The acquisition of the feature documentary, In the Rearview, by Polish director Maciek Hamela is the latest film to join the Season 37 slate. When Russia escalated its war against Ukraine in 2022, Hamela bought a van and volunteered to drive Ukrainian refugees to safety in Poland. Filmed almost entirely inside his vehicle, In the Rearview eschews depictions of carnage in order to capture the psychological costs and tragic consequences of the Russian invasion. It was listed among 15 films shortlisted for the 96th Academy Awards® in the Best Documentary Feature Film category.
Celebrated films previously announced include the season opener King Coal director Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s seminal film about the cultural roots of coal and its waning impact over a sector of American life, while also making space for a dream of the future to emerge. Who I am Not, sheds light on what it means to be intersex in a binary world, and is directed by Tünde Skovrán, produced by Andrei Zincă and executive produced by Oscars®/Emmy®/GLAAD Vanguard Award-winner Patricia Arquette. In Lin Alluna’s Twice Colonized, the filmmaker travels with Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter as she embarks on a personal journey to reclaim her language and identity after a lifetime of whitewashing and forced assimilation. The goal, to bring her colonizers in both Canada and Denmark to justice.
New additions to the lineup include the following:
As the world still mourns the loss of Alexei Navalny, Joe Piscatella’s Who’s Afraid of Nathan Law? presents an intimate portrait of one of the world’s most recognized dissidents fighting for democracy against one of the world’s most dominant superpowers, China. The Body Politic, by director/producer Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, follows Baltimore’s idealistic Mayor Brandon Scott during an unprecedented election and throughout his first year in office as he faces obstacles implementing change for the community in the hope of saving his city from gun violence.
In the late-night summer self-portrait, Hummingbirds a co-sponsor with Latino Public Broadcasting, directors/protagonists Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras make magic of everyday moments coming of age on the Texas-Mexico border. In Jane M. Wagner’s Break the GameNarcissa Wright live streams every minute of her quest to be the world’s fastest Legend of Zelda™ player. But when her isolated digital existence begins to crack, Narcissa must decide her fate: will she embrace love and adventure in the real world, or will she be seduced again by the glow of the computer screen? Chloe Abrahams’ hypnotic The Taste of Mango follows the director as she probes raw questions her mother and grandmother have long brushed aside, tenderly untangling painful knots in her family’s unspoken past.
Edward Lovelace’s Name Me Lawand is a portrait of a young deaf refugee boy’s emotional journey as he learns British Sign Language and discovers how to express himself, who he is, and where he fits into the world. Is There Anybody Out There? follows director Ella Glendining’s global search for someone with a body that looks like hers, and explores what it takes to love yourself fiercely as a disabled person in a non-disabled world.
The push and pull between the natural world and modern civilization – with a focus on the changing nature of labor and what it means to survive – is the framework of Director Sarvnik Kaur’s Against the Tide; a tale of love, brotherhood and resentments against the backdrop of an adoring sea, which is turning adverse under the menacing effects of an all-pervading calamity called climate change. Fauna by director Pau Faus is a science fiction fable set in a forest near Barcelona, about an old shepherd and his flock who live alongside a high-tech laboratory for animal experimentation. Director Taku Aoyagi’s Tokyo Uber Blues, delivers an honest view of Tokyo from the perspective of a speeding Uber Eats® biker. The film isabout gig labor, striking out on your own, and connecting in a burnt-out city.
Photos provided by POV
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