DOC10

05/05/2025

It's a wrap! The 10th Doc10 film festival was our biggest, best, and most successful ever. Thanks to all who came out to support this year's documentaries!

05/02/2025

DOC10 TICKETING UPDATE! Many of our films are startling to sell out: ANTIDOTE, FOLKTALES and PRIME MINISTER are all at capacity. But we will have a Standby Line at the theater, so please come over to the Davis 30 minutes before showtime and line up for a space-available ticket. There are still a few tickets left for PREDATORS, THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR, and DEAF PRESIDENT NOW!, so grab them while you still can!
doc10.org

05/01/2025

More from film critic Ray Pride on this year's Doc10 slate in his Talking Screens column today: "I’ve seen about half the movies on the roster via their Sundance debuts in January, and the key three for me developed themes of surveillance and 'real-time' duration—the digital panopticon could be credited as co-director—with 'The Perfect Neighbor,' made almost entirely of bodycam footage of months of police responses to a paranoid woman in a Florida neighborhood; '2000 Meters to Andriivka,' built from soldiers’ footage of inching inexorably for days on end toward overtaking a village; and 'Predators,' which examines the thin thread not quite keeping the decades of 'To Catch A Predator' from exploitation and vigilantism. (The film finds and follows a pack of stumblebum copycats who alternate between comic and chilling.) The final scenes are stacked coups de théâtre, landing with a succession of punches and then a sad dissipation. This trio are formal exercises or enterprises that illuminate our mediated world with great success."

04/29/2025

TONIGHT! Don't miss this "haunting, lyrical portrait of survival... you will be astounded by the South African boy who transformed into a ghost before he could become a man." - SXSW winner GHOST BOY by Rodney Ascher
https://www.doc10.org/ghost-boy

04/28/2025

"It’s easily one of the strongest Doc10 line-ups to date, and arguably their best ever. "
Doc10 Launches 10th Anniversary Edition with Some of the Best Non-Fiction Films of 2025
by Brian Tallerico

A preview of Chicago's elite documentary film festival.

04/26/2025

Join Mstyslav Chernov, Oscar-winning director of 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL, for his latest documentary masterwork 2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA on Sunday, May 4. The film follows Ukrainian platoons as they traverse a thin corridor of decimated forest, fighting for every inch of their land--from 2000 meters to 1000 meters to 500 meters--to retake the town of Andriivka. Winner of a Sundance Directing Award, the film is “pensively devastating” (Variety) and “the most unbearably intense war documentary you’ll ever see” (The Daily Beast).
More info at https://www.doc10.org/2000-meters-to-andriivka

04/25/2025

This Friday Night! Doc10 presents a FREE screening of WE WANT THE FUNK! to kick off Docs Across Chicago.
6:30pm - Chicago Cultural Center, Claudia Cassidy Theater
Followed by Q+A with musicians Lloyd Brodnax King and Julio Davis
So named for the iconic George Clinton song, WE WANT THE FUNK! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning its African and early jazz roots, to the early work of James Brown and the rise of Parliament Funkadelic and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, through its influences today on both new wave and hip-hop. A joyous and body-moving celebration of Black culture and the spirit of resistance.
More info and RSVP at https://www.doc10.org/we-want-the-funk

04/24/2025

From WBEZ.org
https://www.wbez.org/movies-tv/2025/04/24/doc10-documentary-film-festival-chicago
This year’s Doc10 exemplifies the thought-provoking films being crafted. Highlights include works about unjust laws, untraditional love and a cult-classic true crime television show from the 2000s. Here are a few standouts of the fest.

The Perfect Neighbor chronicles the story of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother in Ocala, Florida, who was shot and killed by her neighbor. The incident stemmed from a dispute over kids playing in a field and garnered national attention amid the debate over stand your ground laws.

