Doc10 is Chicago’s only all-documentary film festival and provides an engaging experience for its audiences, reaching thousands of local cinephiles over the last seven years

Schedule:

May 2, 2024

2024 Opening Night

7pm: Devo

The Davis Theater

Synopsis

Director: Chris Smith

Producers: Chris Holmes, Anita Greenspan, Danny Gabai

US, 95 min, 2024

"Whip it, whip it good!" This spirited irreverent portrait of the legendary new wave band Devo charts the unlikely rise of the musical innovators from Akron, Ohio. From Dadaist Kent State radicals in the 1970s, galvanized by political unrest, to unlikely icons of the 1980s, featured in Honda Scooter commercials and mainstays of the early days of MTV. Directed by Chris Smith, known for his breakout debut American Movie and nonfiction hits Tiger King and Wham!, Devo goes beyond the typical bio-doc to channel the absurdity and edginess of the sonic provocateurs with the help of their own bizarre and hilarious archival materials. "Bursting with energy and creativity" (Rogerebert.com) and "every bit as fun as its subject" (Variety), the film "apes the art-damaged, collage-like aspects of [their] visual work, while also making manifest their philosophical approach of meeting cynicism not with optimism but a barrage of irony." (Rolling Stone).

May 3, 2024

5:30pm: Copa 71

The Davis Theater

Directors: Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine

Producers: Victoria Gregory, Jannat Gargi, Anna Godas

Executive Producers: Serena and Venus Williams

United Kingdom, 90 min, 2023

One of the greatest international sporting events you’ve never heard of: Copa 71 chronicles the exciting, monumental moment in 1971 when female soccer teams from around the world gathered in Mexico City to compete in the first unofficial Women’s World Cup. Told by the superstar athletes who participated in the tournament, the film captures the suspense and heated competition in the matches, along with the women’s exhausting fight against institutional sexism off the field. As one Danish player testifies, "I can knit and use a chainsaw… I don’t want to be put in a box." Filled with captivating never-before-seen archival footage, Copa ’71 is like "the Summer of Soul of women's athletics" (The Wrap), "brisk and rousing" (Variety), "uplifting and eye-opening" (The Hollywood Reporter), and "thrilling not just as a vivid work of montage, but also for reintegrating these lost chapters into our collective cultural memory" (Sight and Sound).

8pm: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

The Davis Theater

Synopsis

Directors: Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui

Producers: Lizzie Gillett, Robert Ford, Ian Bonhôte

US & United Kingdom, 104 min, 2024

Never-before-seen home movies and extraordinary personal archives reveal how Christopher Reeve went from unknown actor to iconic movie star as the ultimate screen superhero. After suffering a tragic accident that left him quadriplegic and dependent on a ventilator to breathe, he learned the true meaning of heroism as an activist. "Enrapturing" (IndieWire) and "a superbly made and supremely moving portrait" (Variety), "Super/Man [is] so satisfying [and] for a biographical film in which tragedy and loss play such a central part, it’s rich in evidence of hope and kindness, gratitude and the resilience of the human spirit" (The Hollywood Reporter).

May 4, 2024

12pm: Porcelain War

The Davis Theater

Synopsis

Directors: Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev

Producers: Aniela Sidorska, Paula Dupré Pesmen, Camilla Mazzaferro, Olivia Ahnemann

United States, Ukraine, Australia, 88 min, 2024

Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, this powerful and affecting portrait of a group of citizen fighters in Ukraine reflects a more sensitive side of the conflict. In between waging war to defend their homeland, Slava Leontyev and Anya Stasenko are skilled ceramic artists, molding and painting precious porcelain figurines of folkloric creatures. Meanwhile, their closest friend Andrey, a former painter, has struggled to create his art; instead, he’s struggling to keep his family safe. Their cameras show their love for each other, for the sun-drenched countryside and bucolic forests of their homeland, and their art—at the same time training, preparing, and enduring the brutality of battle. With beautiful touches of animation, a soulful soundtrack of Ukrainian dirges, and a sense of hope, humor, and humanity, Porcelain War is a "poignant" (Variety) "combination of whimsy and devastation" (Wall Street Journal) about the power of art and the will to survive.

