Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Announces 2026 Lineup, Honorary Chair Darlene Love & Awards For Joe Berlinger, Yoruba Richen
EXCLUSIVE: The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival announced its 2026 lineup Thursday, the 35th edition of the prestigious festival in central Arkansas. The cinematic event running October 9-17 in the historic spa town will kick off with Penny Lane’s documentary Wild Inside and conclude with the Closing Night selection of Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu, featuring actors Bob Odenkirk and David Cross on the adventure of a lifetime.
The world premiere of Nick Capezzera’s The Other Side of Memory will serve as HSDFF’s Centerpiece Selection. Days after its world premiere at the New York Film Festival, Hot Springs will screen 14th, the highly anticipated documentary from Oscar nominee Ava DuVernay. HSDFF will host the U.S. premieres of Pretenders, Joss Crowley’s documentary about Chrissie Hynde and her band, and another music-themed film, Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, directed by Barry Avrich. Love, the R&B and soul singer regarded by her peers as one of the greatest vocalists of all time, will serve as the festival’s honorary chair.
For the first time, HSDFF will convene a Documentary Roundtable of leading contenders for the Academy Awards. The panel, co-presented with Deadline, will feature American Doctor (director Poh Si Teng), Closure (director Michał Marczak), One Upon a Time in Harlem (producer Liani Greaves), and To Hold a Mountain (director Biljana Tutorov). (I will have the honor of moderating that discussion). Each of the award-winning films will screen at the festival.
HSDFF also announced honors for two leading figures in documentary, Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Joe Berlinger and Peabody winner Yoruba Richen. Berlinger will receive the Brent Renaud Career Achievement Award prior to a special 30th anniversary screening of Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, which Berlinger directed with the late Bruce Sinofsky.
Richen will receive the festival’s Impact Award, to be presented at the Filmmaker Forum on Monday, October 12. HSDFF will also screen Richen’s new documentary short Free Joan Little.
The lineup of features and shorts includes the latest work from filmmakers Barbara Kopple, Ron Howard, Sam Pollard, Nanette Burstein, Waad Al-Kateab, Nathan Truesdell, Cristina Costantini, Sam Soko, Bill Morrison, Liz Garbus, Elizabeth Wolff, and Grace Lee.
Among other festival highlights:
- HSDFF will screen The Story of Documentary Film, the series directed by Mark Cousins that is told in 16 one-hour chapters.
- The inaugural Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Filmmaker Retreat, a four-day intensive program for filmmakers based in the Mid-South/South, held in partnership with Indie Media Arts South, launching October 10 – 13. (More below)
- Now in its fourth year, the HSDFF Filmmaker Forum is a two-day filmmaker/industry conference and convening to be held October 12 – 13. (More below)
- Live Podcast Featuring Ben Proudfoot. Following a screening of his new Netflix documentary short The Baddest Speechwriter of All, two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Proudfoot (The Queen of Basketball; The Last Repair Shop) participates in a live podcast conversation with Michael Merrill and HSDFF Executive Director Ken Jacobson, hosts of the “Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers” podcast.
Scroll for the complete 2026 HSDFF lineup.
“In this, our 35th year — also the 150th anniversary of Hot Springs, and the 250th birthday of the USA — we proudly use this occasion to embrace history,” noted HSDFF Executive Director Ken Jacobson. “From a 30th anniversary screening of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s ground-breaking documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, to our presentation of all 16 hours of Mark Cousins’ landmark new film, The Story of Documentary Film, we look back in time to teach us where we have come from and to better understand our present day.
“We are also inspired by all that is new at this year’s festival. The inaugural Documentary Roundtable conversation, co-presented with Deadline, is our exciting new entry into the Oscar competition space, and the Filmmaker Retreat is an exciting new program designed to showcase and support Mid-Southern and Southern stories and filmmakers. And, of course, we are thrilled to have the sensational Darlene Love join us as our Honorary Chair. Her voice will be the soundtrack of this year’s edition. 2026 is destined to be a breakout year for HSDFF.”
