47th Mill Valley Film Festival Doc Lineup Tackles Abortion, Trailblazing Musicians and Cats
The Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF), presented annually by the California Film Institute (CAFILM), has announced the official documentary selection for its 47th edition, taking place October 3–13, 2024.
This year’s lineup features an impressive array of thought-provoking films that explore critical global issues, celebrate diverse voices, and capture extraordinary human experiences. From the tales and tails of our favorite household pets with American Cats: The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly, to Texas’s ambiguous and unforgiving abortion bans in Zurawski v Texas to the personal and cultural journeys chronicled in films like Bring Them Home and Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie, these powerful documentaries promise to inspire, challenge, and engage audiences.
2024 Feature Documentary Program (listed in alphabetical order and with premiere status where applicable)
AMERICAN CATS: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE CUDDLY (Dir. Todd Bieber | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Cats are dubbed “the quiet royalty of the living room” in this fond, furry portrait. But they’ve got a gripe: The ongoing practice of surgical declawing, which these days is seldom practiced outside the US. Todd Bieber’s documentary examines both sides of a contentious veterinary issue. – West Coast Premiere
BILLIE PRESTON: THAT’S THE WAY GOD PLANNED IT (Dir. Paris Barclay | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Billy Preston blazed through the 1960s–’70s music scene like a supernova, shining brightly until brought down by personal demons and changing tastes. This riveting documentary examines the singer-songwriter-keyboardist’s extraordinary career and life and pays soulful homage to a musical genius. – West Coast Premiere
BORDERLAND: THE LINE WITHIN (Dir. Pamela Yates | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) The war on immigrants is happening. The realities of deportation, jail, and even death is only a few of the obstacles that activists Kaxh Mura’l and Gabriela Castañeda, participants in Borderland: The Line Within, face while battling the border/industrial complex in the United States. English, Spanish with English subtitles – West Coast Premiere
BRING THEM HOME/AISKÓTÁHKAPIYAAYA (Dirs. Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald, Daniel Glick | UK, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Buffalo once ruled the Great Plains until hunted by settlers to near-extinction—simultaneously imperiling Native Americans whose lifestyle depended on them. Now Blackfoot tribes are working to return these animals to the wild, regenerating their own traditional culture at the same time. Lily Gladstone narrates this scenically stunning documentary. – Bay Area Premiere
CHECKPOINT ZOO (Dir. Joshua Zeman | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Prior to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, 5,000 creatures roamed Feldman EcoPark, outside Kharkiv. In the midst of war, a volunteer team embarks on a mission to evacuate the zoo’s upset, unruly inhabitants—including lions, tigers, and bears—from the bombardment zone. The extraordinary endeavor embodies the noblest characteristics of our species: compassion, cooperation, and courage. English, Ukrainian with English subtitles – West Coast Premiere
CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE (Dir. David Bushell | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) One was a Canadian Chinese musician. The other was a Mexican American draft resister. Together, Tommy Chong and Richard “Cheech” Marin became one of the most successful comedy duos of all time. David Bushell’s documentary combines archival footage, clips, and new interviews as Cheech & Chong laugh, argue, and yes, smoke their way through a long, strange memory-lane trip. – West Coast Premiere
DAHOMEY (Dir. Mati Diop | France, Senegal, Benin, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Brimming with insight and inferred hope for future reparations, French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop’s imaginative and pointed hybrid documentary depicts the story of 26 antiquities returned to Benin by France, the country’s former colonizer. Winner of the top prize at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival. In French with English subtitles – West Coast Premiere
THE DAY ICELAND STOOD STILL (Dir. Pamela J Hogan | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) A subversive, funny, and galvanizing documentary about the astonishing events of October 24, 1975, when 90% of Iceland’s women—completely fed up with being disregarded, underpaid, and unrecognized in the workplace and in the home—walked off their jobs. Vibrant interviews and color-soaked animation capture key moments and the real change that followed. In English, Icelandic with English subtitles – West Coast Premiere
DEMOCRACY NOIR (Dir. Connie Field | US, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, 2024 | Documentary Feature) As Viktor Orban dismantles Hungary’s democratic institutions, three women—a journalist, a politician, and a nurse—work tirelessly to fight for their country’s soul. A chilling expose of far-right nationalism and an inspirational beacon of resistance. In English, Hungarian with English subtitles – US Premiere
FOOLS’ PARADISE (lost?) (Dir. Alexandra Lexton | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) An ailing planet is very much tied to human beings’ own ills, physical and psychological. Filmmaker Alexandra Lexton’s scenic documentary probes that connection via the stories of individuals from her own backyard to the Tanzanian outback. In activism and consciousness, all seek to rejoin those increasingly estranged parties, Mother Earth and Modern Society. – World Premiere
GOOD MEN (Dir. Bobby Roth | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Filmmaker Bobby Roth embarks on a thought-provoking journey seeking candid answers to questions on masculinity, femininity, and whether we have the power to change. Anchored around interviews with actors, directors, therapists, and more, Roth’s incisive, often touching documentary reminds us that to be a good man, one must become a compassionate and reflective person first. – World Premiere
HOMEGROWN (Dir. Michael Premo | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Brooklyn filmmaker Michael Premo follows three impassioned right-wing activists through the 2020 election, the January 6 Capitol riot, and beyond. With unexpected nuance and intimacy, he captures his protagonists’ combustible blend of delusional cosplayer, stalwart patriot, and potential threat. January 6 isn’t the film’s climax, surprisingly, but a turning point in its protagonists’ political and personal evolutions. – West Coast Premiere
INEDIA (Dir. Elizabeth Cairns | Canada, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Disruptive food allergies and terrible rashes debilitate a young woman. When she finds a secluded, nature-bound commune that believes sunlight’s energy can replace food, she believes she’s found her true home…if she can survive it. –US Premiere
INTO THE HEART OF THE MOUNTAIN (Dir. Annegré Bosman | Netherlands, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Walk beside Zen Buddhist priest and social activist Roshi Joan Halifax on her path to empower women and Indigenous people. This visually magnificent, emotionally bracing film documents an intimate pilgrimage with Halifax and a multicultural team as they deliver free medical care in the most remote regions of Nepal. In English, Nepali with English subtitles– US Premiere
JESSZILLA (Dir. Emily Sheskin | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Jesselyn is 16, with a mischievous smile and the world’s best dad. Academically and athletically gifted, she’s hooked on boxing—not as a spectator, but as a passionate participant. Director Emily Sheskin follows Jess on her road to the Junior Olympics, including her battle with the one opponent she’s unprepared to fight.
