Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2019 >> US Documentary Competition

Sundance Film Festival 2019

View other Sundance Film Festival Films by strand: Documentary Premieres, From The Collection, Kids, Midnight, New Frontier, Next, Premieres, Shorts, Spotlight, Sundance London, Sundance London - Triple Threat, US Dramatic Competition, World Cinema Documentary Competition, World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Jawline Jawline
Jawline and Knock Down The House
Always In Season (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Jacqueline Olive; Writer: Don Bernier, Jacqueline Olive)
When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother's search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African-Americans bleeds into the present.
World premiere
The Amazing Johnathan Documentary (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Ben Berman; Stars: Johnathan Szeles)
What begins as a documentary following the final tour of a dying magician -- "The Amazing Johnathan" -- becomes an unexpected and increasingly bizarre journey as the filmmaker struggles to separate truth from illusion.
World premiere
American Factory (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert)
In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring 2,000 blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.
Full Review
World premiere
Apollo 11 (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Todd Douglas Miller)
A purely archival reconstruction of humanity’s first trip to another world, featuring never-before-seen 70mm footage and never-before-heard audio from the mission.
Full Review
World premiere. Day One Film
Bedlam (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Kenneth Paul Rosenberg)
A psychiatrist makes rounds in ERs, jails, and homeless camps to tell the intimate stories behind one of the greatest social crises of our time. A personal and intense journey into the world of the seriously mentally ill.
World premiere
One Child Nation One Child Nation
One Child Nation and Moonlight Sonata: Deafness In Three Movements
David Crosby: Remember My Name (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: AJ Eaton; Stars: David Crosby)
Portrait of the musician, who has everything but an easy retirement on his mind. With unflinching honesty, self-examination, regret, fear, exuberance and an unshakable belief in family and the transformative nature of music, Crosby shares his often challenging journey.
World premiere
Hail Satan? (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Penny Lane; Stars: Jex Blackmore, Nicholas Crowe, Lucien Greaves)
A look at the intersection of religion and activism, tracing the rise of The Satanic Temple: only six years old and already one of the most controversial religious movements in American history. The Temple is calling for a Satanic revolution to save the nation’s soul. But are they for real?
Full Review
World premiere
Jawline (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Liza Mandelup)
The film follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester, a rising star in the live-broadcast ecosystem who built his following on wide-eyed optimism and teen girl lust, as he tries to escape a dead-end life in rural Tennessee.
Full Review
World premiere
Knock Down The House (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Rachel Lears; Stars: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Joe Crowley, Paula Jean Swearengin, Amy Vilela, Isra Allison, Zoltan Boka, Saikat Chakrabarti, Jozette Figueredo, Shalynne Figueredo, Jo-Ann Floyd-Whitehead, Darryl Gray, John Iadarola, Keenan Korth, Joe Manchin III)
Four young Democratic candidates take on established incumbents in the US 2018 election.
Full Review
World premiere
Midnight Family (Country: Mexico, US; Year: 2019; Director: Luke Lorentzen; Writer: Luke Lorentzen)
In Mexico City's wealthiest neighborhoods, the Ochoa family runs a for-profit ambulance, competing with other unlicensed EMTs for patients in need of urgent care. In this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from compromising the people in their care.
Full Review
World premiere
Hail Satan? Hail Satan?
Hail Satan? and Tigerland
Mike Wallace Is Here (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Avi Belkin)
For over half a century, 60 Minutes’ fearsome newsman Mike Wallace went head-to-head with the world’s most influential figures. Relying exclusively on archival footage, the film interrogates the interrogator, tracking Mike’s storied career and troubled personal life while unpacking how broadcast journalism evolved to today’s precarious tipping point.
World premiere
Moonlight Sonata: Deafness In Three Movements (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky)
A deeply personal memoir about a deaf boy growing up, his deaf grandfather growing old, and Beethoven the year he was blindsided by deafness and wrote his iconic sonata. Their lives weave a story about what we discover when we push beyond loss.
Full Review
World premiere
One Child Nation (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Jialing Zhang and Nanfu Wang)
After becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China’s one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.
Full Review
World premiere
Pahokee (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Patrick Bresnan, Ivete Lucas)
In a small agricultural town in the Florida Everglades, hopes for the future are concentrated on the youth. Four teens face heartbreak and celebrate in the rituals of an extraordinary senior year.
World premiere
Tigerland (Taken By The Tiger) (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Ross Kauffman; Writer: Ross Kauffman)
Fifty years ago, a young forest officer in India rallied the world to save tigers from extinction. Today, the creed is carried on in Far East Russia by the guardians of the last Siberian tigers, who risk everything to save the species.
Full Review
World premiere
American Factory American Factory
American Factory and Apollo 11
Where's My Roy Cohn? (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Matt Tyrnauer)
Roy Cohn personified the dark arts of American politics, turning empty vessels into dangerous demagogues - from Joseph McCarthy to his final project, Donald J Trump. This thriller-like exposé connects the dots, revealing how a deeply troubled master manipulator shaped our current American nightmare.
World premiere
News

59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground

More news and features

Playing Now
Festival Image

Eye For Film continues to support festivals both locally and across the world. At the moment, we're covering:

Abertoir

DOC NYC
New York's celebration of factual film

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
One of the largest film gatherings in northern Europe

French Film Festival
The UK's longest running celebration of Francophone cinema

London Korean Film Festival

In the Archive
Competition Picture


Archive of festival coverage.

Daily diary and reviews from 2005-2018.

Coverage of the lynchpin German festival.