Doctober

After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, filmmaker John Wilson (How To with John Wilson) tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete. But his foundation soon begins to crumble — literally and figuratively — as he struggles to balance artistic freedom with the realities of the modern film industry.

Pioneering queer avant-garde filmmaker Barbara Hammer (1939–2019) broke barriers by centering frank lesbian sexuality and pleasure in an expansive body of beautiful, poetic, personal work. Constructed largely from Hammer’s own archive, director Brydie O’Connor crafts a loving portrait of a force of nature while accompanying her through her final years and creative processes.

The Butthole Surfers exploded onto the underground music scene in the 1980s, amassing a growing audience as they built one of the most mind-boggling surrealist rock and roll spectacles ever devised. They were radically inclusive art-punk pioneers on an endless tour, blowing minds and spreading their art to a cult following.

After the success of POINT BLANK and DELIVERANCE, Warner Brothers offered John Boorman the opportunity of a lifetime — the chance to direct a sequel to their smash hit, THE EXORCIST. The result was one of the biggest disasters in movie history. Part of Doctober and Shocktober

Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Paul Shaffer and other entertainment icons all got their start in the same 1972 Toronto production. Nick Davis’ high-spirited documentary reveals how a humble Toronto run of the hippie musical Godspell became an historic incubator for modern comedy.

Shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, NAZA reveals the systems behind Israel’s bombing of Gaza and its mass killing of Palestinian civilians — and is titled for a military acronym used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians that it expects will be killed in an airstrike. Directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary NO OTHER LAND.

Sacred Harp singing has survived over 200 years tucked away from sight in the rural deep South. To the casual observer, it is foreign and unintelligible, but to the singers, it is the key that unlocks mysteries — songs of both beauty and sorrow, of life and of death, songs that cause feet to stomp and tears to flow, often at the same time. AWAKE, MY SOUL has been re-edited and remastered for its 20th anniversary.

Long before it became associated with flesh-eating ghouls, the zombie was a living metaphor for slavery — not a monster, but the ultimate victim of colonial power, a symbol of stolen agency was recast as an object of fear. Director Maya Annik Bedward traces the evolution of the zombie from colonial Haiti to contemporary Hollywood, exposing how Black spiritual traditions were distorted and erased. Part of Doctober and Shocktober

Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss. From boundary-pushing directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim.

Professional ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson seek to ski down the north face of Mount Everest, a feat never achieved, as the Oscar-winning filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (FREE SOLO) follow their journey.