Austin Film Society Announces its Sixth Annual Doc Days Festival from May 1–4 at AFS Cinema, Spotlighting the Freshest Voices in Non-Fiction Filmmaking
March 27, AUSTIN, TX— The Austin Film Society announces the lineup for its sixth annual AFS Doc Days film festival, including 10 new non-fiction film screenings, many of which will feature appearances by the filmmakers. The festival will take place at AFS Cinema from May 1–4, and individual tickets will be on sale as well as full-festival passes. The 2025 AFS Doc Days festival will kick off with a reception on May 1 at 9:15 p.m. following this year’s Opening-Night Film Selection, Middletown, about a high school journalism club who uncovered an environmental scandal in their community, which will be attended by its Emmy and Sundance award-winning filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (dirs. Boys State, Girls State, The Overnighters).
A complete list of film screenings and descriptions can be found below and on the AFS website here or by visiting austinfilm.org.
This year’s lineup includes new works by veteran non-fiction filmmakers including Victor Kossakovsky (Gunda) with his latest immersive film, Architecton; Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk and Pedro Kos (Athlete A, The Island President) with an archival documentary about climate change policy, The White House Effect; Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (12th & Delaware) with their stand-out festival favorite from Sundance, Folktales and Sandi Dubowski’s NY Times Critic’s Pick, Sabbath Queen. The program also features the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning film Seeds about Black farmers and Black land ownership in the rural South by first-time feature director Brittany Shyne. Alexis Franco’s AFS Grant-supported documentary feature, Where the Trees Bear Meat, which follows a family of Argentine gauchos over a year on their remote ranch, will also have its Texas premiere at the festival.
AFS’s Doc Days festival is an opportunity for Austin’s filmmaking and film-loving community to celebrate and discuss the art of non-fiction filmmaking with up-and-coming and established documentarians. A number of films presented during previous AFS Doc Days festivals have gone on to receive major awards recognition, including Academy Award® nominations. Past AFS Doc Days films receiving Oscar® nominations include: Of Fathers and Sons (2017), Minding the Gap (2018), Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018), American Factory (2019), Flee (2021), The Eternal Memory (2023) and Sugarcane (2024). 2025 will mark the sixth edition of the annual festival of non-fiction cinema in Austin.
The Opening-Night Film Selection of this year’s AFS Doc Days program will be Middletown by filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (dirs. Boys State and Girls State), which will be followed by an in-person Q&A with the filmmakers and an opening-night reception open to ticketholders and full-festival pass holders.
The Centerpiece Screening for AFS Doc Days 2025 will be Folktales by the award-winning filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (12th & Delaware), which will feature a filmmaker Q&A with Rachel Grady.
The Closing-Night Film Selection for this year’s AFS Doc Days festival will be the NYT Critic’s Pick Sabbath Queen, which will feature a filmmaker Q&A with Sandi Simcha Dubowski.
Other films with filmmaker appearances include Been Here, Stay Here with director David Usui in person, Where the Trees Bear Meat with Alexis Franco in person, and Mistress Dispeller with filmmaker Elizabeth Lo who will participate in a virtual Q&A.
The AFS Doc Days film festival happens in conjunction with the AFS Doc Intensive, a multi-day, invitational workshop for early to mid-career Texas documentary feature filmmakers poised for career leaps. The program is designed to run concurrently with the festival to promote networking and community building among Intensive participants and the professionals participating in AFS Doc Days. The AFS Doc Intensive includes a variety of panels and mentorship meetings with established documentary filmmakers, works-in-progress screenings with group feedback sessions and community-building social engagements, all of which are instrumental in providing filmmakers with creative feedback, resources and momentum for their projects.
AFS Doc Days is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department.
The full AFS Doc Days lineup continues below, and a complete list of all film screenings is announced here and on our website at www.austinfilm.org. Individual ticket prices are on sale and full-festival passes are available at 15% off the full-ticket purchase price. The AFS Doc Days pass includes one ticket to each AFS Doc Days film screening and the opening-night reception. Additional discounts on tickets and full-festival passes are also available for AFS members.
AUSTIN FILM SOCIETY: AFS DOC DAYS 2025 FESTIVAL LINEUP
THURSDAY, MAY 1
Middletown
Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, USA, 2025, DCP, 113 min.
Travel back to the ‘90s and meet the students of Middletown High, led by their eccentric teacher Fred Isseks. Armed with nothing but curiosity, teenage rebellion, and their school’s AV gear, they unraveled a jaw-dropping environmental scandal involving toxic waste threatening their entire community. Three decades on, the award-winning filmmaking duo Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (BOYS STATE and GIRLS STATE) connect with the former teen activists to explore how their bold stand shaped their lives and why their revelations remain as relevant as ever. MIDDLETOWN is where “ERIN BROCKOVICH meets THE BREAKFAST CLUB” (Collider) — a powerful story about a time when growing up means stepping up. With filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss in attendance.
FRIDAY, MAY 2
An American Pastoral
Auberi Edler, France, 2024, DCP, 118 min.
A French filmmaker embeds themself in western Pennsylvania to understand the school board wars happening in American public schools, where conservative activists crusade against teachers and librarians for control of libraries and curriculum. AN AMERICAN PASTORAL reveals — from an outsider’s perspective — the depth, influence, and motivation of a powerful group of rural Christian nationalists and the educators and parents willing to challenge their increasing hostility toward academic freedom. Winner of the Grand Prize at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
Mistress Dispeller
Elizabeth Lo, China/USA, 2024, DCP, 94 min. In Mandarin and English with English subtitles.
