SFFILM's Doc Stories sets 12th edition, opening with Ava DuVernay's '14th' on Nov. 5

Mixed · 2SFFILM announced the lineup for the 12th edition of Doc Stories, San Francisco's documentary film festival, which runs Nov. 5-8 at the Vogue Theatre. 1 2 Left · 1Ava DuVernay's "14th", a 107-minute documentary about the promises of the 14th Amendment, opens the festival on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 6:30 PM PT. DuVernay will attend in person. Variety reports that the Netflix film premiered at the New York Film Festival earlier this month. 1 Mixed · 2The festival closes with Sam Pollard's "Tutu", a portrait of the South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu. It screens on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 PM PT. 2 1

Mixed · 2Variety says the program includes 10 Oscar-contending feature documentaries and 11 short documentaries. Features named include J.M. Harper's "Soul Patrol", James Marcus Haney's "Black Sunflowers" (executive produced by Sean Penn), Luke Lorentzen's "Boatbuilders", Jeanie Finlay's "All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea", Ahmed Hassouna's "Citizen Osama", Barry Avrich's "Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been" and Erik Shirai's "Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing". 1 2 Mixed · 2Shorts include Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Revolution Against Death" and Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller's "They're Here", about a Minneapolis community during a wave of ICE raids. They screen in two blocks, one of New York Times Op-Docs and one titled "Sensory Experience". 1 2 Mixed · 2There are three Doc Talks: Poitras and Mueller; Finlay, Lorentzen and Shirai; and Pollard and Harper. A community screening of a documentary by a notable local Bay Area filmmaker, about the making of a major film production, is also planned. Its title will be revealed in late October. 1 2

Mixed · 2Around the public program, SFFILM's Artist Development team will hold Doc Congress, a day of dialogue and networking for filmmakers, funders and industry professionals. It includes a discussion on AI use in documentaries with Srđan Keča of Stanford's MFA in Documentary Film and Rachel Antell of the Archival Producers Alliance, plus an inaugural Pitch Forum for three local filmmakers. 1 2 Mixed · 2From Nov. 2-10, Schools at Doc Stories will host students and teachers with free screenings at SFMOMA, online classroom programs and filmmaker conversations. Two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot will lead a teen filmmaking workshop. 1 2 Mixed · 2SFFILM executive director Anne Lai said Doc Stories "has embodied the best of what SFFILM and the San Francisco Bay Area champion and celebrate in new documentary work." Programming director Jessie Fairbanks said she was drawn to filmmakers "looking closely at the forces shaping our lives". Variety calls the festival a key Oscar-season campaign stop in Northern California. Both outlets say over two dozen past selections have earned Academy Award nominations. Variety adds that several have won, including "No Other Land" and "Summer of Soul". 2 1