California Film Institute (CAFILM) Announces 2026 DocLands Documentary Film Festival Lineup
The California Film Institute (CAFILM) has announced the lineup for the 10th anniversary edition of the DocLands Documentary Film Festival, scheduled from April 30 to May 3, 2026, at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.
The festival opens with the Bay Area premiere of American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez, directed by David Alvarado, and closes with Little Feat: The Documentary, directed by Jesse Lauter, both with expected guests in attendance.
The four-day program features a global lineup of documentary features and shorts exploring art, culture, environment, music, and social issues, along with opportunities for audiences to engage directly with filmmakers.
DocLands’ DocTalk series returns with three panels focused on the evolving documentary landscape—covering funding pathways, filmmaker support, and changing distribution models.
Full list of panels and films below.
DOCTALK: The Documentary Landscape
From funding models to new collaboration pathways, DocTalk panels explore the evolving landscape for nonfiction filmmakers.
Panel: Supporting the Vision
Thursday, April 30, 2026 | 5:00 – 6:30 PM | Smith Rafael Film Center – House 2
Bringing together Bay Area filmmakers and funders, this panel explores how documentary projects receive support and move forward. Presented by CAFILM Education and DocLands and co-presented by the Berkeley Film Foundation (BFF) and the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), the program features Luca Capponi, Thanh Tran, and Alex J. Bledsoe. Through conversation, excerpts from works in progress, and insights from BFF and BAVC representatives, the discussion offers a practical look at funding pathways and what it takes to move a documentary from idea to screen.
Panel: Alternative Funding Pathways for Nonfiction Films
Saturday, May 2, 2026 | 10:30–11:30 AM | Smith Rafael Film Center – Mark Fishkin Room
Presented by CAFILM Education and DocLands, and co-presented by Video Consortium, this panel examines non-traditional funding approaches—from crowdfunding and subscriber-supported models to partnerships with nonprofits, brands, and streaming platforms. Panelists share practical insights on positioning projects for these opportunities while building engaged audiences and sustainable, hybrid funding strategies.
Panel: Has the New Normal Arrived?
Sunday, May 3, 2026 | 10:30–11:30 AM | Smith Rafael Film Center – Mark Fishkin Room
Filmmakers and industry voices come together for an informal discussion on the evolving landscape of documentary distribution. Drawing from recent experiences, the panel explores alternatives to traditional models, the rise of creator-driven platforms, and what it means to build sustainable audiences today. The discussion also considers the role of independent, community-centered art houses in supporting nonfiction film in this shifting environment. Panelists include: Khoa Ha (Y Vân: The Lost Sounds of Saigon), Nancy Kelly (Thousand Pieces of Gold, Rebels with a Cause), Victor Velle (Y Vân: The Lost Sounds of Saigon), Kenji Yamamoto (Thousand Pieces of Gold, Rebels with a Cause), and Dan Zastrow (Programmer/Director of Cinemas, CAFILM)
FEATURE FILMS (in alphabetical order)
AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] – Bay Area Premiere
Screening: Saturday, May 2, RAF 3 @ 1:45 PM
Director/s: Zachary Kahlil, Adam Kahlil | US 2026, 80 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Language: English, Anishinaabemowin with English subtitles
Trapped in museum archives, Ancestors bend time and space to find their way home. History, spirituality, and the law collide as tribal repatriation specialists fight to return and rebury Indigenous human remains, offering a revealing look at the still-pervasive worldviews that justified collecting them in the first place.
AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ – Bay Area Premiere
Opening Night: Thursday, April 30 @ 6:30 PM
Director: David Alvarado | US 2025, 92 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Language: Spanish, English with English subtitles
Expected Guest/s: David Alvarado (dir.), Luis Valdez (protagonist)
Guest Moderator: Carrie Lozano (Producer + ITVS)
Against political resistance and industry skepticism, Luis Valdez pushes Chicano storytelling from the fields to the film screen with Zoot Suit and La Bamba, crafting iconic works that challenge, celebrate, and expand America’s story.
THE ART OF ADVENTURE
Sunday, May 3, RAF 2 @ 5:30 PM
Director: Allison Reid | Canada 2025, 90 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Expected Guest/s: Alison Reid (TBC)
In 1957, world-renowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman and spirited biologist Bristol Foster embarked on a global expedition in a Land Rover they called “The Grizzly Torque” – a journey that ignited a deep love
of our planet and set in motion a powerful story of environmental activism through art and science.
BIRDS OF WAR – Bay Area Premiere
Sunday, May 3, RAF 3 @ 6:30 PM
Director/s: Janay Boulos, Abd Alkad Habak | UK 2026, 85 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Language: Arabic with English subtitles
Expected Guest/s: Janay Boulos (dir.)