Below is the 2026 lineup of features and shorts, followed by details on special event happening at the festival. The opening night film, Wild Inside, and Closing Night film, Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu, will screen at Oaklawn’s Event Center. The other events and screenings will take place at Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa.
The 2026 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival official selections:
GALA SELECTIONS AND SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Opening Night Gala Selection
Wild Inside
Director: Penny Lane
Country: USA; Run Time: 96m
In this modern-day fairy tale, acclaimed filmmaker Penny Lane tells the story of Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl who escapes his enclosure in New York’s Central Park Zoo and learns to survive in the wilds of Manhattan. Flaco quickly develops an international following, becoming one of the city’s most recognized celebrities.
Centerpiece Gala Selection
The Other Side of Memory eWORLD PREMIERE
Director: Nick Capezzera
Country: USA; Running Time: 84m
With affecting vulnerability, director Nick Capezzera documents a decade-long search to locate his Korean birth parents and reconnect with a cultural heritage that he never knew. In seeking answers about his past, Nick’s journey leads to personal discoveries that reshape his understanding of family.
Closing Night Gala Selection
Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu
Director: Michael LaHaie
Country: USA; Run Time: 80m
Legendary comedy duo Bob Odenkirk and David Cross take on aging, altitude, and nonstop riffs as they tackle the epic trail to Machu Picchu, reflecting on 30 years of friendship, comedy, and what comes next.
Special Presentations
Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Beenè fUS PREMIERE
Director: Barry Avrich
Country: USA; Running Time: 115m
After more than six decades in the music industry, legendary vocalist Darlene Love takes center stage and reflects on the highs and lows of her career in this celebratory documentary.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Directors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Country: USA; Running Time: 150m
A horrific triple murder of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993 leads to the arrest of three teenagers accused of killing the boys as part of an alleged satanic ritual. The subsequent media storm and trials set off a series of events that reverberated for years to come. Special 30th anniversary screening.
The Story of Documentary Film
Director: Mark Cousins
Country: USA; Running Time: 960m
The beloved, deeply inquisitive filmmaker Mark Cousins (The Story of Film) presents his latest epic masterpiece about the ceaselessly fascinating world of film — this time turning his attention to the cinema that is nearest and dearest to our hearts: the documentary. Spanning 16 hours in 16 chapters, Mark covers the sweeping history of documentary, from its late 19th-century origins to today. As always, the journey is international in scope, surprising in its revelations, and inspiring in its creative exploration. Each two-hour program features two chapters. Separate admission or pass required for each program.
ADDITIONAL FEATURE SELECTIONS
10s Across the Borders
Director: Sze-Wei Chan
Countries: Philippines/Singapore/Germany; 100m
Inspired by the Black and Latinx underground Ballroom culture of New York, Sun, Teddy, and Xyza create Ballroom communities in Southeast Asia as safe havens from homophobia, transphobia, color discrimination and HIV stigma. Sun integrates Ballroom into his creative language as a performance artist, while Teddy and Xyza journey to Ballroom’s source in New York City, meeting the icons and pioneers who are their parents from afar.
14th
Director: Ava DuVernay
Country: USA; Running Time: 108m
Threading deep archival scholarship with piercing headlines of today, Oscar nominee Ava DuVernay’s 14th brings together legal minds, politicians, historians and cultural voices in direct conversation with a question America still hasn’t settled: Who gets to belong?
Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild]
Directors: Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil
Countries: USA/Denmark; Running Time: 80m
History, spirituality, and the law collide in Sundance-winner Aanikoobijigan, which follows tribal repatriation specialists fighting to return Indigenous human remains while taking a revealing look at the worldviews that justified collecting them in the first place.
American Doctor
Director: Poh Si Teng
Countries: USA/Occupied Palestinian Territory/Malaysia/Qatar/Denmark; Running Time: 91m
Three American physicians of very different backgrounds — Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian — travel to Gaza to treat patients under the most extreme circumstances. What they witness compels them to call out the devastating consequences of U.S. support of the Israeli war effort.