Mistress Dispeller
Directed by Hong Kong–raised filmmaker Elizabeth Lo, Mistress Dispeller has already won awards on the festival circuit. This doc is a love story with an interesting twist. “It’s about this new industry that’s emerged in China,” said Lo, “where if you find out your spouse is cheating on you, instead of directly confronting them, you can hire this woman called a ‘mistress dispeller’ to infiltrate your family under a covert identity and befriend your partner and also their mistress and kind of influence them to end the affair.”

Predators
Director David Osit tackles the rise and fall of the popular television show To Catch a Predator in this documentary. The original series, hosted by Chris Hansen, was designed to literally catch abusers by staging fake meet-ups where unsuspecting child predators would be caught in the act and surprised by cameras, interviews and police. "We’re not used to watching reality television, documentaries or true crime television. We’re not used to watching this stuff with nuance and [engaging] with it in a way that requires contemplation,” Osit said. “But the raw footage had all this contemplation as a part of it, and I thought, What if I could create a film where you’d have to sit with both?”

The documentary film festival programs a highly selective list of 10 movies, which will be screened in Chicago through May 4.

04/24/2025

On Thursday, May 1, join award-winning filmmaker Rodney Ascher (director of ROOM 237, THE NIGHTMARE, and LYNCH/OZ) for his latest genre-defying film: GHOST BOY, based on Martin Pistorius’s bestselling memoir. It's the extraordinary story of Pistorius, who found himself suffering from locked-in syndrome as a child, unable to communicate with the outside world. Using vivid dream-like recreations of Martin’s past, the film effectively conveys his extraordinary journey back to the land of the living—an emotional roller coaster ride of heartbreak and triumph. Winner of a SXSW Audience Award, GHOST BOY is simply “a hell of a story” (RogerEbert.com). More info and tix at:
https://www.doc10.org/ghost-boy

04/22/2025

Doc10 2025 - Clint Worthington Block Club Chicago
In addition to “Move Ya Body” — a brisk, winsome guide to house music’s ties to Chicago and its Black q***r culture — other festival highlights this year include:
“Predators”: David Osit’s heart-pounding profile of the hit TV series “To Catch a Predator” probes deeply into the show’s ethics, its approach to dispensing justice for the sake of entertainment and the endless wave of YouTube copycats its left in its wake. A Q&A with Osit will follow.
“2000 Meters to Andriivka”: Mstyslav Chernov crawls through the trenches with platoons of Ukrainian soldiers as they fight breathlessly to take back a thin corridor of decimated forest, a boots-on-the-ground view of a bloody war that sees no signs of stopping. According to Kaufman, it’s “one of the best war films [he’s] ever seen.” Chernov will also be onstage for a Q&A.
Hege Wik and Odin appear in “Folktales.” Credit: Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo
“Folktales”: Those looking for less hard-hitting fare will find their heart warmed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s gentle doc about a group of Norwegian teenagers who spent their summer at a folk high school, learning Nordic myths, survival skills and dogsledding. A Q&A with Ewing will follow.
“Prime Minister”: The fest’s closing-night documentary is an unapologetic portrait of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jaceinda Ardern, who led her country through the COVID-19 pandemic and made headlines for her fearless resolve on the world stage. Ardern, alongside co-director Lindsay Utz, will be onstage..."

04/21/2025

Doc10 has its first sell-out! As part of our community screenings program Docs Across Chicago this weekend, our retrospective showing of GOING VARSITY AT MARIACHI at the National Museum of Mexican Art is now full. But you can always join the waitlist! We've got more free screenings starting this Friday night with WE WANT THE FUNK! And Doc10 officially kicks off next Wednesday night!
Tickets at doc10.org

04/21/2025

More relevant than ever, THE INFILTRATORS, the riveting, unbelievably true story of a group of activist Dreamers who slipped undercover into ICE detention centers, returns to Chicago on April 29, with Alex Rivera and Fred Tsao, from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
More info and tix at https://www.doc10.org/the-infiltrators

Chicago Media Project's documentary film festival Doc10 will be held May 2-5, 2024