland is figuring out the right action to repair the long term harms wrought by America’s legacy of slavery. Interracial filmmaking partners Selina Lewis Davidson and Macky Alston attempt to find answers in their feature “Acts Of Reparation.” Davidson goes to Monroe, Louisiana to resurrect the buried tales of her ancestors with the help of a sisterhood of her great aunties. Alston returns to Penfield, Georgia to challenge his kin to dismantle the privileges they’ve received from being enslavers’ descendants, a concept that would make white racists such as the Musk Rat scream.
Anna Quinlan’s short “The Wilhelm Scream” takes a look at the notorious sound effect that’s been used in everything from TV shows to video games over the past seven decades. But where it came from and the reasons it’s still being used today is something the viewer should discover for themself.
Closing out SF DocFest 2025 is Wendy Lobel’s “Anxiety Club.” How do such comedians as Tiffany Jenkins, Marc Maron, and Aparna Nancheria deal with anxiety? The answer lies in such things as stand-up performances, exposure therapy, and meditation. Perhaps laughter is the best way to face a mental condition that affects 300 million people globally.
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