Avedon
Director: Ron Howard
Country: USA; Running Time: 104m
No photographer in the last 50 years has achieved as much fame or recognition for his work as Richard Avedon. But who was the man behind the camera? Oscar-winner Ron Howard does a masterful job of bringing together stunning archival material and insightful interviews to give us this high wattage, illuminating portrait.
Black Zombie
Director: Maya Annik Bedward
Country: USA; Running Time: 90m
What if the zombie was never meant to be a monster? Black Zombie uncovers the Haitian roots of the zombie, exposing how Western cinema transformed spiritual tradition into horror while stripping it of identity, agency, and history.
Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff
Director: Nanette Burstein
Country: USA; Running Time: 98m
Oscar nominee Nanette Burstein’s (On the Ropes; Hillary) incisive, 360-degree portrait of the uniquely gifted astronomer and public communicator Carl Sagan shows there is still so much we can learn from Sagan and his key collaborator (and wife), the extraordinary Ann Druyan.
Ceremony
Director: Banchi Hanuse
Country: Canada; Running Time: 84m
As the Nuxalk First Nation traces the disappearance of ooligan fish alongside a land claim filed the day smallpox arrived, science and cultural traditions intertwine to facilitate the return of a healed community and ecosystem. Winner of the Audience Award at SXSW.
A City in the Forest
Directors: Lev Omelchenko, Nolan Huber
Country: USA; Running Time: 99m
When the city of Atlanta announces plans to build the largest police training center in the U.S. — destroying an urban forest in the process — a group of determined activists mobilizes to stop “Cop City.” With rare access, the filmmakers witness the dramatic events as they unfold — and eventually turn deadly.
Closure
Director: Michał Marczak
Country: Poland; Running Time: 105m
In this cinematically stunning portrait, a father refuses to stop searching for his missing son, drawing him deeper into an all-consuming world of hope, obsession, and grief, asking how far we’ll go to find answers.
Cornbread Mafia
Directors: Evan Mascagni, Drew Morris
Country: USA; Running Time: 88m
The Cornbread Mafia was the largest marijuana syndicate in American history. Part true crime, part tall tale, this is a story about friendship, outrageous antics, betrayal, and a whole lot of weed.
Crocodile
Directors: The Critics, Pietra Brettkelly
Countries: New Zealand/Nigeria; Running Time: 100m
Armed with smartphones and recycled materials, a group of teenagers in rural Kenya create The Critics, a homemade film collective dreaming up elaborately imaginative science fiction films.
Edward Said: Between Worlds
Director: Maiken Baird
Country: USA; Running Time: 107m
This eye-opening, intimate portrait of the late Palestinian scholar Edward Said, author of Orientalism and other revolutionary works, masterfully assembles interviews and other archival footage to re-engage audiences with Said’s groundbreaking ideas on Palestinian identity, history, and politics.
Give Me the Ball!
Directors: Liz Garbus, Elizabeth Wolff
Country: USA; Running Time: 102m
A transformative figure who transcended tennis to become a game-changing advocate for women’s rights, Billie Jean King shined in the spotlight. But, behind the scenes, King held deep secrets and struggled with her own identity. Now, King reveals herself as never before.
Hanging by a Wire
Director: Mohammed Ali Naqvi
Countries: Pakistan/United Kingdom; Running Time: 98m
In this real-life thriller, a routine school commute turns terrifying when a cable car’s wire snaps, leaving eight passengers — including six students — dangling 900 feet above a ravine in the remote Himalayan foothills.
Jane Elliott Against the World
Director: Judd Ehrlich
Country: USA; Running Time: 99m
The fierce teacher/activist Jane Elliot, who in 1968 confronted discrimination through her controversial Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes classroom demonstration, continues to fight racism, refusing to back down in the face of today’s culture wars.