The love story of a London-based Lebanese journalist and a Syrian-based activist/cameraman over thirteen years of revolutions, war, and exile.
CREATING A PHOTOJOURNALIST – Bay Area Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 3 @ 4:00 PM
Director/s: Erik Castro | US 2025, 45 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Expected Guest/s: Erik Castro (dir.)
A lifetime of images — from childhood home movies to decades of frontline photojournalism — becomes a deeply personal
journey through memory, fatherhood, and the life behind the camera.
The feature will be preceded by the short film Oh Whales (26’) and Rolling Film, Rocking History: Al Maysles Captures the Beatles (11’).
A DAIRY STORY – Bay Area Premiere
Sunday, May 3, RAF 3 @ 12:30 PM
Director/s: Ian Findlay (UK 2025, 78 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Expected Guest/s: TBC
Every day, thousands of dairy calves are separated from their mothers at birth. One Scottish farm risks everything to prove there’s another way.
GIVE IT A SHOT – Bay Area Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 2 @ 3:30 PM
Director/s: Vaishali Sinha | US, India 2026, 89 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Language: Bengali, English, Hindi with English subtitles
Expected Guest/s: Vaishali Sinha (director)
GIVE IT A SHOT follows scientists in India and the U.S. developing a new male contraceptive that could revolutionize family planning and improve women’s lives globally.
HARD TWIST: THROUGH THE LENS OF BARBARA VAN CLEVE – Bay Area Premiere
Sunday, May 3, RAF 2 @ 3:00 PM
Director/s: Cynthia Matty-Huber | US 2025, 80 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Expected Guest/s: Cynthia Matty-Huber (Director)
At the age of 90, Barbara Van Cleve has achieved iconic status as an acclaimed photographer whose work and life represent the independent spirit of the American West. From her youth on her family’s Montana ranch to her emergence at midlife as a chronicler of the changing contemporary West, she created a unique creative and personal path, including choosing a decades-long professional and personal relationship with another woman. Director Cynthia Matty-Huber’s feature documentary, Hard Twist: Through the Lens of Barbara Van Cleve, chronicles how this extraordinary person embraced life as an independent artist, an advocate for ranch women, and an unabashed leader in a photographic genre long considered the domain of men.
HELLCAT: THE TRUE STORY OF AN UNREASONABLE TEXAS WATERKEEPER – Bay Area Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 2 @ 12:00 PM
Director/s: Fax Bahr | US 2025, 91 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Expected Guest/s: Fax Bahr (dir.), Diane Wilson (protagonist), Will Parrinello (moderator)
An intimate portrait of environmental activist Diane Wilson, the film covers her harrowing 35-year war against the petrochemical giants that have egregiously polluted and nearly destroyed the Texas Gulf Coast bays her family’s been fishing since 1900.
The feature will be preceded by the short film Fog Eaters (20’)
Expected Guest/s: Kyle Baker (dir.)
IRON WINTER – Bay Area Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 3 @ 11:00 AM
Director/s: x | Australia 2024, 100 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Language: Mongolian with English subtitles
Four herders revive Mongolia’s most dangerous winter ritual in a last-ditch attempt to save their community’s ancient way of life.
The feature will be preceded by the short film Black Eyes (19’)
JANE ELLIOTT AGAINST THE WORLD
Saturday, May 2, RAF 1 @ 12:30 PM
Director/s: Judd Ehrlich | US 2026, 99 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Expected Guest/s (via Zoom): Judd Ehrlich (dir.) | Jane Elliott (protagonist)/TBC
A rural Iowa schoolteacher becomes a national voice against racism after leading a controversial 1968 lesson in discrimination with her all-white third-grade class. Now nearly ninety, she refuses to hold back amid today’s fights about race, history, and power after a lifetime of speaking out.
JOYBUBBLES
Friday, May 1, RAF 1 @ 7:30 PM
Director/s: Rachel J. Morrison | US 2026, 79 min | Strand: Wonderlands
Expected Guest/s: Annie Marr (Producer)
A boy discovers he can control the global telephone system by whistling a magic tone. Born blind and yearning for connection, his early obsession with the telephone sparks a subculture that shapes the future of hacking and technology.
THE LAST CRITIC – California Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 1 @ 7:15 PM
Director/s: Matty Wishnow | US 2026, 82 min | Strand: Wonderlands
Expected Guest/s: Matty Wishnow (dir.), Ben Wu (prod.)
Robert Christgau, The Dean of American Rock Critics, whose work has inspired and infuriated readers for sixty years, is still at it in his eighties, grading records, interrogating commas, and listening to absolutely everything (except metal and prog).
