Elevating Documentary Film
Doc Stories is a highlight of San Francisco’s unparalleled non-fiction film community, celebrating documentary film as an essential art form. The program showcases critical debuts and discovery titles, as we deepen our collective understanding of the real-life events, and engage with global perspectives. Sign up for our newsletter to get SFFILM Doc Stories Updates. The 2026 edition will take place from November 5–8, 2026.
Connecting Audiences
Over four days, expertly curated by SFFILM’s Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks and team, Doc Stories audiences are treated to early, exclusive screenings, captivating shorts, probing conversations, and inspiring Q&As with filmmakers from around the world. Scroll down for past programs.
The Path Ahead
Doc Stories sets the stage for critical recognition, having featured more than 20 international and Academy Award winners and contenders. The annual gathering is a catalyst for the future of documentary filmmaking.
SFFILM’S DOC STORIES HAS ESTABLISHED ITSELF AS ONE OF THE PREMIERE DOCUMENTARY FESTIVALS IN NORTH AMERICA, PERFECTLY TIMED ON THE CALENDAR TO SHOWCASE WORK WITH OSCAR AMBITIONS.
— Matthew Carey, Deadline
Doc Stories Over the Years
11th Doc Stories
2025
The Eleventh Annual documentary showcase ran Nov 6—9, 2025 in San Francisco. Special guests included film subjects from the Opening Night film Cover-Up, the journalist Seymour Hersh, and the Closing Night Film, A Life Illuminated, marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder, and many more.
- My Mom Jayne (2025) | Mariska Hargitay
- Cover-Up (2025) | Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs
- Newport & The Great Folk Dream (2025) | Robert Gordon
- The Eyes of Ghana + In My Day | Ben Proudfoot, Iga Lis
- Teen Workshop: Documentary Filmmaking and Creating Understanding
- Powwow People (2025) | Sky Hopinka
- The Tale of Silyan + S the Wolf | Tamara Kotevska, Sameh Alaa
- The Bend in the River + Divers | Robb Moss, Georgie Wood
- Shorts Block: Spaces of Resistance
- Ask E. Jean (2025) | Ivy Meeropol
- Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (2025) | Sepideh Farsi
- A Life Illuminated (2025) | Tasha Van Zandt
10th Doc Stories
2024
The Tenth Annual documentary showcase ran Oct 17—20, 2024 in San Francisco. SFFILM welcomed new and returning filmmakers including Kevin Macdonald, Robinson Devor, Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra, Elizabeth Lo, Ben Proudfoot, Brett Story and Stephen Maing, Amy Berg, and Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, and Jon Shenk and many more.
- Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015) | Amy Berg
- One to One: John & Yoko (2024) | Kevin Macdonald
- Live Talk: Building Solutions with Audience Demographics
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs
- Mistress Dispeller (2025) | Elizabeth Lo
- Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (2024) | Raoul Peck
- Documentary Filmmaking & Activism Workshop for Teens
- Union (2023) | Brett Story, Stephen Maing
- Live Talk: A Call to Action: Non-Fiction Leaders in Dialogue
- No Other Land (2024) | Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
- The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024) | Benjamin Ree
- Architecton (2024) | Victor Kossakovsky
- Shorts Block: The Persistence of Dreams
- The White House Effect (2024) | Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk
- Suburban Fury (2024) | Robinson Devor
9th Doc Stories
2023
The Ninth Annual documentary showcase ran November 2–5, 2023 in San Francisco and online. The year’s lineup featured filmmakers including Lisa Cortés, Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss, Kaouther Ben Hania, Roger Ross Williams, dream hampton, and many more.
- American Symphony (2023) | Matthew Heineman
- Anselm (2023) | Wim Wenders
- Copa 71 (2023) | Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine
- Four Daughters (2023) | Kaouther Ben Hania
- Little Richard: I Am Everything (2023) | Lisa Cortés
- The Mission (2023) | Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine
- Richland (2023) | Irene Lusztig
- Shorts Block: Ideology vs. Identity (2022/2023)
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs (2022/2023)
- Sorry/Not Sorry (2023) | Caroline Suh, Cara Mones
- Stamped from the Beginning (2023) | Roger Ross Williams
- Story & Pictures By (2023) | Joanna Rudnick
- A Tribute to Julia Reichert: A Woman’s Work
8th Doc Stories
2022
The Eighth Annual Doc Stories film series, in-person and streaming online, ran November 3–8, 2022. Films included the World Premiere of Jerry Brown: The Disrupter, Laura Poitras’s Golden Lion Winner All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, and “Sr.”, produced by Robert Downey, Jr.
