Gateway Film Center’s semiannual celebration of nonfiction filmmaking, Columbus Documentary Week, is rolling back into town. Running Thursday, April 26 to Sunday, May 6, the festival boasts films from cinematic heavyweights including William Friedkin (who revisits exorcism with his film The Devil and Father Amorth), hotly anticipated documentaries like Nancy Buirski’s brilliant The Rape of Racy Taylor, and even Lech Kowalski’s classic 1980 punk rock doc D.O.A: A Rite of Passage.
Here is a rundown of some highlights of this season’s program.
Coby
Christian Sonderegger takes us to the hardy land of Chagrin Falls, Ohio to paint a picture of transition. Sonderegger masterfully pieces together YouTube footage of a youthful Coby, modern footage of the more fully transitioned Jacob Hunt, interviews with family and conversations with co-workers to illustrate the radically transformative and yet utterly natural process of finding and becoming who you really are.
Oscar-Nominated Shorts
From an artist’s struggles with mental illness, to the problem of elder care, to the effects of the opioid epidemic in Huntington, West Virginia, these documentaries will evoke a gauntlet of emotions. Edith + Eddie offers a depressing glimpse at the reality many elderly face as their own wants are often circumvented by the wants of others or by their own medical needs. Thomas Lennon’s Knife Skills takes us to a unique restaurant experience in Cleveland, Ohio.
Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s Heroin(e) takes an intimate approach to dealing with the heroin epidemic, while Oscar winner Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 offers director Frank Stiefel’s a lovely, touching film that celebrates Mindy Alper’s accomplishments in life and art.
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Over the last several years, Hollywood glamour girl Hedy Lamarr has finally gotten due credit for her ingenious idea of “frequency hopping,” the radio communication technology which laid the foundation for everything from remote-controlled torpedoes in WWII to today’s wi-fi and GPS systems. That was far from all that was going on in Lamarr’s “pretty little head.”
Bombshell is an effortlessly compelling portrait, a bittersweet ode to a maverick who searched in vain for a way to unite her two worlds, and a time when she might get to be both “smart and Hedy Lamarr.”
The China Hustle
In 2008, banks put the American dream up for sale and the market inevitably collapsed on itself. But when the American people were trying to pull themselves back up by their bootstraps, the financial industry had already moved on. To China. Get ready to look up at the glistening spires of capitalism only to realize we’re all huddled under a house of cards in writer/director Jed Rothestein’s thrilling, terrifying tale about the next financial disaster awaiting our country.
Jane
Of all the feels stirred by Brett Morgen’s new documentary Jane, perhaps the most lasting is the wonderful rediscovery of an iconic personality we thought we knew. And if you didn’t know Jane Goodall at all, this is an unforgettable introduction.
Goodall was a young secretary to famed archeologist Dr. Louis Leakey in 1962 when the Dr. dispatched her to Tanzania for a groundbreaking study of free-living chimpanzees. Her qualifications? Only a love of animals and a passion to live among them.
Morgen was blessed with over 100 hours of 16mm footage, and he lets it breathe in a manner that is remarkably organic. These archives, swimming in a loving score from Philip Glass, put us right next to Goodall as she blazes her scientific trail.
Full documentary week lineup
• THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH
• OUR NEW PRESIDENT
• WASTED! THE STORY OF FOOD WASTE
• 2018 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT DOC COMBINED PROGRAM
• ALL THE QUEEN’S HORSES
• BIG SONIA
• THE BLOOD IS AT THE DOORSTEP (with filmmaker Erik Ljung)
• BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY
• BREAKING POINT: THE WAR FOR DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE
• CHASING GREAT
• THE CHINA HUSTLE
• COBY
• DID YOU WONDER WHO FIRED THE GUN?
• D.O.A.: A RITE OF PASSAGE
• FIVE SEASONS: THE GARDENS OF PIET OUDOLF
• HAPPY
• THE HEART OF NUBA
• JANE
• KANGAROO
• LOVE & BANANAS (with filmmaker Ashley Bell)
• MAINELAND
• MIDNIGHT RETURN: THE STORY OF BILLY HAYES AND
• ON HER SHOULDERS
• ONE OCTOBER
• THE PARIS OPERA
• QUEST
• RAMEN HEADS
• THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR
• RIKERS: AN AMERICAN JAIL (with panel discussion)
• THE TEST AND THE ART OF THINKING
• THIS IS EVERYTHING: GIGI GORGEOUS
• WHAT WE STARTED
For tickets and information visit gatewayfilmcenter.org
Reviews with help from George Wolf, Cat McAlpine and Rachel Willis.
Read more from Hope at MADDWOLF and listen to her weekly podcast, THE SCREENING ROOM