THE LEGEND IN ME (Dir. Calvin Hwang | Canada 2024 | Documentary Feature) A 20th-century Canadian sports legend—in hockey, football, wrestling, lacrosse, and more—Lionel Conacher begat a line of other star-athlete descendants. But in this simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking documentary, their 21st-century progeny explores the very different fields of nonbinary queer identity.
LOST IN TIME: DRUID HEIGHTS (Dir. Damian Panetta | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Crumbling Druid Heights, a once-thriving bohemian enclave near Mill Valley, could face the wrecking ball. Longtime resident Ed Stiles, a gifted furniture maker, recalls a vibrant community and details its outsized influence on countless disparate 20th-century cultural movements, including the Beats and Buddhism’s rising popularity in the US. – World Premiere
MOLLIE’S PACK (Dir. Thomas Winston | US, Documentary Feature) With exclusive, newly recovered 16mm footage of the 1995 reintroduction of gray wolves to the American West and stories told by the heroes on the ground who made it happen, this thrilling and touching IMAX documentary offers an insider’s view of the animals’ return to their rightful rangelands.
OCEANIA: JOURNEY TO THE CENTER (Dir. Natalie Zimmerman | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) The brutal impact of climate change drives this beautiful, intense documentary from Bay Area filmmaker Natalie Zimmerman. Focused on the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati, the film weaves breathtaking natural footage with the struggles of people navigating an environment that is slipping away. – World Premiere
RED BOAT CROSSING/ THE SHIP THAT TURNED BACK (Dir. Jeanne C. Finley, Dir. Allie Light | US, 2024 | Documentary Mid-length Features) Two mid-length nonfictions find beloved local women directors creating complex, warmly emotional odes to family members’ travails during World War II. Allie Light’s The Ship That Turned Back chronicles late spouse Irving Saraf’s childhood escape from occupied Poland; Jeanne C. Finley’s Red Boat Crossing recalls her mother’s dramatic Red Cross service in nautical battle zones.
SECRET MALL APARTMENT (Dir. Jeremy Workman | US, 2024 | Documentary Feature) Home is where the mall is. For a span of four years, eight artists shared a clandestine apartment hidden within a Providence, RI, mall. In this incredibly true, utterly fascinating documentary, director Jeremy Workman (Lily Topples the World) revisits that time and hears from the participants about what their “art project” means to them now and then. – California Premiere
STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS (Dir. Jalena Keane-Lee | US 2024, Documentary Feature) When the massive Thirty Meter Telescope is proposed to be built on Mauna Kea, an uprising of kiaʻi (protectors) in Hawaiʻi and around the world dedicate their lives to protecting the sacred mountain from destruction. Through the lens of mothers and daughters in three Native Hawaiian families, Standing Above the Clouds explores intergenerational healing and the impacts of safeguarding cultural traditions. In English, Hawaiian with English subtitles – Bay Area Premiere
THE TRUE STORY OF TAMARA DE LEMPICKA & THE ART OF SURVIVAL (Dir. Julie Rubio | US 2024, Documentary Feature) Long celebrated in Europe, the US is just now discovering one of the defining artists of the 20th century, Tamara de Lempicka. Working mother, feminist, style icon, and bisexual libertine, she embodied Art Deco’s spirit and portrayed high society women in boldly erotic terms that broke the male gaze. She painted the modern woman into being. – World Premiere
ZURAWSKI V TEXAS (Dirs. Maisie Crow, Abbie Perrault | US 2024 | Documentary Feature) Women denied abortions under Texas’s ambiguous and unforgiving abortion bans band together with a fearless attorney to sue Texas. While battling in court against the state and its immovable Attorney General, the extent of their traumatic experiences is revealed as they wrestle to regain their reproductive futures and set a precedent for millions of other women and families. ZURAWSKI V TEXAS reveals the dire impact of losing access to healthcare — and the extraordinary efforts of the women and men fighting on the frontline to regain those rights.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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