The consistently impressive DOC10 technically starts next weekend, but there’s a build-up to it that begins tomorrow, April 24th, with a series called “Speak Truth,” which the fest says, “Brings together powerful films, thought-provoking conversations, and dynamic civic dialogue exploring the most urgent issues of our time.”
Some of the best documentaries of the last few years are included in these combined programs like the highly acclaimed “The Librarians,” “The Last Republican,” and “The Grab,” along with fantastic new films from the fest circuit like “Closure,” “Remake,” and “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” three films I can personally highly recommend.
To give you a sense of what’s about to unfold during DOC10, we thought we’d gather some quotes from our coverage and links to read more about the films in the program that we’ve covered. Pick your faves and get tickets here.
(Also, if you want to keep the non-fiction love going, the Chicago Critics Film Festival features “When a Witness Recants,” “Black Zombie,” and “Broken English” the week after DOC10. More on those next week.)
SPEAK TRUTH
“Sabbath Queen” (April 24, 7 pm)
Amichai and those he encounters ask how best to honor Jewish values and preserve the community despite the pressures of assimilation and personality. Amichai chooses inclusion. He says, “Not everything we’ve inherited is worthy of being passed on.” How do you add without diluting? Even he, feeling the weight of nine centuries of rabbinic ancestors, questions how that will be seen a century from now. The questions the film raises are particular to the individuals, but the issues of identity, family, and the challenges of modernity are universal. – Nell Minow
“The Librarians” (April 25, 7 pm)
This is not about politics. It is about trust. We should trust the people who trust us to tell truth from propaganda, not the people who think we must be “protected” from challenging ideas. If we limit library books to those that don’t cause anyone discomfort or distress, all that will remain are Pat the Bunny and Goodnight Moon. Dictionaries, atlases, the Civil War, any war, science, Shakespeare, and even the Bible will be locked away. – Nell Minow
“American Doctor” (April 26, 12:15 pm)
If you didn’t know the extent of the tragedy covered in “American Doctor,” the documentary will not let you forget it. It is a visceral view of the impossible task facing healthcare workers and hospitals targeted by the Israeli military in Gaza. It has a few first film issues, like music that overtakes certain scenes or a few moments that don’t add to the narrative, but it is a formidable debut, an unflinching view of a story we’ve heard about but might not fully understand unless our social media feeds show us these testimonies. – Monica Castillo
“The Grab” (April 26, 6pm)
“The Grab” makes a convincing case that the world powers that went to war over oil in the last few decades will be doing it over water and food in the ones to come, even linking the fight for resources to the conflict in Ukraine. Cowperthwaite sometimes gets a little lost in the vastness of her subject matter—there’s a tighter version of this that focuses more on one country or major player involved in the issue—but it’s hard to blame her for wanting to express the entire scope of how much trouble we are all in when it comes to the dwindling supplies provided by Mother Earth. – Brian Tallerico
“Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You” (April 27, 7 pm)
The documentary’s co-directors, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, shoot Lear in the present day with the sort of tender regard you might lavish on a grandparent if you had feature film-quality cameras and lighting and your grandparent didn’t mind being followed around by a movie crew. Their camera moves in close on Lear as he talks about his successes and controversies in American television, his collaborations with writers and actors, and his battles with network executives and censors over the political content of his shows, which resembled political debates as often as they did farcical family spats. – Matt Zoller Seitz
“The Last Republican” (April 28, 7 pm)
The movie also gives a strong sense of Kinzinger as a person walking against the winds of change and dealing with tendencies in the American character that elude party definitions. “Everybody’s self-centered,” he tells Pink. “That’s the fight now of my next part of life, fighting against that cynicism.” – Matt Zoller Seitz
“Steal This Story Please!” (April 29, 7 pm)
“ICE Under Watch” (May 3, 12:30 pm)
DOC10
“Give Me the Ball!” (April 30, 7 pm)
