Billie Jean King, Questlove and more: This year’s notable documentaries at the DC/DOX Film Festival

California may have Hollywood, and New York may have, well, New York City, but the nation’s capital has … Docuwood! This term is a nod to how , and from June 11 to 14, that notoriety comes to a head with the .

While only in its fourth year, DC/DOX has grown into a major international film festival dedicated solely to documentary film.

This year, over 64 features and 49 shorts from 32 countries will screen across several marquee venues around the District, with nine world premieres, three North American premieres, five U.S. premieres, as well as numerous East Coast and D.C. premieres in store. Several of these screenings are accompanied by filmmaker Q&A’s and discussions.

The film festival has grown to be not simply a local film festival but a highly respected showcase of high-caliber films, as well as a gathering place for filmmakers, journalists, policymakers and other engaged audiences. It’s also become a gathering ground for filmmakers and other industry leaders, thanks to the , which features panels, workshops and master classes.

Sky Sitney, the co-founder and festival director of DC/DOX, told 鶹 that five films that were nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary category had previously screened at DC/DOX, as well as two of the shorts.

“I think that the broader documentary community and media community see DC/DOX as a really trusted platform to showcase the most important work that’s out there in a given year,” said Sitney.

Sitney has been a major player in the city’s documentary film scene. She cocreated and co-directed Double Exposure, a film festival and symposium dedicated to the intersection of documentary film and investigative journalism.

She is also the former festival director of AFI Docs (previously known as Silverdocs), and she currently serves as an associate professor at Georgetown University in the film program.

On the DC/DOX Festival, she said, “My hope is that people come away from the festival with an expanded worldview and a sense of the ways in which we’re all part of a shared community, rather than fighting one another and different — and to more than anything, develop compassion and empathy, for people and experiences that might go beyond one’s own personal set of experiences.”

Some of this year’s films include the opening night’s screening of which is focused on global icon Billie Jean King, who will attend the post-screening discussion along with the filmmakers.

Other notable highlights include “,” about a drag and queer theater company’s debut production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” set in a small town in Wyoming. There is also which is about the theft of a number of magic tricks that went on the black market. A biopic on the GRAMMY-award-winning band is also planned to screen at the festival with a post-screening discussion with the film’s director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, among others.

Michelle Goldchain

Michelle Goldchain’s reporting has focused primarily on the D.C. area, previously working as Editor of Curbed DC for Vox Media and Audience Growth & Engagement Editor for Washington City Paper. She is the author of “D.C. by Metro: A History & Guide.” She also reports for 'Artsplained' on YouTube.

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