Panel Conversations, Filmmaker Discussions, and Opportunities for Activism Abound at 7th Edition Festival May 19 - 22, 2022
CHICAGO, Illinois – At the Doc10 documentary fIlm festival, presented by CMP, the film is just the beginning of the conversation. The Festival today announced programming and events that bring audiences new insights and unique conversations into the issues explored in Doc10’s 7th edition, running May 19 - 22, 2022 at the Davis Theater and the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Opening Night’s chronicle of Chicago-based underground abortion providers,THE JANES, will screen just weeks after a leaked Supreme Court opinion telegraphed the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, expected to be officially announced in June. Jane Collective founder Heather Booth joins film co-directors Emma Pildes and Tia Lessin, along with the largest gathering of original members of the Jane Collective since 1973, in conversation about their experiences in pre-Roe America and the feeling of living through history, twice.
In DESCENDANT, residents of the town of Africatown, Alabama grapple with the impacts of the discovery of the sunken Clotilda, the last known slave ship. Director Margaret Brown and co-writer Dr. Kern Jackson discuss the validation that can come from finally having physical proof of a long-contested history, and the power inherent in a community’s ability to finally take control of its own story.
Sociologist, author, poet, and visual artist Eve L. Ewing moderates a discussion following the Chicago premiere of LET THE LITTLE LIGHT SHINE, featuring director Kevin Shaw, producer Rachel Dickson, and subjects Elisabeth Greer, Isaac Castelaz, and Taylor Wallace, as they recount their experience fighting City Hall in opposition to then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to close a beloved South Loop elementary school.
Doc10 selection NAVALNY premiered at a special screening in April with appearances by director Daniel Roher, producer Odessa Rae, and Russian investigative journalist Maria Pevchikh. The film, a riveting chronicle of the attempted assassination of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny and its aftermath, returns with an encore screening and panel discussion with Roher and Pevchikh, and producer Diane Becker.
Other filmmakers attending Doc10 and participating in talkbacks include Jason Kohn, director of NOTHING LASTS FOREVER; Sierra Pettingill, director of RIOTSVILLE, USA; Sara Dosa, director of FIRE OF LOVE; Simon Lereng Wilmont, director of A HOUSE MADE OF SPLINTERS; and producer Will Miller of THE TERRITORY.
This year’s Festival includes a new program, Doc10 In Discussion, bringing together some of the top executives in the nonfiction industry for a conversation around the increasingly high stakes nature of the documentary business, and how streamers and broadcasters continue to set the pace. Moderated by Variety’s Addie Morfoot, panelists include Marjon Javadi of Disney+, Alexandra Hannibal of CNN, Chris Albert of National Geographic Documentary Films, and Igal Svet of Discovery+.
The 7th edition of Doc10 will also feature a nonfiction short films program for the first time, curating ten of the year’s best documentary shorts screening Sunday May 22, 1 p.m. at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Selections include Samantha Sanders’ SWIMMING THROUGH, following three Chicago open water swimmers facing a brutal Lake Michigan winter; THE FAMILY STATEMENT from Grace Harper and Katie Stonehill, using messages from one family’s WhatsApp group to construct a conversation between the Sackler family and those affected by the opioid crisis; and Guen Murroni’s celebration of a woman with dissociative identity disorder who survived human trafficking rings, NICE TO MEET YOU ALL.
Doc10 further extends its impact beyond the screening room with partners and organizations working every day in the spaces these films explore. This year, Vote Forward will be on hand to encourage audience members to get more involved in American democracy by writing letters to voters across the country. Personal PAC, Planned Parenthood of Illlinois, and the Chicago Abortion Fundwill be on hand at the opening night presentation of THE JANES, and Doc10 will be fundraising for Ukrainian children’s charity Voices of Children at the screening of A HOUSE MADE OF SPLINTERS, the Kanindé Ethno-Environmental Defense Association at THE TERRITORY, and Chef José Andrés’ hunger relief organization World Central Kitchen at the closing night presentation of Ron Howard's WE FEED PEOPLE. Additionally, Haymarket Books will be on site at the Davis Theater throughout Doc10 weekend offering reading suggestions as Doc10’s official bookstore.
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