LITTLE FEAT: THE DOCUMENTARY – California Premiere
Closing Night: Sunday, May 3, RAF 1 @ 6:00 PM
Director/s: Jesse Lauter | US 2026, 136 min | Strand: Wonderlands
Expected Guest/s: Jesse Lauter (Director)
Little Feat: The Documentary tells the untold story of one of America’s most influential and under-appreciated bands, featuring never-before-seen footage and stories from iconic fans and friends, including Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, members of the Doobie Brothers, Phish, and the Grateful Dead. Narrated by Jeff Bridges.
MARY OLIVER: SAVED BY THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD – California Premiere
Friday, May 1, RAF 3 @ 6:30 PM
Director/s: Sasha Waters | US 2026, 91 min | Strand: Wonderlands
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver, a quiet queer icon, captivated readers everywhere with her accessible celebration of nature, dogs, and life itself.
NO PLACE FOR FOOTBALL – World Premiere
Sunday, May 3, RAF 3 @ 3:30 PM
Director/s: Brandon Scott Smith, Derek Sullivan Smith | Greenland 2026, 91 min | Strand: Wonderland
Language: English, Danish, Greenlandic with English subtitles
Expected Guest/s: Brandon Scott Smith (dir.), Derek Sullivan Smith (dir.)
A football club from Nuuk is forced to overcome a series of obstacles as they travel north for the world’s shortest season (one week) in pursuit of a dream at becoming Greenland’s national champions.
NUNS VS. THE VATICAN – California Premiere
Sunday, May 3, RAF 1 @ 2:45 PM
Director/s: Lorena Luciano | US 2025, 90 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Language: Italian, English, Slovenian with English subtitles
Expected Guest/s: Lorena Luciano (dir.), Filippo Piscopo (prod.)
She was a nun. He was a world-renowned priest and artist, the “Michelangelo” of the modern Catholic Church, courted by Popes and cardinals. In Nuns vs. The Vatican, Gloria’s jaw-dropping sexual abuse story is just the beginning as nuns start to break decades of silence, exposing a system built to protect power.
OBSERVER
Friday, May 1, RAF 2 @ 4:15 PM
Director/s: Ian Cheney | US 2025, 95 min | Strand: Wonderlands
Language: English, French, Korean & Wolof with English Subtitles
Observer embarks on an experiment in which a series of keen-eyed observers – scientists, artists, a hunter – are brought to a range of locations around the world, and asked to simply describe what they see.
PLAN C FOR CIVILIZATION Bay Area Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 3 @ 6:45 PM
Director/s: Ben Kalina | US 2025, 108 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Expected Guest/s: Ben Kalina (Director)
Time has run out. Physicist David Keith has spent the past 30 years fighting for research into a disruptive, planetary-cooling technology called solar geoengineering. He knows for certain it will work, it’s fast, and in the words of Al Gore it is “utterly mad”. Defiant in the face of personal attacks and death threats, his attempt to launch the first experiment into the stratosphere has divided the environmental community, spawned the viral chemtrail conspiracy and inspired a rogue start-up company to begin their own deployment. As he drives this idea out of the lab and into a planet in the grips of a climate meltdown, are there any ideas too risky to explore?
REGGAE GIRLZ – California Premiere
Sunday, May 3, RAF 2 @ 12:00 PM
Director/s: Trish Dalton, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy | US, Austria, UK 2025, 85 min | Strand: Wonderlands
Expected Guest/s: Trisha Dalton (dir.)
In a David vs. Goliath saga, the Jamaican women’s football team, affectionately known as the “Reggae Girlz,” rise from obscurity to challenge global giants France and Brazil in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, defying all odds and capturing the world’s imagination with their unyielding spirit.
TOUGH OLD BROADS – Bay Area Premiere
Friday, May 1, RAF 1 @ 4:45 PM
Director/s: Stacey Tenenbaum | Canada 2025, 82 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Expected Guest/s: Stacey Tenenbaum (Director/Producer)
Tough Old Broads follows three trailblazing women as they continue to make waves in their older years. These outspoken, funny, and thoughtful women embrace going against convention, speaking their minds, and fighting for what they believe in. They’re living proof that if you follow your dreams, you can change the world in the process.
TRADE SECRET
Saturday, May 2, RAF 1 @ 3:45 PM
Director/s: Abraham Joffe | Australia, UK 2025, 98 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Expected Guest/s: Abraham Joffe (dir.), Louie Psihoyos (moderator)
Trade Secret follows three unlikely allies on a mission to protect polar bears from international commercial trade. Filmed over six years across nine countries, the film exposes the sanctioned sale of hundreds of polar bears each year on the global market. But as the investigation deepens, it uncovers a disturbing truth: those entrusted with safeguarding the species may be entangled in their continued commercialization. The film raises urgent questions about how we protect vulnerable species in a world where the lines between protection and exploitation have become blurred.