2:30pm: Apolonia Apolonia

The Davis Theater

Synopsis

Director: Lea Glob

Producer: Sidsel Lønvig Siersted

Denmark, Poland, 116 minutes, 2023

A portrait of the artist as a young woman, Apolonia Apolonia is among the year’s most celebrated and fascinating documentaries. Shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards and winner of top prizes at festivals around the world, the film follows 13 years in the life of charismatic French painter Apolonia Sokol, from her days as a bohemian student at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, to her travails as a millionaire-sponsored artist in Los Angeles and beyond. "Bittersweet [and] "beguiling" (New York Times), "astonishing [and] affectionate" (RogerEbert.com) and "an impressively idiosyncratic, far-reaching work" (Variety), the film charts Apolonia’s winding course through the (often male-dominated) art-world and her close relationships with two other women, her best friend Ukrainian feminist activist Oksana Shachko, and the documentary’s director Lea Glob. As she reveals profound questions about female identity and friendship, art and commerce, filmmaker and protagonist, life and death, Glob is "utterly captivated by her subject, and the result leaves us just as transfixed" (POV Magazine).

5:15pm: Union

The Davis Theater

Synopsis

Directors: Stephen Maing and Brett Story

Producers: Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone

US, 102 min, 2024

Christian Smalls is the charismatic leader of the Amazon Labor Union, a first-of-its-kind grassroots organization fighting for those toiling away in the warehouses of the billion-dollar behemoth. Combining high-stakes drama and you-are-there observational intimacy, Union unfolds in real time over 2021 and 2022, as Smalls and his colleagues rally fellow workers, sabotage anti-union meetings, give away hot dogs, and strive to build a movement. But this is no simple "David vs. Goliath" story. Award-winning directors Stephen Maing and Brett Story have crafted a portrait of solidarity and struggle that is far more "smart and compellingly complicated" (The Hollywood Reporter). Call it David versus the widespread systemic forces that keep the working class powerless and divided. Winner of a Special Jury Award at Sundance, Union is "astounding [and] "brilliant" (New York Times), "gripping…[and] an immediate and necessary rallying cry for audiences everywhere" (IndieWire).

8:15pm: Look Into My Eyes

The Davis Theater

Director: Lana Wilson

Producers: Kyle Martin, Lana Wilson

US, 105 min, 2023

Can psychics really foretell your future? Commune with the dead? Or even read your pet’s mind? Enter the world of clairvoyants, mediums, and seers in this revelatory portrait of supposedly paranormal practitioners and their clients, as they seek to find answers—and healing—with each other. After making high-profile celebrity docs on Taylor Swift (Miss Americana) and Brooke Shields (Pretty Baby), award-winning filmmaker Lana Wilson sets her compassionate lens on these very different performers, and finds unexpected poignancy and humor in their lives and work. Called one of Sundance’s "best documentaries [and] marvelously nuanced and fascinating" (New York Times), Look Into My Eyes is an intriguing journey, riding the line between truth and fakery, and the palpable emotional reality that can exist in between. "Mesmeric [and] moving" (IndieWire) and "surprisingly effective" (RogerEbert.com), this quiet, remarkable film offers an intimate view into not only the supernatural but also the fragility of human nature.

May 5, 2024

11:45am - Shorts Program

Gene Siskel Film Center

Runtime 105 min.

BOX CUTTERS
Naomi van Niekerk
In this dreamy animated tale, a young woman recounts being attacked and must struggle to move on.

PIÑATAS OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS
Tom Maroney
Roberto Benavidez makes stunning piñatas that reveal the form’s hidden history of religious colonialism, while also attesting to his own personal struggles.

STRONG GRANDMA
Cecilia Brown, Winslow Crane-Murdoch
An inspiring portrait of 95-year-old Catherine Kuehn, a world-record-winning powerlifter.

HEADSHOT
Dominic Yarabe
A filmmaker explores what it means to photograph Black Americans and their relationship with nature.

