Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2017 >> US Documentary Competition
16 films will compete in this section.
View other Sundance Film Festival Films by strand: Documentary Premieres, Kids, Midnight, NEXT, Premieres, Spotlight, Sundance London: Features, Sundance London: Redford Recommends, Sundance London: Shorts, US Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition, World Documentary Competition
Dolores and Unrest
Casting JonBenet
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Kitty Green)
World premiere
The unsolved death of six-year-old American beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey remains the world’s most sensational child murder case. Over 15 months, responses, reflections and performances were elicited from the Ramsey’s Colorado hometown community, creating a bold work of art from the collective memories and mythologies the crime inspired.
Chasing Coral
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Jeff Orlowski)
World premiere. New Climate
Coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. A team of divers, photographers and scientists set out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why and to reveal the underwater mystery to the world.
City Of Ghosts
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Matthew Heineman)
The citizen journalists risking their lives to report on atrocities within in Syria.
World premiere
Dina
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini)
An unconventional love story.
World premiere
Dolores
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Peter Bratt; Stars: Dolores Huerta)
A documentary portrait of the woman who started America's first farm worker's union and fought for economic, racial and gender justice.
World premiere
Strong Island and Icarus
The Force
(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Peter Nicks; Writer: Linda Davis, Lawrence Lerew, Peter Nicks)
World premiere
This cinema verité look at the long-troubled Oakland Police Department goes deep inside their struggles to confront federal demands for reform, a popular uprising following events in Ferguson and an explosive scandal. World premiere
Icarus
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Bryan Fogel)
A documentarian investigating doping in cycling accidentally uncovers an international Olympic scandal.
World premiere
The New Radical
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Adam Bhala Lough)
World premiere
Uncompromising millennial radicals from the US and the UK attack the system through dangerous technological means, which evolves into a high-stakes game with world authorities in the midst of a dramatically changing political landscape.
Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker And Trials Of A Free Press
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Brian Knappenberger)
World premiere
The trial between Hulk Hogan and Gawker Media pitted privacy rights against freedom of the press, and raised important questions about how big money can silence media. This film is an examination of the perils and duties of the free press in an age of inequality.
Quest
(Country: US; Year: 2016; Director: Jonathan Olshefski)
Intimate portrait of a North Philadelphia family.
World premiere
Dina and Quest
Step
(Year: 2016; Director: Amanda Lipitz)
World premiere
The senior year of a girls’ high school step team in inner-city Baltimore is documented, as they try to become the first in their families to attend college. The girls strive to make their dancing a success against the backdrop of social unrest in their troubled city.
Strong Island
(Country: US, Denmark; Year: 2017; Director: Yance Ford)
The filmmaker investigates the shooting of his brother.
World premiere
Trophy
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Shaul Schwarz, Christina Clusiau)
World premiere. New Climate
This in-depth look into the powerhouse industries of big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation in the US and Africa unravels the complex consequences of treating animals as commodities.
Unrest
(Country: US, UK, Canada; Year: 2017; Director: Jennifer Brea; Writer: Jennifer Brea; Stars: Jennifer Brea, Omar Wasow, Jessica Taylor, Samuel Bearman, Ruby Taylor, Colin Taylor, Kate Taylor, Paul Cheney, Lee-Ray Denton, Casie Jackson, Darwin Jackson, Randy Denton, Jessica Harden, Annabel Jackson, Sawyer Jackson), Official Site, Trailer
Filmmaker documents her own experience - and that of others - with ME.
World premiere
Water & Power: A California Heist
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Marina Zenovich)
World premiere. New Climate
In California's convoluted water system, notorious water barons find ways to structure a state-engineered system to their own advantage. This examination into their centres of power shows small farmers and everyday citizens facing drought and a new, debilitating groundwater crisis.
City Of Ghosts and Step
Whose Streets?
(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Sabaah Jordan)
World premiere. Day One film
A nonfiction account of the Ferguson uprising told by the people who lived it, this is an unflinching look at how the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown inspired a community to fight back — and sparked a global movement.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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