Conversely, Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff’s wonderful documentary, “Give Me the Ball!” is a splendid history of the life and legacy of tennis great Billie Jean King. Taking us from her early childhood years, romping around playing any sport involving a ball (giving the film its name) to the present day, where King is set to finish her history degree in May (at the age of 82), it’s hard to imagine that the documentary left any stone unturned. – Peyton Robinson
“Soul Patrol” (May 1, 6 pm)
At times, “Soul Patrol” can be a harrowing viewing. Emanuel, Lawton Mackey, Thad Givens, Emerson Branch, Jesse Lewis, Willie T. Brown, Willie Merkerson, and Norman Reid each share why they joined the army. Some did so because their friends and family went—arguing that for Black families, it was often considered a badge of honor to have a son serving in the military—while others did so to escape jail time. These men also share how they were programmed to kill, and, in the case of one soldier, had to learn how to strike the complicated balance of de-programming oneself during leave and later re-compartmentalizing in the field. – Robert Daniels
“A Child of My Own” (May 1, 8pm)
“Remake” (May 2, 1pm)
Most of the time, he sounds wistful, uncertain, and almost fumbling through what he wants to express. That aspect actually gives “Remake” so much of its power because it makes it feel more personal. In a sense, it’s like a eulogy, something that gains more power through its emotional pauses even if its grammar isn’t perfect. At times, he speaks not about Adrian but to him, using “you” as if his son can hear him. I hope he can. – Brian Tallerico
“Everybody to Kenmure Street” (May 2, 3:45 pm)
Felipe Bustos Sierra’s “Everybody to Kenmure Street” is a spirited and imperative portrait of collective action whose urgency painfully speaks to now. In his approachable documentary, Sierra first roots the 2021 rebellion in the mixed legacy of Glasgow. While a montage shows the many political stands the city has taken: from the anti-apartheid movement that treated Mandela as hero to Black Lives Matter—it doesn’t shy away from the fact that Glasgow, like many other European and American cities, was built on the backs of the enslaved. That heritage is threaded through the visual language, which leans on the aforementioned montages, as well as by way of talking heads who are well aware of the city’s checkered, though often politically fervent, history. – Robert Daniels
“Cookie Queens” (May 2, 5:30 pm)
“Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story” (May 2, 8:15 pm)
It’s kinda hard to explain the Bamford appeal. Just know that she is fearless on stage, someone who uses her mental illness and upbringing to remarkable comedic effect. There are a few jokes in “Paralyzed by Hope” about the death of her mother that so brilliantly verge on offensive, but instead just come off wonderfully personal and relatable. She’s one of those performers who doesn’t really have boundaries, especially when it comes to sharing personal demons of her own and her family, but she never feels like she’s being cruel to those she loves. She’s undeniably brilliant, and yet that genius is shaded by crippling depression that led her to believe for years that she might hurt herself or others at any minute. – Brian Tallerico
“The Baddest Speechwriter of All” (May 3, 2 pm)
“Closure” (May 3, 4:15 pm)
One of the best documentaries of Sundance 2026, “Closure” is a moving story of how grief and love can harden into determination. Daniel will never stop looking for his son, even if the day he finds him will be the worst of his life. What does it do to a man to devote so much time to seeking a conclusion that can only cause pain? And what can we learn from the digital ballast that Chris likely took into that water with him? “Closure” plays like a warning: Pay attention to what your kids are watching and saying online, or you might be stuck in the purgatory of the unknown pull of the Vistula River, too. – Brian Tallerico
“Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie” (May 3, 7 pm)
There’s also a prescience to “Knife” that neither Rushdie nor Gibney could have predicted. Violent acts like the 2022 attack feel even more likely today than they did then, as political violence and ideological battles often rage unchecked. It’s clichéd to say that a movie can stem something as insidious as what’s happening around the world when people choose violence over words, but there’s something undeniably inspiring about seeing Salman Rushdie fight back against those waves. May we all be so strong. – Brian Tallerico