Jaripeo
Directors: Efraín Mojica, Rebecca Zweig
Countries: USA/Mexico; Running Time: 71m
Travel with director Efraín Mojica to Michoacán and experience the community and excitement of the annual Christmas rodeo in this beautifully crafted study of queer identity and masculine performance.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Directors: Quinn Whitney Wilson, Viridiana Lieberman
Country: USA; Running Time: 95m
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s genius and style made him a sensation in the art world. This electric documentary, supported by his estate and family, showcases his singular artistic voice while also introducing the person behind the masterpieces.
Joybubbles
Director: Rachael J. Morrison
Country: USA; Running Time: 79m
Joybubbles tells the extraordinary true story of a blind man whose perfect whistle unlocked the global telephone network system, turning a love of connection into rebellion and making an unlikely technological pioneer.
Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie
Director: Alex Gibney
Country: USA; Running Time: 107m
When Salman Rushdie was stabbed by a fanatical extremist at a book event, the renowned author nearly died. Based on Rushdie’s deeply intimate memoir Knife, Oscar winner Alex Gibney’s moving portrait takes us inside the author’s tortuous recovery and shows how Rushdie’s wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, made all the difference.
The Lorraine
Director: Sam Pollard
Country: USA; Running Time: 84m
Visit the Lorraine Motel in this fascinating documentary from Oscar nominee Sam Pollard. Through archival footage and extensive interviews, the director revisits the rich, but tragic, history of the Memphis motel.
My NDA
Directors: Juliane Dressner, Miriam Shor
Country: USA; Running Time: 102m
My NDA follows three people who break their silence on non-disclosure agreements, risking their careers, reputations, and futures to expose what powerful institutions would rather keep buried.
The Oldest Person in the World
Director: Sam Green
Country: USA; Running Time: 88m
Over the course of ten years, Oscar-nominated director Sam Green (32 Sounds) profiles the various people who hold the title of the oldest person in the world in this touching and personal documentary about aging, mortality, and happiness.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Directors: William Greaves, David Greaves
Country: USA; Running Time: 100m
In 1972, William Greaves gathered legends of the Harlem Renaissance together so that he could document this once-in-a-lifetime party. Now, more than fifty years later, his son David Greaves shares the intimate footage of this thrilling conversation.
One in a Million
Directors: Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes
Countries: United Kingdom/US; Running Time: 102m
At only 11 years old, Israa leaves her home in Syria to build a new life with her family in Germany. Over the next ten years, Israa comes of age across borders and cultures in this stunning documentary.
Pinball
Director: Naveen Chaubal
Country: USA; Running Time: 86m
In this affecting coming-of-age portrait, Yosef, a young athlete in Louisville, Kentucky, seeks to recover memories of his immigration journey from Iraq to Egypt to America. As he seeks to reconnect with his past, Yosef asks fundamental questions about where he came from — and what to do next.
Pretenders US PREMIERE
Director: Joss Crowley
Country: United Kingdom; Running Time: 107m
As a young rebel, Chrissie Hynde rejected post-war American suburban life and took off for London. After years of toil, she founded what would become one of the world’s great rock and roll bands, The Pretenders. Hynde goes inside the music that took the world by storm and revisits the triumphs and tragedies that followed.
Rising Through the Fray
Director: Courtney Montour
Country: Canada; Running Time: 88m
The Indigenous Rising team laces up its skates and brings high speed energy to the track as it races toward the Roller Derby World Cup, the first multi-national team to compete.
Runa Simi
Director: Augusto Zegarra
Country: Peru; Running Time: 81m
When Fernando’s hobby of dubbing popular movies into Quecha — his Native language — goes viral, he undertakes his most ambitious project yet: a fully dubbed Quecha version of Disney’s The Lion King.
