6th Annual New Haven Documentary Film Festival (2019)

NHdocs 2019, which runs for 11 days beginning on May 30, will feature over 100 documentaries screening at five venues across New Haven, along with a student film competition, filmmaking workshops, awards, works-in-progress screening, parties, film panels, musical performances, and a very special tribute to the one and only Michael Moore.

NHDocs events are NOT included in the Arts & Ideas Fast Pass. If you wish to guarantee your seat at an NHDocs screening or conversation, please purchase a pass through NHDocs >

Opening Night – Thursday, May 30th, at 7:00pm

The Connecticut Premiere of The Sweetest Land, from Central Connecticut State film professor Jeffrey B. Teitler. A documentary filmed in Hartford which investigates the real story of violence, prevention and politics, where complacency can no longer be an option.
Screening at Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium, 53 Wall Street, New Haven.

Friday, May 31st at 7:00pm

Black Beach, White Beach, from Ricky Kelly takes a look at how the community of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina views two national motorcycle festivals that happen a week apart in their town. One festival is primarily white, the other predominately black.
Screening at Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium, 53 Wall Street, New Haven.

Saturday, June 1st at 11:00am

A screening of The AeroPress Movie, a documentary about one of the most beloved yet misunderstood coffee machines of all time.  The screening is followed by a coffee tasting and AeroPress demonstration from Barry Levine of Willoughby's Coffee & Tea, recently named one of the 12 best coffee roasters in the U.S. by Forbes Magazine.
Screening at Whitney Humanities Center, room 208, 53 Wall Street, New Haven.

Saturday, June 1st at 6:30pm and 9:00pm

New England Brewing Company presents the World Premiere of director Gorman Bechard's Pizza, A Love Story.  Eleven years in the making, this documentary tells the rich and tasty history of the legendary holy trinity of pizza restaurants, New Haven's own Pepe's, Sally's, and Modern Apizza. 
Screening at Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium, 53 Wall Street, New Haven.

Sunday, June 2nd, at 1:00pm

Our Student Short Film Competition featuring a dozen films from student filmmakers from across Connecticut.
Screening at Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium, 53 Wall Street, New Haven.

Sunday, June 2nd, at 5:00pm

Compassion Fest presents The End of Meat, a groundbreaking documentary envisioning a future where meat consumption belongs to the past. Immediately following the screening there will be a panel on the virtues of veganism. There will also be vegan food trucks serving food in the courtyard beginning at 3:00pm.
Screening at Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium, 53 Wall Street, New Haven.

Sunday, June 2nd at 7:00pm

Direct from its world premiere at SXSW, Boy Howdy, the Creem Magazine Story, from director Scott Crawford.   The film explores Creem Magazine's humble beginnings in post-riot Detroit, and follows its upward trajectory from underground paper to national rock and roll powerhouse.  With live tribute performances following the screening.
Screening at Café Nine, 250 State Street, New Haven.

Tuesday, June 4th at 8:00pm

Waiting - The Van Duren Storya love letter to the musician that could have helped to define a generation, from directors Wade Jackson & Greg Garey.  Van Duren & Friends will perform live!
Screening at Café Nine, 250 State Street, New Haven.

Wednesday, June 5th, at 8:00pm

A 10th anniversary screening of Brendan Toller's I Need That Record, which examines why over 3000 independent record stores have closed across the U.S. in the past decade.
Screening at The District, 470 James Street, New Haven

Thursday, June 6th, at 6:00pm

The Ballad of Fred Hersch, an intimate portrait of one of today’s foremost jazz pianists, with a performance by the legendary pianist following the screening.
Screening at Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium, 53 Wall Street, New Haven.

Thursday, June 6th, at 9:00pm

Direct from its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, Rachel Mason's Circus of Books. What happens when your parents own the largest gay porn bookstore in Los Angeles? You make a documentary about them.
Screening at The State House, 310 State Street, New Haven.