Filmmaker Elizabeth Lo pulls back the sheets on the clandestine world of cheaters in her Venice Film Festival award-winning MISTRESS DISPELLER, where heartbreak ignites high-stakes intrigue. This gripping documentary follows a woman in China who enlists a professional to go undercover and confront her husband’s infidelity in a desperate bid to salvage their relationship and save their marriage. Nothing compares to the pulse-racing climax of this stunning exploration of adultery and redemption — except, perhaps, pangs of the heart. Featuring a virtual Q&A with filmmaker Elizabeth Lo.
SATURDAY, MAY 3
Where the Trees Bear Meat
Alexis Franco, Argentina/Spain/USA, 2024, DCP, 72 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.
In the rural Argentinian Pampas, a family of cattle-ranching gauchos battles an extended drought that may be the end of their livelihood. Alexis Franco, recipient of an AFS Grant for this film, creates a special visual poem about this little-seen culture enduring the devastating effects of climate change in its community. A selection of the prestigious Visions du Réel festival. With AFS-Grant supported filmmaker Alexis Franco in attendance.
Seeds
Brittany Shyne, USA, 2025, DCP, 123 min.
With expressive black and white photography, SEEDS captures the stories of modern Black farmers in the South in poetic vignettes, shot over a decade. Filmmaker Brittany Shyne captures intimate moments of daily life with her characters, including their deep connections to land and community and their struggles to make the economics of farming work in a system that is often stacked against them. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for Best Documentary Film, featuring a post-screening panel on the topic of Black land ownership and sustainable farming in Texas, in partnership with Black Leaders Collective.
Folktales
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, USA/Norway, DCP, 2025, 106 min. In English and Norwegian with English subtitles.
From award-winning filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (12TH & DELAWARE) comes a stunning coming-of-age story from the global North. Three Gen Z teenagers struggling with modern pressures enroll in Pasvik Folkehøgskole, a folk school that instructs young people in cultural heritage and traditional living in northern Scandinavia, including outdoor survival skills. Over the course of a year, Hege, Romain, and Bjorn Tore leave their screens behind to bond with their sled dogs and learn to rely on themselves and each other for their most basic needs. Ewing and Grady capture the beauty of this moment in time with three remarkable young people and the special school that changes the course of their lives. This AFS Doc Days 2025 Centerpiece Screening will have filmmaker Rachel Grady in attendance.
SUNDAY, MAY 4
Architecton
Victor Kossakovsky, Germany/France/USA, 2024, DCP, 99 min. In Italian and English with English subtitles.
The ultimate “show, don’t tell” documentary by master director Victor Kossakovsky (GUNDA). With immersive visuals and sound, Kossakovsky examines the man-made landscapes resulting from architectural development past and present, considering the beautiful and brilliant structures that have endured thousands of years alongside crumbling modern cities destroyed by war and neglect. A poetic challenge to humanity’s insatiable hunger for concrete.
Been Here, Stay Here
David Usui, USA, 2024, DCP, 86 min.
The tiny island of Tangier lies off the coast of Virginia in the Chesapeake Bay and is home to eighth- generation island crabbers and fishermen. This stunning ethnographic documentary spends a year among the islanders whose relative isolation has forged a singular culture among its tight-knit Christian community. As erosion from sea-level rise poses an existential threat, the town grapples with the inevitability of change and the challenge of integrating a new reality into their deeply held traditions and beliefs. With filmmaker David Usui in attendance.
The White House Effect
Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk and Pedro Kos, USA, 2024, DCP, 96 min.
In 1988, then Vice President George Bush Sr. declared that the country would soon experience “The White House effect” – an active presidential commitment to curbing the greenhouse effect if Bush himself were to be elected. With brilliant archival production, this documentary tracks political campaigns, media stories, environmental convenings, and internal memos from the federal government and oil companies to tell the story of how the US has dealt with climate change since the discovery of excess CO2 in the atmosphere. By allowing each historical moment to tell the story chronologically, the film offers profound insights into the United States’ failure and inaction — and the fight that has been there all along.
Sabbath Queen
Sandi Simcha DuBowski, USA, 2024, DCP, 105 min. In English, Hebrew, and Yiddish with English subtitles.
A festival favorite and NY Times Critic’s Pick, SABBATH QUEEN is a riveting personal story about daring to lead with courage and integrity and challenging essential aspects of identity to find one’s own truth. Amichai Lau-Lavie’s spiritual practice is grounded in Jewish mysticism, radical faeries, drag theater, and ancient scripture but is inseparable from his identity as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis. As his brother takes his seat in the family and follows in the footsteps of their father, one of the most powerful Orthodox rabbis in Israel, Amichai forges a different path in New York City, establishing an alternative place of worship called Lab/Shul. As Lau-Levie grows his spiritual practice and becomes an outspoken leader and voice for equality and peace, he confronts adversity from inside and outside his movement. With filmmaker Sandi Simcha Dubowski in attendance.
About Austin Film Society
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS is committed to racial equity and inclusion, with an objective to deliver programs that actively dismantle the structural racism, sexism and other bias in the screen industries. AFS supports filmmakers from all backgrounds towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. More at austinfilm.org.