- All That Breathes (2022) | Shaunak Sen
- All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) | Laura Poitras
- In Her Hands (2022) | Tamana Ayazi, Marcel Mettelsiefen
- Jerry Brown: The Disputer (2022) | Marina Zenovish
- Lakota Nation vs. United States (2022) | Jesse Short Bull, Laura Tomaselli
- Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues (2022) | Sacha Jenkins
- Mickey: The Story of a Mouse (2022) | Jeff Malmberg
- Shorts Block: Human Exposure (2022)
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs (2022)
- Sansón and Me (2022) | Rodrigo Reyes
- “Sr.” (2022) | Chris Smith
7th Doc Stories
2021
The 7th Annual Doc Stories Documentary Series opened with Stanley Nelson’s Attica, and featured a Castro screening of Summer of Soul with Director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson in attendance, plus several West Coast Premieres Including The First Wave, Burning, and Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over.
- Ascension (2021) | Jessica Kingdon
- Attica (2021) | Stanley Nelson
- Burning (2021) | Eva Orner
- Cusp (2021) | Parker Hill, Isabel Bethencourt
- Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over (2021) | Dave Wooley, David Heilbroner
- The First Wave (2021) | Matthew Heineman
- Flee (2020) | Jonas Poher Rasmussen
- Julia (2021) | Betsy West, Julie Cohen
- Lead Me Home (2020) | Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs (2020/2021)
- Simple as Water (2021) | Megan Mylan
- Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021) | Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
- Online Talk: Finding Home: Seeking Remedies for a National Crisis
- Online Talk: How Many Storytellers Does it Take?
- Online Talk: Searching for Truth: Authorship in Documentary Cinema
- Online Talk: Storytelling in a Synthetic World
6th Doc Stories
2020
The 6th Annual Doc Stories was a four-day online series featuring seven documentary features and two shorts programs, all with live q&as, plus four live talks with leaders in the field.
- Coded Bias (2020) | Shalini Kantayya
- Doing the Work: Documentary Shorts (2019/2020)
- 40 Years a Prisoner (2020) | Tommy Oliver
- Gunda (2020) Victor Kossakovsky
- MLK/FBI (2020) | Sam Pollard
- Notturno (2020) | Gianfranco Rosi
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs (2019/2020)
- Stray (2020) | Elizabeth Lo
- Through the Night (2020) | Loira Limbal
- Live Talk: Beyond the Headlines: Investigative Journalism in Documentary Filmmaking
- Live Talk: Keynote Address: Carrie Lozano
- Live Talk: Portraits of People and Places: The Filmmaker-Subject Relationship
- Live Talk: State of the Union: Political Documentaries in 2020
5th Doc Stories
2019
The 5th Annual Doc Stories featured brand-new films alongside in-depth discussions with filmmaker guests in person, illuminating the topics of the non-fiction films that came to define the end-of-year awards conversation. Additionally, SFFILM paid tribute to two legendary documentarians, Julia Reichert and Martin Scorsese. Scorsese also took the stage for an in-depth conversation exploring his storied career and interest in non-fiction filmmaking.
- The Apollo (2019) | Roger Ross Williams
- Cunningham (2019) | Alla Kovgan
- Doc Shorts 1: Childhood Heroes
- Doc Shorts 2: Into the Inferno
- Growing Up Female: A Tribute to Julia Reichert
- The Kingmaker (2019) | Lauren Greenfield
- Oliver Sacks: His Own Life (2019) | Ric Burns
- Shooting the Mafia (2019) | Kim Longinotto
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs (2018/2019)
- A Tribute to the Non-Fiction Filmmaking of Martin Scorsese
4th Doc Stories
2018
The 4th Annual Doc Stories highlighted the depth, versatility, and power of the non-fiction form, including feature-length works, short films, conversations around key issues facing doc makers, and episodic content.
