Cinemafile

Filmed over eight years, this five-part documentary series from director Debra Granik combines a remarkable, against-the-odds story of grit, survival, and redemption with an incisive look at the harms of America’s prison industrial complex. After years in and out of prison, former drug dealer turned entrepreneur Coss Marte is determined to take control of his future by building Conbody, a New York...

Director Valerie Veatch navigates the torrential rapids of artificial intelligence with this mind-expanding investigative essay documentary that excavates the philosophical, cultural and political forces driving the global AI boom. Ghost in the Machine approaches ubiquitous questions like “What is AI?”, “Who is building it?”, and “What will humans become?” by exploring how emerging technologies ha...

Undeterred by armed soldiers, smooth-talking politicians, and riot police, journalist Amy Goodman has reported some of the most consequential stories of our time. Steal This Story, Please! is a gripping portrait of the trailblazer whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. From the frontlines of global conflicts to the organized chaos of her daily news s...

UPS is the world’s largest package delivery company, moving millions of packages across 200 countries and territories every day. With their 2023 contract set to expire, the Teamsters mount increasing pressure on UPS to improve working conditions or face 340,000 workers walking off the job and grinding the global supply chains to a halt. WHO MOVES AMERICA joins UPS workers across the United States—...

In his award-winning feature film debut director Cole Webley drops us into the lives of a struggling family, a young girl and her brother are awoken by their father (John Magaro, Past Lives ) as they load themselves into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey. A poignant, coming-of-age drama...

In her award-winning feature film debut Sophy Romvari takes us back to the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child. About the Director: Sophy Romvari is a Canadian-Hungarian filmmaker based in Toronto. Her critically acc...

A romantic vacation goes awry when a volcanic eruption strands Bethany (Charli XCX) and her soon-to-be fiancé, Rob (Will Madden) in Warsaw, Poland. Bethany takes the explosive event as a sign to ditch her baggage, reunite with childhood friend Nel (Lena Góra) and traipse across lofts, clubs and back alleys, all the while becoming entangled in an emotional web that challenges her sense of self. Fro...

Ben Wolf’s utterly fascinating new documentary, CHANGING LANES, chronicles the tragic death of a beloved teacher killed in a hit-and-run crash in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. That death becomes the catalyst for a grassroots movement emerges to transform a notoriously dangerous four-lane boulevard into a safer, two-lane street with protected bike lanes. While many applaud the proposed change, it also spar...

EVERY CONTACT LEAVES A TRACE is a thought provoking overview of our digital era. We mostly live in a time and place where real life connections become rarer, yet any personal encounter can leave a lingering trace. Over a lifetime, filmmaker Lynne Sachs has collected business cards, mementos of these initial meetings with strangers. Sachs selects seven cards from hundreds and throws herself into fi...

Founded in 2007, the inaugural Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival (SDFF) launched with a bold vision and 44 carefully curated films, shining a spotlight on talented filmmakers from Sonoma County and the greater Bay Area. What began as an intimate local gathering has grown into a globally recognized celebration of nonfiction storytelling. Today, SDFF receives nearly 700 submissions annually from...

In La Scala: The Force of Destiny, Director Anissa Bonnefont, accompanied by cinematographer Martina Cocco, invites the audience into the creative hive that is La Scala during the final months of preparation, capturing the tensions, the stress, and the passion that span from the first meeting of the opera team all the way to the pull of the curtain as it raises above the stage. Every 7th of Decemb...

DAUGHTERS OF THE FOREST is a story of entanglements: between humans and mushrooms; the visible and the invisible; generational knowledge and modern science. This immersive sci-fi documentary takes viewers on an unexpected, sometimes speculative exploration of the realities of two Indigenous communities and the fungi in the forests of Mexico, inviting them to reconsider the perceptions and experien...

SHUFFLE unravels a web of public policy and private interest preying on a desperate population for the sake of profit. In the wake of the opioid epidemic, insurance companies were now required to cover addiction and mental health treatment at the same reimbursement rate as other medical conditions, but without any of the regulations, a move that effectively monetized the 40 million Americans strug...

