New Haven Documentary Film Festival (also known as NHdocs) is an annual documentary film festival held in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, in early June. Screenings take place at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

’s Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium, the

New Haven Free Public Library The New Haven Free Public Library (also known as the NHFPL) is the public library system serving New Haven, Connecticut. The system began in 1887 in a leased location but quickly outgrew its space. The Ives Memorial Library is the main branch of ...

and at the rock club Cafe Nine. NHdocs is a regional festival that showcases documentaries by filmmakers from the greater New Haven area and beyond. NHdocs was launched in 2014 when the film festival’s co-founders

Charles Musser Charles John Musser (born 16 January 1951) is a film historian and documentary film maker. Since 1992 he has taught at Yale University, where he is currently a professor of Film and Media Studies as well as American Studies and Theater Studies. H ...

Gorman Bechard Gorman Bechard (born March 15, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter and novelist best known for his independent feature films ''Psychos in Love,'' ''Friends (With Benefits), Friends (with benefits),'' and ''You Are Alone''; his four r ...

, Jacob Bricca, and Lisa Molomot came together at the

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is an annual non-fiction film festival held in Missoula, Montana each February. The event showcases documentary films from around the world. The festival first began in 2003 as a seven-day event. It is now a ten- ...

and decided to create a documentary film festival in New Haven that would “build a sense of community among documentary filmmakers from the greater New Haven area.” In 2014, the four filmmakers each showed one of their recently completed documentaries, three of which had just played at the Big Sky. When Brica and Molomot left Connecticut to teach at

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

, Bechard and Musser assumed the role of co-directors and programmers for NHdocs. The 2015 festival displayed over 20 documentaries including "first looks" at two nearly completed: Richard Wormser's

NEH The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

funded ''American Reds; What Must We Dream Of?'' and Audrey Appleby's ''Tiny Miracles-Awakening Memory and Emotion in an Alzheimer’s World''. Brendan Toller's rock doc ''Danny Says'', about music industry executive

Danny Fields Danny Fields (born Daniel Feinberg; November 13, 1939) is an American music manager, publicist, journalist and author. As a music industry executive from the 1960s to the 1980s, he was one of the most influential figures in the history of punk r ...

, was moderated by Timothy Young of the

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts. Es ...

, which had recently acquired Fields' papers, and Gorman Bechard's animal welfare feature ''A Dog Named Gucci''. Many of the films look at New Haven in terms of its openness to immigrants, the history of the

New Haven Green The New Haven Green is a privately owned park and recreation area located in the downtown district of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. It comprises the central square of the nine-square settlement plan of the original Puritan colonists in New ...

, and efforts to combat homelessness. In 2016, the festival grew to 11 days, featuring over 40 films, including ''Midsummer in Newtown, The Champions'', and co-founder Bechard's own '' Who Is Lydia Loveless?'' Three Newtown/Sandy Hook-related shorts had their world premieres at the festival: Kim A. Snyder’s ''#WeAreAllNewtown, Notes from Dumblane'' and Sue Roman’s ''Team 26''. The festival also paid tribute to documentarian

Alex Gibney Philip Alexander Gibney (; born October 23, 1953) is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, ''Esquire'' magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time". Gibney's works as director include '' ...

, with a three-day retrospective: “Revealing Scams, Lies, Trickery and Deceit: The Documentaries of Alex Gibney.” screening 5 of his feature films. Gibney himself was present for Q&A sessions, and lead a panel on filmmaking. The Fourth Annual New Haven Documentary Film Festival ran June 1–11, 2017. The festival featured over 60 documentary features and shorts including ''I Am Shakespeare: the Henry Green Story'', ''Travel Light'', ''High School 9-1-1'', and ''The Lavender Scare''. The second weekend will conclude with a retrospective of work by D. A. Pennebaker and Chis Hegedus, including ''

Unlocking the Cage ''Unlocking the Cage'' is a 2016 American documentary film about the work of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) and lawyer Steven Wise's efforts to grant limited legal personhood rights to chimpanzees, whales, dolphins and elephants. It was direct ...

''. The 2018 version ran from May 31 – June 10, 2018 and featured tributes to Amy Berg (documentary filmmaker),

Su Friedrich Su Friedrich (born December 12, 1954) is an American avant-garde film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. Early life Su Friedrich was born in 1954 in New Haven, Connecticut. Her mother was German and came to the US with Friedric ...