Shumei – The Living Legacy of Kabuki U S PREMIERE
Director: Takashi Miike
Country: Japan; Running Time: 94m
Acclaimed director and cinematic provocateur, Takashi Miike (13 Assassins, Audition) takes audiences on an immersive, behind-the-scenes journey into the world of Kabuki, the traditional form of Japanese theater, as the mantle of a legendary role is passed to the next generation.
Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing
Director: Erik Shirai
Countries: Japan/Denmark/USA; Running Time: 99m
In this exquisite and intimate portrait, director Erik Shirai pulls back the curtain on the ancient Japanese sport of sumo wrestling and reveals how sumo’s most elite athletes must balance cultural pride, ambition, and sacrifice.
Tehran, Under the Skin US PREMIERE
Director: Afsaneh Salari
Countries: Colombia/Argentina/Uruguay; Running Time: 84m
With a close observer’s eye, filmmaker Afsaneh Salari enters the world of plastic surgery in Tehran. Scenes of waiting room conversations, consultations, and surgeries build a powerful narrative: price is no deterrent to the promise of a more perfect body… and no amount of surgery is ever enough.
Time Warp
Director: Allison Berg
Country: USA; Running Time: 112m
Kenny Starling’s drag theater company stages the first Shadow Cast performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the conservative town of Rock Springs, Wyoming. This bold and inclusive documentary is a celebration of queer identity and a certified crowd pleaser.
To Hold a Mountain
Directors: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić
Countries: Montenegro/Serbia/Croatia/France/Slovenia; Running Time: 105m
Through striking cinematography and intimate access, the story of a shepherd mother and daughter proudly defending their ancestral mountain from becoming a NATO military training ground unfolds in the remote highlands of Montenegro.
Tutu
Director: Sam Pollard
Country: United Kingdom; Running Time: 101m
A fascinating, behind-the-scenes portrait of South African Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu, Oscar nominee Sam Pollard documents how Tutu’s fearless fight against injustice helped end apartheid and inspired generations to stand for justice. Told through previously unreleased footage and personal accounts.
Union Town
Director: Barbara Kopple
Country: USA; Running Time: 106m
Legendary director Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA; American Dream) returns to cover the labor movement in a new battleground: New York City. Intertwining three labor stories involving Amazon, UPS and DoorDash/Grub Hub, Kopple once again proves to be the master of verité filmmaking and interview-driven character studies.
SHORT FILM SELECTIONS
Air Horse One
Director: Lasse Linder
Countries: Switzerland/Belgium; Running Time: 21m
Awake US PREMIERE
Directors: Elyse Kelly, Dan Fipphen
Country: USA; Running Time: 6m
The Baddest Speechwriter of All
Director: Ben Proudfoot
Country: USA; Running Time: 29m
BARKansas: A DOGumentary WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Xander Topich
Country: USA; Running Time: 10m
Bent
Director: Sam B. Jones
Country: USA; Running Time: 17m
Between Here and Home
Director: Nathan Willis
Country: USA; Running Time: 21m
Black By God
Director: Ashley York
Country: USA; Running Time: 16m
Black Soil WORLD PREMIERE
Directors: Nicholas Weissman, Caitlin Ochs
Country: USA; Running Time: 22m
The Butterfly Lab
Director: Sean Grasso
Country: USA; Running Time: 18m
Crystal Bluff
Director: Jonathan Childs
Country: USA; Running Time: 11m
The Custodian
Director: Khaula Malik
Country: USA; Running Time: 26m
A Derailment
Director: Nathan Truesdell
Country: USA; Running Time: 26m
Endless Sunlight
Director: Tyson Houseman
Country: Canada; Running Time: 8m
First Cut: Foreskin Conversations WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Paul Kreth
Country: USA; Running Time: 10m
Fish Rescue WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Virginia McDaniel
Country: USA; Running Time: 5m
Free Fish
Director: Bisan Owda
Countries: Palestine/State of Portugal; Running Time: 22m
