Best Documentary Films

Martin Marko’s ‘At Sea’ Immerses Us in a Nautical Symphony of Raw Experience and Artistic Intuition

Martin Marko talks about the multi-year journey across sea, editing, sound and image to create his enveloping, unpredictable epic maritime adventure short.

Documentary, Premiere

Leah Loftin Adapts Frontline Victim Testimony of Putin’s Invasion In ‘Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War’

Leah Lofitn unpacks the rapid, bare-bones process used to create her expressionistic non-fiction short portraying first-person Ukrainian wartime experiences.

Awards, Documentary

Bill Morrison Unveils the Power of Contemporary Archive in ‘Incident’ a Harrowing Exploration of Police Collusion

Bill Morrison discusses the defined parameters he adhered to when constructing his haunting Oscar nominated documentary short about a 2018 police shooting.

Awards, Documentary

Molly O’Brien’s ‘The Only Girl in the Orchestra’ Celebrates a Life Well Lived as a Musician at the Vanguard

Molly O'Brien takes DN inside the creation of her Netflix Oscar winning doc short about the trailblazing musician Orin O’Brien and her beloved instruments.

Awards, Documentary

Theo Panagopoulos Questions the Role of Image Making in Archival BAFTA Doc ‘The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing’

Theo Panagopoulos considers how images can both document the truth and perpetuate trauma when capturing humanity's fraught cyclical history.

Documentary

Tomas Kamphuis’ Poetic Documentary ‘Art Chooses Us’ Contemplates What It Means to Be an Artist in Africa

Tomas Kamphuis breaks down the free-flowing improvisational approach he used to delve into the African art scene through the eyes of four diverse artists.

Documentary, Film Festival

Sophie Compton & Daisy-May Hudson’s ‘Holloway’ Interrogates the Root Causes and Lasting Trauma of Incarceration

Sophie Compton & Daisy-May Hudson extol the benefits of the co-created trauma-informed filmmaking model underpinning their LFF award winning documentary.

Documentary, Film Festival, Podcasts

A Nun Untangles the Threads of Her Sense of Self in Cécile Embleton & Alys Tomlinson’s ‘Mother Vera’

Cécile Embleton & Alys Tomlinson speak to us about the multi-year journey of their Grierson Award winning doc about a young nun facing deep inner conflict.

Awards, Documentary

Miranda Stern’s Cathartic NFTS Documentary ‘milk’ Is an Intimate Exploration of Maternity, Addiction and Loss

Miranda Stern unpacks the cathartic and narrative reasons she opted for an abstract, mixed media scrapbook-style approach for her self-explorative doc short.

Documentary

Hervé Demers Tackles Themes of Deindustrialisation and Community in Documentary Short ‘Once the Dust Has Settled’

Hervé Demers returns to DN to discuss his new doc short set in Asbestos, a former mining town in Quebec, which explores notions of community and identity.

Awards, Documentary, Film Festival

Elahe Esmaili Documents the Reaction to the Woman, Life, Freedom Movement on a Familial Level in ‘A Move’

Elahe Esmaili explains the intimate, family-centric perspective of the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement that she wanted to capture in her doc short.

Documentary, Film Festival

Duncan Cowles on His Signature Deadpan Style and ‘Silent Men’ the Feature Film Culmination of a Decade of Shorts

Duncan Cowles speaks to us about his new shorts 'Outlets' 'Sighscapes' and 'Desire Lines', and the upcoming premiere of his debut documentary feature film.

Documentary Category