, and HBO's

Sheila Nevins Sheila Nevins (born April 6, 1939) is an American television producer and head of MTV Documentary Films division of MTV Studios. Previously, Nevins was the President of HBO Documentary Films. She has produced over 1,000 documentary films for HB ...

. The festival opened with a standing-room-only presentation of a work-in-progress screening of co-director Bechard's ''Pizza, A Love Story,'' and included over 80 films such as co-director Musser's ''Our Family Album'', Allison Argo's ''The Last Pig'' (which won the audience award for best feature film), ''This is Home: A Refuge Story'' from director Alexandra Shiva and Joe Tropea's ''Sickies Making Films''. In the fall of 2018, NHdocs announced its fall screening series, which will reprise a number of festivals' most popular films. The festival kept expanding in 2019. The 6th edition running from May 30-June 9, honors America’s best-known documentarian,

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...

. The second weekend of the festival (June 7-9) will feature seven of his most notable works, including the 30th-anniversary screening of ''

Roger & Me ''Roger & Me'' is a 1989 American documentary film written, produced, directed by, and starring Michael Moore, in his directorial debut. Moore portrays the regional economic impact of General Motors CEO Roger Smith's action of closing several ...

Bowling for Columbine ''Bowling for Columbine'' is a 2002 documentary film written, produced, directed, and narrated by Michael Moore. The film explores what Moore suggests are the primary causes for the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 and other acts of gun ...

Where to Invade Next ''Where to Invade Next'' is a 2015 American documentary film written and directed by Michael Moore. The film, in the style of a Travel documentary, travelogue, has Moore spending time in countries such as Italy, France, Finland, Tunisia, Slovenia ...

Fahrenheit 9/11 ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' is a 2004 American documentary film directed, written by, and starring filmmaker, director, political commentator and activist Michael Moore. The film takes a liberal, critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the w ...

'' and ''

Fahrenheit 11/9 ''Fahrenheit 11/9'' is a 2018 American documentary by filmmaker Michael Moore about the 2016 United States presidential election and presidency of Donald Trump up to the time of the film's release. The film is a follow-up to Moore's '' Fahren ...

''. All the films will feature Moore joined in conversation by other award-winning documentary filmmakers, including

D.A. Pennebaker Donn Alan Pennebaker (; July 15, 1925 – August 1, 2019) was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of direct cinema. Performing arts and politics were his primary subjects. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sc ...

Chris Hegedus Chris Hegedus (born April 23, 1952) is an American documentary filmmaker. She and her husband, filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, founded the company Pennebaker Hegedus Films. Hegedus was nominated for an Academy Award for ''The War Room'', a behind-th ...

and Peter Davis. In all, NHdocs will screen over 100 documentaries at five venues. There will also be a student film competition, filmmaking workshops, awards, works-in-progress screenings, panels, and musical performances. In 2020, co-founder Musser departed NHdocs. Bechard became Executive Director, while Katherine Kowalczyk, the longtime festival manager, became Director. The 7th edition of the festival moved to August due to Covid-19, but still screened over 120 films online and in-person, and also included a student competition, a quarantine film challenge, workshops, Q&As, and a tribute to

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

with a screening of ''

My Darling Vivian ''My Darling Vivian'' is a 2020 American documentary film about Vivian Liberto, the first wife of Johnny Cash, directed by Matt Riddlehoover. The film premiered at the 2020 South by Southwest Film Festival, presented by Amazon Prime Video, on Ap ...

''. The festival also featured the World Premiere of ''Mister Wonderland'', screenings of Abby Ginsberg's ''Waging Change'',

's ''Seniors A Dogumentary'', and ''When Liberty Burns'' from Dudley Alexis. In its second Covid-ravaged year, and for its 8th edition, in 2021 NHdocs screened over 120 films online and in-person, and once again included a student competition, online workshops, Q&As, a screening of the film "From the Left Hand" with a performance by its subject Norman Malone, and a tribute to feminist filmmaker

Beth B Scott B and Beth B (also known as Scott and Beth B, Beth and Scott B or The Bs after B Movies) were among the best-known New York No Wave underground film makers of the late 1970s and early 1980s. They went on to form an independent film p ...

with a live performance by

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

References

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External links

NHdocs
in the

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

NHdocs
in Connecticut Magazine
NHdocs
on the Whitney Humanities Center website Documentary film festivals in the United States Culture of New Haven, Connecticut Documentary film organizations Film festivals in Connecticut