Doc Star of the Month

Zarifa Ghafari, an Afghan woman with black shoulder-length hair, wearing a black coat and a red patterned scarf and a surgical mask around her neck, is sitting in the back seat of a moving car, looking out the window. From Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s In Her Hands. Courtesy of Netflix ©2022

Doc Star of the Month: Zarifa Ghafari, 'In Her Hands'

Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s In Her Hands follow the unlikeliest of protagonists, with a backstory that practically begs for Hollywood to

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Happy Oliveros (left) stands with his hands on his hips; he wears a royal blue shirt, a red baseball cap and sunglasses; Carlos O. González (right) wearing a royal blue jersey, LA Dodgers cap and white pants, winds up to pitch. Both men--nativHappy Oliveros (left) rests with his hands on his hips, while Carlos O. González (right) winds up to pitch. Both men are risking their life and exile pursuing MLB contracts, many of which will never transpire into anything tangible. Photo courtesy of ‘The Last Out’.

Doc Stars of the Month: Happy Oliveros, Carlos O. González and Victor Baró, 'The Last Out'

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sami Khan ( St. Louis Superman) and immersive producer-sound artist-director Michael Gassert’s POV-premiering (October 3

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A crosswalk shows a shadow of a man using an electric wheelchair as a person walks ahead. Photo courtesy of Reid Davenport.

Doc Star of the Month: Reid Davenport, 'I Didn't See You There'

Winner of the Directing Award for US Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Reid Davenport’s debut feature, I Didn’t See You There, is

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Margaret is a white woman wearing all black, filming Angela, a woman of color, wearing a black tank top and blue jeans. Behind-the-scenes shot from Margaret Byrne's 'Any Given Day.' Photo by Anjanli Pinto.

Doc Star of the Month: Margaret Byrne, 'Any Given Day'

Margaret Byrne’s Any Given Day is a half-decade-long ride on the roller coaster that those living with a mental illness face—on “any given day”

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BeBe Zahara Benet is a Black drag queen preparing for a show in her dressing room in Minneapolis. She is wearing a very large brown wig and false eyelashes, while looking into a mirror. From Emily Branham’s ‘Being BeBe.’ Courtesy of the filmmaker.

Doc Star of the Month: Marshall Ngwa aka BeBe Zahara Benet, 'Being BeBe'

World-premiering at the 2021 Tribeca Festival, Emily Branham’s Being BeBe is a revealing walk (uh, sashay) down memory lane with the titular BeBe

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Harry Chuck is an Asian American man with glasses, black hair and a blue shirt. Courtesy of ‘America Reframed’/World Channel

Doc Star of the Month: Harry Chuck, 'Chinatown Rising'

For over four decades, 20,000 feet of 16mm-shot film sat untouched in the San Francisco home of lifetime Chinatown resident Reverend Harry Chuck. The

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Jay Rosenblatt is a middle-aged white man seen here taking a selfie with Richard Silberg, a middle-aged white man with darker hair. From Jay Rosenblatt’s ‘When We Were Bullies.’ Courtesy of HBO.

Doc Star of the Month: Jay Rosenblatt, 'When We Were Bullies'

Debuting March 30 on HBO is veteran writer-director (30-plus films over the last four decades) Jay Rosenblatt’s 2021 Sundance-premiering, Oscar

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Nelson Chamisa is a bald Zimbabwean male politician wearing a patterned brown shirt. He is addressing a crowd of people. Image from Camilla Nielsson’s ‘President.’ Photo by Henrik Bohn Ipsen. Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.

Doc Star of the Month: Nelson Chamisa, 'President'

One of the timeliest films of this past year—having premiered in the World Documentary Competition at Sundance 2021 (where it would go on to win the

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Black-and-white archival footage of the Attica uprising. Image from Stanley Nelson and Traci Curry’s ‘Attica.’ Courtesy of Showtime.

Doc Star of the Month: Al Victory, 'Attica'

Fifty years ago, an uprising at a prison facility in upstate New York changed the course of history. And yet today the word "Attica" might more easily

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Vivian Anderson is a Black woman sitting on a stoop in Columbia, South Carolina, with her hands folded against her chin. She is the founder of EveryBlackGirl, and is seen in Garrett Zevgetis’ ‘On These Grounds.’

Doc Star of the Month: Vivian Anderson, 'On These Grounds'

Though abolishing the police is still viewed as a fringe idea here in America, what happened to a Black female student in South Carolina is exhibit A

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