Created in 2015, Doc Stories was designed to celebrate non-fiction film. The annual event provides essential opportunities for collaboration, distills key industry trends, and showcases bold new films. Over the last decade, Doc Stories has become an essential festival for established and emerging filmmakers to debut new work during a busy fall season. As a result, luminaries such as Werner Herzog, Laura Poitras, Roger Ross Williams, Matthew Heineman, Lisa Cortés, Shaunak Sen, Victor Kossakovsky, Morgan Neville, Raoul Peck, Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, and Wim Wenders have all premiered work at SFFILM’s Doc Stories.
At a time when the documentary industry wrestles with seismic changes, this festival remains an essential space for interrogation and inspiration. Fittingly, the 2024 Anniversary program celebrates the origins of Doc Stories with a group of films that will challenge and delight audiences.
Thank you to all the participating filmmakers for bringing your art to SFFILM. We look forward to the next ten years of Doc Stories as we continue to honor the essential craft of documentaries.
—Jessie Fairbanks,
Director of Programming