SANDCASTLES
Carin Jin-Yi Leong
As Singapore reclaims land to expand urban development, a town bearing its name on Lake Michigan lies buried beneath sand.

TWO SUN
Blair Barnes
This evocative visual poem explores a Black man’s relationship to his identity.

HOLD THE LINE
Daniel Lombroso
When the largest Protestant organization in the U.S. decides to purge women in leadership positions, one prominent female pastor tries to fight back.

THE SCHOOL OF CANINE MASSAGE
Emma Miller
At a unique training program, people heal dogs and dogs heal people.

WEEKEND VISITS
Pete Quandt
At a Virginia Correctional Facility’s Family Visitation Center, a young mother gets a chance to briefly visit her son.

2:15pm: Soundtrack To A Coup D’Etat

The Gene Siskel Film Center

Synopsis

Director: Johan Grimonprez

Producers: Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety

Belgium, France, 150min, 2024

"A mind-blowingly rich tapestry of research, music, and the jazziest history lesson imaginable" (Harper’s Bazaar), Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat exposes the West’s policies of extraction and exploitation in Africa, connecting Cold War intrigue, American racism, European imperialism, the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, and jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Max Roach, who were all dispatched around the world as players in a larger geopolitical game. An astonishing mix of image, sound, and text, this revelatory documentary landed at this year’s Sundance like a grenade, exploding audience’s minds and winning a Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation. From the Oscar-nominated producer of I Am Not Your Negro, the film has already been heralded as "remarkable" (New York Times), "thrilling, galvanizing [and] crackling with energy" (Screen Daily), and "a stunning screed against colonial racism and state-sanctioned violence" (Slant).

5:45pm: Daughters

The Gene Siskel Film Center

Synopsis

Directors: Angela Patton, Natalie Rae

Producers: Lisa Mazzotta, Justin Benoliel, Mindy Goldberg, Sam Bisbee, Kathryn Everett, Laura Choi Raycroft, James Cunningham

US, 107 min, 2024

A profoundly emotional eight-year journey of incarnated fathers and their daughters, this Sundance standout—winner of two Audience Awards and voted the festival’s best documentary by critics—Daughters is a miraculous wonder of humanity, compassion, and social conscience. Inside a jail in Washington, D.C., male inmates are invited to join a special rehabilitation program, which culminates with a Daddy Daughter Dance. (Meanwhile, we get to meet their daughters Aubrey, Santana, Raziah, and Ja’Ana, all different ages and very different relationships with their absent dads. Though Daughters builds to an incredible reunion, the film powerfully conveys their personal stories far beyond this single special night. "Rife with visually lyrical moments" (Variety) and "alternately shattering and hopeful … intimate and stirring" (Vanity Fair), this "enormously moving" (IndieWire) documentary will make you "want to follow these fathers and daughters deep into the future" (Los Angeles Times).

2024 Closing Night

7pm: War Game

The Davis Theater

Synopsis

Directors: Jesse Moss, Tony Gerber

Producers: Todd Lubin, Jesse Moss, Jack Turner, Mark DiCristofaro, Jessica Grimshaw, Nick Shumaker

US, 94 min, 2023

What if the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol spiraled further out of control? And U.S. military personnel and paramilitary groups joined forces to overthrow the government? That’s the scenario of War Game, a briskly paced, compelling docu-thriller  following a "war game" future-simulation set on January 6, 2025 with prominent government experts role-playing parts in the hypothetical crisis as a kind of "stress-test for our National Security System." Featuring former Montana governor Steve Bullock as a level-headed U.S. President, and acting as his advisor, North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp ("If this movie has a star, it’s her"—Washington Post), the documentary provocatively reveals both imagined threats as well as the real-life individuals trying to prevent them. "Chilling" (Deadline), "fascinating" (POV Magazine), "excellent" [and] "exciting cinema" (New York Magazine), War Game is a bold and captivating chronicle of our explosive political moment.

Date: May 2-5, 2024

Location:
Davis Theater, 4614 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625
Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N State St, Chicago, IL 60601

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