NHDocs: Screening of Hearts and Minds (1974)

This film recounts the history and attitudes of the opposing sides of the Vietnam War using archival news footage as well as its own film and interviews. A key theme is how attitudes of American racism and self-righteous militarism helped create and prolong this bloody conflict. The film also endeavors to give voice to the Vietnamese people themselves as to how the war has affected them and their reasons why they fight the United States and other western powers while showing the basic humanity of the people that US propaganda tried to dismiss. Read more on IMDb here >

NHDocs: Screening of Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Following up on 'Bowling for Columbine', film-maker Michael Moore provides deep and though-provoking insights on the American security system, the level of paranoia, fear, uncertainty, false values and patriotism, which all combined together to set a stage for George W. Bush to launch a war on Iraq instead of focusing on getting the real culprit(s) behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This documentary also focuses on how some Saudis were safely and secretly flown out of America while planes were ostensibly grounded after the attacks. Archived film footage, candid interviews with politicians, and an overall waste of public funds for a war that was initiated on false pretension to wit: a weapon of mass distraction - to take the focus away from the real enemy and get Americans glued to their TV sets to watch innocent Iraqis and Afghans getting killed. And a war that would eventually alienate the U.S.A. and it's citizens from almost every country on Earth. Read more on IMDb here >

NHDocs: Roger and Me (1989)

followed by conversation with Moore, Pennebaker and Hegedus

A documentary about the closure of General Motors' plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith. Read more on IMDb here >

NHDocs: Bowling for Columbine (2002)

Followed by a conversation with Moore, Pennebaker, and Hegedus

The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by firearms for a developed nation without a civil war. With his signature sense of angry humor, activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of this bloodshed. In doing so, he learns that the conventional answers of easy availability of guns, violent national history, violent entertainment and even poverty are inadequate to explain this violence when other cultures share those same factors without the equivalent carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Michael Moore takes on a deeper examination of America's culture of fear, bigotry and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Furthermore, he seeks to investigate and confront the powerful elite political and corporate interests fanning this culture for their own unscrupulous gain. Read more on IMDb here >

NHDocs: Capitalism a Love Story (2009)

Capitalism: A Love Story examines the impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). The film moves from Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan. With both humor and outrage, the film explores the question: What is the price that America pays for its love of capitalism? Families pay the price with their jobs, their homes and their savings. Moore goes into the homes of ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down; and he goes looking for explanations in Washington, DC and elsewhere. What he finds are the all-too-familiar symptoms of a love affair gone astray: lies, abuse, betrayal...and 14,000 jobs being lost every day. Capitalism: A Love Story also presents what a more hopeful future could look like. Who are we and why do we behave the way that we do? Read more on IMDb here >

NHDocs: Late Night with Michael Moore: Sicko (2007)

Introduced by Michael Moore

Documentary look at health care in the United States as provided by profit-oriented health maintenance organizations (HMOs) compared to free, universal care in Canada, the U.K., and France. Moore contrasts U.S. media reports on Canadian care with the experiences of Canadians in hospitals and clinics there. He interviews patients and doctors in the U.K. about cost, quality, and salaries. He examines why Nixon promoted HMOs in 1971, and why the Clintons' reform effort failed in the 1990s. He talks to U.S. ex-pats in Paris about French services, and he takes three 9/11 clean-up volunteers, who developed respiratory problems, to Cuba for care. He asks of Americans, "Who are we?" Read more on IMDb here >

NHDocs: Where to Invade Next (2015)

To show what the USA can learn from rest of the world, director Michael Moore playfully visits various nations in Europe and Africa as a one-man "invader" to take their ideas and practices for America. Whether it is Italy with its generous vacation time allotments, France with its gourmet school lunches, Germany with its industrial policy, Norway and its prison system, Tunisia and its strongly progressive women's policy, or Iceland and its strong female presence in government and business among others, Michael Moore discovers there is much that Americans should emulate. Read more on IMDb here >

NHDocs: Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)

Filmmaker Michael Moore examines the current state of American politics, particularly the Donald Trump presidency and gun violence, while highlighting the power of grassroots democratic movements. Read more on IMDb here >

NHdocs: Award Ceremony

Audience award presentation and screening of the winner of the best feature and best short film.