- Doc Shorts
- Doc Star Keynote Conversation: Lisa Nishimura
- Filmmakers in Conversation
- 5B (2018) | Dan Krauss
- General Magic (2018) | Sarah Kerruish, Matt Maude
- Ghost Fleet (2018) | Shannon Service, Jeffrey Waldron
- Giving Birth in America: California (2018) | Clancy McCarty
- Of Fathers and Sons (2018) | Talal Derki
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs (2017/2018)
- They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (2018) | Morgan Neville
- The Truth About Killer Robots (2018) | Maxim Pozdorovkin
- United Skates (2018) | Tina Brown, Dyana Winkler
3rd Doc Stories
2017
The 3rd Annual Doc Stories lineup featured brand-new films, alongside in-depth discussions with filmmaker guests in person, often in conversation with local thought leaders to illuminate the topics of the nonfiction films that came to define the upcoming awards season. This year’s edition included feature-length works, short films, new media presentations, conversations around key issues facing doc makers, and episodic content with the Opening Night presentation of the first part of Alex Gibney’s New HBO Documentary film Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge.
- Arthur Miller: Writer (2017) | Rebecca Miller
- Baltimore Rising (2017) | Sonja Sohn
- Cuba and the Cameraman (2017) | Jon Alpert
- Filmmakers in Conversation: Non-Fiction Filmmaking in the Age of Trump
- Filmworker (2017) | Tony Zierra
- The Final Year (2017) | Greg Barker
- Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (2017) | Chris Smith
- Love Means Zero ( 2017) | Jason Kohn
- Ordinary Heroes: Documentary Shorts
- Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge Part 1 (2017) | Alex Gibney, Blair Foster
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs (2016/2017)
- Voyeur (2017) | Myles Kane, Josh Koury
- VR Day @ Doc Stories
2nd Doc Stories
2016
The 2nd Annual Doc Stories lineup featured brand-new films, alongside in-depth conversations with the makers of the documentaries that have electrified the festival circuit throughout 2016. Nearly every screening included filmmakers and special guests to illuminate the subjects of the films and the processes behind their creation.
- All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception and the Spirit of I.F. Stone (2016) | Fred Peabody
- Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2016) | Alexis Bloom, Fisher Stevens
- A Conversation with Ezra Edelman
- Field of Vision
- Filmmakers in Conversation: The Filmmaker-Subject Relationship
- Fire at Sea (2016) | Gianfranco Rosi
- I Am Not Your Negro (2016) | Raoul Peck
- Into the Inferno (2016) | Werner Herzog
- Marathon: The Patriot’s Day Bombing (2016) | Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs (2015/2016)
- 13TH (2016) | Ava DuVernay
- Vanishing Worlds: Documentary Shorts
- VR Day @ Doc Stories
Inaugural Doc Stories
2015
The Inaugural Doc Stories lineup featured brand-new films alongside smash hits from the festival circuit deserving a fresh turn on the big screen, and nearly every screening included filmmakers and special guests to illuminate the subjects of the films and the processes behind their creation.
- Cartel Land (2015) | Matthew Heineman
- A Conversation with Davis Guggenheim
- Field of Vision
- Heart of a Dog (2015) | Laurie Anderson
- Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015) | Kent Jones
- Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015) | Amy Berg
- Profiles in Courage: Short Documentaries from HBO
- Shorts Block: New York Times Op-Docs (2014/2015)
- Song of Lahore (2015) | Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Andy Schocken
- Thank You for Playing (2015) | David Osit, Malika Zouhali-Worrall
- What Happened, Miss Simone? (2014) | Liz Garbus
- Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (2015) | Evgeny Afineevsky
About SFFILM
Transforming the world through the creativity and inspiration of film.
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM connects and inspires audiences, students and teachers, and filmmakers through our film exhibition, youth education, and artist development programs.
See some of the team at SFFILM below.
Programmers
Director of Programming, SFFILM
Jessie Fairbanks
Associate Director of Programming, SFFILM
Rod Armstrong
Programmer & Curations Manager, SFFILM
Jordan Klein