Twentysomething Anna (Alexandra McVicker) leaves her small, transphobic hometown to start a new life in the city with her sister when she quickly finds herself face-to-face with Gen (Avalon Fast), a confident young woman she’d first seen in visions. Gen, Anna learns, has supernatural powers—powers that the two of them share. Their bond of magic and romance is threatened when Gen inadvertently unle...

WONDERS OF THE WOLF was filmed in Yellowstone National Park primarily in the Lamar Valley. It features the Park's famed wolf Matriarch, 907F. She lived to be 11 years old and died on Christmas Day 2025. She was the oldest wolf in Yellowstone National Park before her death. The film also features the longest running wolf pack called Mollies Pack -- named after Mollie Beatty who was the first female...

For six decades, Jimmy Grashow's intricate woodcuts and fantastical sculptures have graced museums and galleries, iconic album covers and over a thousand publications. As Jimmy approaches 80, he is given the commission of a lifetime that proves to be both exhilarating and daunting. As he obsessively carves his magnum opus, Jimmy searches for the meaning behind this profound and sacred piece to whi...

From the Academy Award-winning filmmakers behind Everything Everywhere All at Once and Navalny; a father-to-be (Daniel Roher) tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a hand-made, eye-opening documentary about the most powerful technology humanity has ever created... and what's at stake if we get it wrong. Co-director Charlie...

Winner of Best New Narrative Directors and Best Cinematography in a Narrative Film at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, Esta Isla (This Island) follows Bebo, a teenager from a coastal Puerto Rican town, living with his brother in a public housing complex. They fish for a living, but their growing desperation drives them to illegal dealings that promise easy money. When a job goes wrong and blood is...

TOW is based on the shockingly true underdog story of Amanda Ogle, a homeless woman who one day wakes up to find that the 1991 Toyota Camry she’d been sleeping in has been towed, along with all her worldly possessions. All due to a belligerent tug of war over a car valued at less than a grand. Think - a more modern-day ERIN BROCKOVICH. Along the way, she creates a heartwarming support network of s...

For over a decade, Dr. Steve Boyes, conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer, has been in search of a mysterious, elusive herd of Ghost Elephants in the highlands of Angola, deep within its forests. From acclaimed director Werner Herzog (“Grizzly Man”), GHOST ELEPHANTS follows Boyes on an epic journey as he sets out with some of the best master trackers in the world, in pursuit of a...

Director Petra Volpe’s LATE SHIFT had its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2025. It went on to become Switzerland’s entry for the 2026 Best International Feature Academy Award® and was short-listed for that nomination. It won the Golden Eye Award from the Zurich Film Festival, The German Camera Award for Judith Kaufmann’s Cinematography, and Leonie Benesch was nominated...

Emmy Award-winning director Andrew Goldberg's latest documentary WHITE WITH FEAR sheds light on the decades-long strategy of politicians and media outlets to amplify racial divisions and white victimization narratives for power and profit. Told by the operatives in the rooms where it happened, WHITE WITH FEAR is an explosive deep dive into the decades-long quest by America’s conservative political...

Anchored by two trenchant performances, this exquisitely well made film from co-directors Guy Nattiv & Zar Amir about the politics of modern day Iran, TATAMI follows Iranian female judoka Leila (Arienne Mandi) and her coach Maryam (Zar Amir), who travel to the World Judo Championships, intent on bringing home Iran’s first gold medal. Midway through the Championships, they receive a chilling ul...

Currently available on NETFLIX, MATTER OF TIME is a compelling documentary chronicling the fight to cure Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), a rare and devastating genetic disease. Set against the backdrop of a powerful benefit concert organized by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder in Seattle, the film weaves together personal stories of patients and families, the scientific breakthroughs propelled by their...

Winner of the Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, DEAD LOVER is the story of a lonely Gravedigger who reeks so strongly of corpses that she can't attract a lover. She concocts fragrant perfumes in her workshop, but nothing can save her romantic prospects from her ghastly odor... Until one day, when Gravedigger meets Lover, an aristocratic dandy in tow...