Free Joan Little
Director: Yoruba Richen
Country: USA; Running Time: 35m
The Floor Remembers
Director: Jayme Kaye Gershen
Country: USA; Running Time: 15m
From Fields to Flight
Director: Ipshita Bhattacharyya
Country: India; Running Time: 11m
The Grandfather Puzzle
Director: Ora DeKornfeld
Country: USA; Running Time: 25m
Hot Springs: The Bedrock of Baseball WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Steven Hellmann
Country: USA; Running Time: 9m
I Think About Birds
Director: Johanna Gustin
Country: USA; Running Time: 13m
La Tierra del Valor (The Home of the Brave)
Director: Cristina Costantini
Country: USA; Running Time: 23m
Listen
Director: Malakye Tsosie
Country: USA; Running Time: 16m
Little Rocker: A Song from the South WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Melissa Bailey
Country: USA; Running Time: 10m
Maurice and Marvin WORLD PREMIERE
David Friend
Country: USA; Running Time: 21m
Maybe Tomorrow
Directors: Waad Al-Kateab, Wafa Mustafa
Country: United Kingdom; Running Time: 40m
Meet Me On The Mountain: The Legacy Of Winthrop Rockefeller WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Justin Blake Crum
Country: USA; Running Time: 21m
Memories of a Window
Directors: Mehraneh Salimian, Amin Pakparvar
Countries: Iran Islamic Republic of/United States; Running Time: 19m
Mon Taxi
Director: Meriem Sakrouhi
Country: USA; Running Time: 8m
The Mysterious Malco WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Kyle Bargen
Country: USA; Running Time: 7m
A Mystical Ornithology
Directors: Jeremy Seifert, Benjamin James Roberts
Country: USA; Running Time: 11m
Oh Whale
Director: Winslow Crane-Murdoch
Country: USA; Running Time: 26m
One Last Order
Directors: Sam Soko, Lauren DeFilippo
Country: USA; Running Time: 22m
An Open Field
Director: Teboho Edkins
Countries: South Africa/Germany/France/Ethiopia; Running Time: 38m
Panther Pat
Director: Ashley Brandon
Country: USA; Running Time: 12m
A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching
Director: Adam Elliott
Country: USA; Running Time: 7m
Ramón Who Speaks to Ghosts
Director: Shervin Kermani
Country: Canada; Running Time: 8m
Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon
Director: Bill Morrison
Country: USA; Running Time: 18m
Skyward: The Sport Rocketry Revolution
Directors: Matthew Middendorf, Kaitlyn Krikorian
Country: USA; Running Time: 15m
The Silo WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Jason Warnick
Country: USA; Running Time: 10m
Some Kind of Refuge
Director: Alexandra Kern
Country: USA; Running Time: 16m
The Stage When
Director: Hao Zhou
Country: China; Running Time: 16m
Stickball: The Little Brother of War WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Mark D. Williams
Country: USA; Running Time: 25m
Still Standing
Directors: Victor Tadashi Suarez, Livia Albeck-Ripka
Country: USA; Running Time: 10m
Tampons & Taxes: Or How To Play The Ole Boys’ Club and Win WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Emily Harrold
Country: USA; Running Time: 25m
Town Crier
Director: Grace Lee
Country: USA; Running Time: 19m
The Tuners
Director: Pawel Chorzepa
Country: Poland; Running Time: 20m
Water Cooler
Director: Emma V.F.
Country: USA; Running Time: 12m
When You Know my Name WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Haydée Souffrant
Country: USA; Running Time: 10m
Where Are the Christians WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Derrick Harris
Country: USA; Running Time: 7m
Willie and His Pigs
Director: Emily Cooper
Country: USA; Running Time: 14m
With Love From Texas
Director: Margaret Seid
Country: USA; Running Time: 7m
ADDITIONAL EVENTS
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996), the first in a trilogy of films about the horrific triple murder of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993 and the subsequent arrest of three teenagers accused of killing the boys as part of an alleged satanic ritual, will screen Sunday, October 11, at 6:00 PM at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa, with Berlinger in attendance.
