MVFF47 - RSVP Guide

A political thriller, character drama, and clarion call to action, this riveting documentary portraying resistance to Hungary’s authoritarian ruler Viktor Orbán is perfectly relevant for this political moment.

Tracking the parallel struggles of a politician, a journalist, and a medical professional, all female, in their resistance to the authoritarian regime of Hungary's autocratic leader, Viktor Orbán, director Connie Field's (The Whistleblower of My Lai, MVFF41) riveting documentary is part political thriller, part character drama, and part clarion call to action. While there are a lot of big ideas at play, Fields expertly knows when to narrow her focus and when to broaden it, allowing for an absorbing experience that feels painfully real and exceedingly personal while never losing sight of the larger stakes for the country should these women fail. What makes Democracy Noir especially effective is its universality. The situation in Hungary isn't an abstract thing that occurred in the distant past. It's happening right now, and as the film makes clear, it could happen anywhere. Democracy Noir feels especially relevant for this particularly fraught political moment, all while pointing out larger social truths that remain timeless. —Zaki Hasan

Connie Field

Expected In Person Guest

With newly recovered 16mm footage of the 1995 reintroduction of gray wolves to the American West and stories told by those who made it happen, this thrilling documentary offers an insider’s view of the animals’ return to their rightful rangelands.

Once on the brink of extinction in the American West, the gray wolf’s comeback is astonishing, an incredible true story with many heroes, and one crucial heroine. Emmy-winning director Tom Winston’s (Epic Yellowstone) enthralling IMAX documentary incorporates recently recovered 16mm footage, shot in 1995 and long thought lost, to draw attention to the legacy of the late Mollie Beattie. The first woman, and first forest ranger, to head the US Fish and Wildlife Service, during her short tenure she shepherded the wolf reintroduction project through tricky political terrain with such tenacity and finesse that one of the wolfpacks was named in her honor. A colorful and articulate band of personalities who served under Beattie’s leadership share the often nail-biting process of returning these unfairly maligned predators to their natural habitat, along the way demonstrating how essential the animals are to the ecosystem and how essential the Endangered Species Act is to reversing centuries of ecological damage.

Up above the clouds, on the highest mountain from the seafloor, a group of women fight to defend the sacred mountain of Mauna Kea from the world’s largest telescope. Filmmaker Jalena Keane-Lee focuses on native Hawaiian families’ efforts to block the installment of the giant instrument on hallowed land in a captivating documentary that interweaves breathtaking images of stunning locations with intimate portraits of colorful people. The fascinating story combines complex courtroom events with intimate moments that capture the ongoing tension between technological progress and historical identity. Despite rollercoaster political encounters, including arrests, the small but mighty community pursues an inspirational grassroots effort to protect culture and tradition. Standing Above the Clouds, the winner of the 2022 DocPitch Industry Award and Hot Docs’ Bill Nemlin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary, illuminates the ongoing struggles of Indigenous people battling to save ancestral lands and preserve an irreplaceable culture.

Inspired by Chris Marker’s classic La Jetée, this experimental drama-documentary gives The Last of Us vibes mixed with the familiar horror of watching democracy and humanity imperiled daily.

The year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated. Academy Award®-winning director Asif Kapadia's (Amy, 2015; The Warrior, MVFF25) experimental drama-documentary is a mind-bending stunner that gives The Last of Us vibes mixed with the familiar horror of watching humanity collapse in real time on our phones. Inspired by Chris Marker’s classic 1962 French New Wave sci-fi short La Jetée, which was constructed entirely of black-and-white still photos, 2073 takes a wildly daring approach that uses actual international news footage, photography, and journalist interviews to create a terrifyingly plausible timeline of events from the early 1990s to our present and beyond. Samantha Morton (The Whale, MVFF45;The Walking Dead) anchors the narrative in voiceover and as the silent protagonist who embodies the film’s imperative message (perfectly timed for election season): Time is ticking; we must act while we can.

Expected In Person Guest

Iceland is known for its glaciers, volcanoes, and leading nearly the whole damn world in women’s rights and gender equality. How did this Nordic island nation manage to achieve what so few superpower countries have been able to? Zero in on October 24, 1975, when 90% of Iceland’s women—completely fed up with being disregarded, underpaid, and unrecognized in the workplace and in the home—walked off their jobs and brought the country to a standstill. This remarkable true story is told here for the first time in a vibrant mix of interviews with those who organized and participated in the massive “women’s day off” event and color-soaked animation recreating key moments in the movement. The spark was ignited that day and, with continued effort and powerful collaboration, real change followed. Perfectly timed with the lead-up to the strike’s 50th anniversary, this doc is subversive, funny, and fist-pumpingly galvanizing.

Expected In Person Guest

An ailing planet is very much tied to human beings’ own ills, physical and psychological. Filmmaker Alexandra Lexton’s scenic documentary probes that connection via the stories of individuals from her own backyard to the Tanzanian outback.

A filmmaker who late in life acquired an organic apple farm, Alexandra Lexton found herself searching for “stories of others who’d reconnected with nature in different ways, then brought their experiences in some meaningful way into the world.” This beautifully photographed documentary elicits wisdom from 10 such interviewees, including a globetrotting photographer, a journalist, a Navajo scholar, an ecotherapist, Marin’s famed “planetwalker” Dr. John Francis, and experts in mindfulness and climate change. They explore how one person can indeed make a difference amidst escalating planetary crises, and how reversing the trend that replaces knowledge of nature with cellphone-focused insularity can help heal addiction, grief, depression, and other human ails. Sprawling from an orchard meditation class to a Tanzanian tribe’s foraging terrain, Fools’ Paradise is a personal journey inviting viewers to “defend and protect and celebrate” our “sacred bond” with Mother Earth—before that opportunity is, indeed, a Fools' Paradise (lost?).

Expected In Person Guest

Filmmaker Michael Premo follows three impassioned right-wing activists through the 2020 election, the January 6 Capitol riot, and beyond. With unexpected nuance and intimacy, he captures his protagonists’ combustible blend of delusional cosplayer, stalwart patriot, and potential threat.

An unexpectedly nuanced cinema verité portrait emerges in Michael Premo’s look at three impassioned right-wing activists. Having won their trust in the lead-up to the 2020 election, the Brooklyn filmmaker follows them through election night, the January 6 riot, and beyond. Contradictions abound—Thad (from Texas) attends Trump rallies with Black Lives Matter activist Jacarri; Chris (from New Jersey) participates in a “Back the Blue” march yet charges the line of police defending the Capitol—but their commitment to a particular red, white, and blue vision of America can’t be denied. Each is a combustible mix of delusional cosplayer, stalwart patriot, and potential threat, with the line between blood and bluster further blurred by cameos from Enrique Tarrio and Roger Stone. For all its madness, January 6 isn’t the film’s climax but a turning point in its protagonists’ political and personal evolutions. Yet the chant echoes: “I am a Western chauvinist/And I refuse to apologize/For creating the modern world/We’re all Proud Boys.”

Expected In Person Guest