Y VÂN: THE LOST SOUNDS OF SAIGON – Bay Area Premiere
Friday, May 1, RAF 1 @ 7:00 PM
Director/s: Khoa Ha, Victor Velle | US 2025, 91 min | Strand: Wonderlands
Language: English, Vietnamese with English subtitles
Expected Guest/s: Khoa Ha (Director), Victor Velle (Director), Douglas Emerson (Producer)
A young Vietnamese American artist sets out to recover her late grandfather’s lost musical recordings, uncovering hidden family stories and forgotten history that shaped her culture’s past.
ZELENSKY – California Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 2 @ 6:30 PM
Director/s: Yves Jeuland, Lisa Vapné | France 2025, 133 min | Strand: Art of Impact
Language: Ukrainian, Russian, English with English Subtitles
No one could have predicted the fate of Zelensky. This is the story of an actor, who became a president and a wartime leader. This is history in the making.
SHORT FILMS
IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS (Shorts Program – Total Running Time: 97 Minutes)
Screening: Sunday, May 3, RAF 1 @ 11:30 AM
ARCTIC ALCHEMY – Bay Area Premiere
Sunday, May 3, RAF 1 @ 11:30 AM
Director/s: Colin Arisman, Zeppelin Zeerip | US 2025, 29 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Renowned adventurer and climate scientist, Roman Dial embarks on a research expedition in the Alaska Arctic where he reckons with the power of wilderness to both break us and bring us alive.
DIPSEA GENERATIONS
Sunday, May 3, RAF 1 @ 11:30 AM
Director/s: Paddy O’Leary | US 2025, 30 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Language: English, Spanish with English subtitles
Expected Guest/s: Nicole Amyx (co-director)
Trail running is disappointingly homogenous, yet the Bay Area is home to a diverse population and some of the best trails in the US. This film follows five young runners from across the Bay Area as they take on the oldest, and perhaps the most unique, trail race in the US, the iconic Dipsea race. Its unique handicap start makes it ripe for improving access to the sport. Exploring these young people’s stories will enable us to explore the complex history of Bay Area trail running while staying grounded in a celebration of the next generation’s vision and passion for the sport.
INTO THE LIGHT – A STORY OF SURFERS, NOT STREET CHILDREN – World Premiere
Sunday, May 3, RAF 1 @ 11:30 AM
Director/s: Mikey Corker | UK 2026, 38 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Expected Guest/s: Tom Hewitt, Protagonist, CEO Surfers Not Street Children
In post-apartheid South Africa, two teenagers rise from the streets and ganglands of Durban to the national junior surfing team, proving that the ocean—once forbidden to them—can become a powerful force for survival, identity, and hope.
BLACK EYES – California Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 3 @ 11:00 AM
Director/s: Mateo Arango Guerrero | Australia 2025, 19 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Language: Kazakh with English subtitles
In Mongolia’s timeless Altai Mountains, Kharakoz, a 13-year-old girl, embodies a captivating blend of ancestral traditions and modern influences. As she learns the ancient art of eagle-hunting, the film delves into the powerful ripple effect of passing this sacred knowledge to girls. It showcases how Kharakoz and others like her aren’t just preserving, but actively invigorating Kazakh culture in the face of rapid change.
Black Eyes will precede the feature film, Iron Winter
FOG EATERS – World Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 2 @ 12:00 PM
Director/s: Kyle Baker | US 2025, 20 min | Strand: The Great Outdoors
Expected Guest/s: Kyle Baker
Environmental toxicologists find dangerously high levels of mercury in mountain lions on the California coast. A hunt through the food web reveals a story of global pollution and the permeability of our shared environment.
Fog Eaters will precede the feature film, Hellcat
OH WHALE – Bay Area Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 3 @ 4:00 PM
Director/s: Winslow Crane-Murdoch | US 2025, 26 min | Strand: Art of Impact
When news anchor Paul Linnman arrived in Florence, OR, on November 12th, 1970, he had no idea that the story he was about to tell would forever define his career. Following a small Oregon town, an exploding whale, and the man who made the story famous, Oh Whale is about how we don’t get to choose our fate, only what we make of it.
Fog Eaters and Rolling Film, Rocking History will precede the feature film, Creating a Photojournalist
ROLLING FILM, ROCKING HISTORY: AL MAYSLES CAPTURES THE BEATLES (11 min) – Bay Area Premiere
Saturday, May 2, RAF 3 @ 4:00 PM
Director/s: Bart Weiss | US 2025, 11, min | Strand: Art of Impact
Al Maysles tells the story about how he and his brother David filmed the Beatles when they invaded New York in 1964.
Rolling Film, Rocking History and Fog Eaters will precede the feature film, Creating a Photojournalist
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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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