Filmmaker Retreat and Summit
The inaugural Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Filmmaker Retreat, a four-day intensive program for filmmakers based in the Mid-South/South, held in partnership with Indie Media Arts South, launches October 10 – 13 at this year’s festival. The goal of the retreat is to provide intensive support and feedback for a cohort of six Mid-Southern/Southern-based documentary projects currently in progress. A core component of the retreat is a facilitated discussion called the “Petit Jean Documentary Summit: Supporting Nonfiction Storytelling in the Mid-South/South” to be held at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain, Arkansas. The endgame for the combined retreat and summit programs is to bolster a group of exciting, culturally enriching projects, while, at the same time, engaging a community of stakeholders in a discussion of how additional resources can be assembled to support nonfiction storytelling in the region.
The Filmmaker Forum
Now in its fourth year, the HSDFF Filmmaker Forum is a two-day filmmaker/industry conference and convening to be held October 12 – 13 during this year’s festival. The Forum, which has become a yearly must-attend event, provides crucial professional development resources and networking opportunities for Mid-Southern and Southern documentary filmmakers, offers dynamic programming featuring the art, craft and business of documentary storytelling and focuses a wider lens on the nonfiction ecosystem as a whole.
Birding Festival of the South Programs
In partnership with Visit Hot Springs’ inaugural Birding Festival of the South to be held in Hot Springs on October 8 – 10, HSDFF will present several special events, including a live owl and eagle demonstration by the Little Rock Zoo on Saturday, October 10, at 5:00 PM at the Arlington Hotel Resort & Spa, followed by Jackie & Shadow: A Love Story, a work-in-progress event with director Ashley York (Hillbilly). HSDFF’s signature Secret Screening event this year will be a “bird-related” film to be held on Saturday, October 10, at 7:15 PM.
Rex Nelson Talk: “Mr. Sam, Arkansas, and the Making of a Global Business Empire”
Senior Editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,Rex Nelson, a beloved storyteller of Arkansas history, culture and politics, returns for a special conversation titled, “Mr. Sam, Arkansas, and the Making of a Global Business Empire” about famed Arkansan Sam Walton, the co-founder of Walmart. Rex will discuss how Walton went from running a five-and-dime store in Newport, Arkansas, to becoming one of the greatest business leaders in American history. He also will discuss the current impact of the Walton family on Arkansas and what the future holds for both the Walton family and Arkansas.
National Park College and Hot Springs Village Shorts Programs
HSDFF is returning to the National Park College in Hot Springs for another specially curated package of short films intended to build connections between the festival and the NPC community. The shorts program will be on Wednesday, October 14, at 1:00 PM at NPC. For the third year in a row, HSDFF brings its documentary programming to nearby Hot Springs Village for a curated shorts program on Monday, October 12, at 6:30 PM.
The Emerging Filmmakers Program
A long-standing partnership between HSDFF and Arkansas TV, the Emerging Filmmakers Program is one of HSDFF’s most cherished educational initiatives. This full-day experience welcomes middle and high school students from throughout the region to engage in thought-provoking screenings, interactive Q&A sessions, and hands-on workshops. The program kicks off with a Work-in-Progress Screening of Flag, a new documentary directed by Erika Cohn (In Football We Trust) and produced by Christine O’Malley and Matt Radecki. Flag follows the Southeast Bulloch High School Girls Flag Football team in Brooklet, Georgia, on its quest to keep an unprecedented winning streak going. This year’s Emerging Filmmakers Program will also feature a screening of Ben Proudfoot’s new Netflix documentary The Baddest Speechwriter of All, followed by a conversation with the two-time Academy Award-winning Proudfoot about the art of the short documentary. Designed to immerse young storytellers in the craft of documentary filmmaking, the program features guidance from award-winning filmmakers and top industry professionals. Since its inception, the program has welcomed hundreds of students from more than 30 schools.
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