Chris Smith‘s “Devo” will open the ninth edition of Chicago’s Doc10 documentary movie competition on May 2.
The movie, which premiered at Sundance 2024, charts the lifetime of the art-movement-turned-band Devo from Akron, Ohio, via archival footage of the band and candid sit-down interviews with band members. Smith (“American Movie,” “Tiger King”) follows the band on their journey from Dadaist, Kent State radicals to unlikely icons of Nineteen Eighties MTV. Currently celebrating their 50 years of De-Evolution Tour, Devo band members will be part of Doc10 in a dwell, digital Q&A moderated by WXRT’s Marty Lennartz.
Doc10, a four-day fest working May 2-5, encompasses a number of 10 documentaries making their Chicago premieres together with a package deal of 10 prestigious documentary shorts. The fest is hosted by Chicago Media Project, an organization that has generated greater than $8.5 million in funding for documentary tasks. CMP has immediately supported over 150 movies together with “Icarus,” “Crip Camp” and most not too long ago “Gaucho, Gaucho,” “Eternal You” and “Union.”
In addition to “Devo” Doc10 will display screen: Lea Glob’s “Apalonia Apalonia,” Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine’s “Copa ’71,” Angela Patton and Natalie Rae’s “Daughters,” Lana Wilson’s “Look Into My Eyes,” Johan Grimonprez’s “Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat,” Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” Stephen Maing and Brett Story’s “Union,” plus Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber’s “War Game.”
The 2024 version of Doc10 kicked off on March 27 with an early competition preview screening of Amanda McBaine and Moss’ Apple Original docu “Girls State,” which premiered at Sundance in January.
The competition may even function a particular bonus screening of “Porcelain War,” about three Ukrainian artists who discover inspiration and sweetness as they defend their tradition and their nation in the course of the Russian invasion of their nation. Winner of this yr’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, the docu is a part of a Doc10’s Spotlight on Ukraine particular screening and dialogue.
Of the 11 docus heading to the competition this yr, 9 made their world premieres at Sundance 2024.
“There’s always a lot from Sundance represented just because of the nature of where we are in the calendar year,” explains Doc10 senior programmer Anthony Kaufman.
Glob’s “Apolonia Apolonia” premiered in 2022 at IDFA and was shortlisted for for an Oscar this yr. Although the movie has distribution by way of Grasshopper Film, it has not been proven at a theater in Chicago.
“I like a mix,” says Kaufman. “Both films that were highly acclaimed from the last year, but also those that people are going be also talking about at the end of the year.”
“War Game” will function the competition’s closing Night movie. A docu-thriller chronicling a “war game” simulation that occurred in 2023 with distinguished specialists role-playing elements in a state of affairs impressed by the Jan. 6 Capitol Riots, may even function a post-screening panel dialog that may embrace administrators Moss and Gerber along with movie topics Steve Bullock (former governor of Montana), Heidi Heitkamp (former Senator of North Dakota), retired Major General Linda Singh, and National Security knowledgeable Elizabeth Neumann.
“One of this year’s main themes is perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable forces, and a yearning to fight for one’s dignity and self-worth,” says Kaufman.
Doc10 co-founder Steve Cohen provides: “The wide range of themes in this year’s Doc10 lineup is what makes for truly great nonfiction cinema. Relive lost moments of sports history, delve
into the world of the extrasensory, explore the eccentricity of ‘Devo,’ be inspired by the story of Christopher Reeve. And of course, we end with a suspense-filled political thriller depicting just
what’s at stake in this critical election year.”
Of the 80 movies the fest has programmed since 2016, 26 have been shortlisted or nominated for an Academy Award. “Navalny,” a 2022 choice, was the third Doc10 movie to win the Oscar for finest documentary function, following “Summer of Soul” (2021) and “American Factory” (2020).
This yr’s competition will probably be offered at two Chicago venues, the Davis Theater and the Gene Siskel Film Center. All administrators are scheduled to attend the competition in-person or just about.
This yr’s Doc10 slate.
APOLONIA APOLONIA
Dir: Lea Glob
Producer: Sidsel Lønvig Siersted
116 minutes, 2023, Denmark, Poland
COPA ‘71
Dirs. Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine
90 min, 2023, United Kingdom
Producers: Victoria Gregory, Jannat Gargi, Anna Godas
Executive Producers: Serena and Venus Williams
DAUGHTERS
Dirs: Angela Patton, Natalie Rae
Producers: Lisa Mazzotta, Justin Benoliel, Mindy Goldberg, Sam Bisbee, Kathryn Everett, Laura Choi
Raycroft, James Cunningham
107 min, 2024, US
DEVO
Dir. Chris Smith
Producers: Chris Holmes, Anita Greenspan, Danny Gabai
95 min, 2024, US
GIRLS STATE
Directors/Producers: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss
96 min, 2024, US
LOOK INTO MY EYES
Dir. Lana Wilson
Producers: Kyle Martin, Lana Wilson
2023, 105 min, US
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT
Dir. Johan Grimonprez
Producers: Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety
150 min, 2024, Belgium, France
SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY
Dirs. Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui
Producers: Lizzie Gillett, Robert Ford, Ian Bonhôte
104 min, 2024, United Kingdom, USA
UNION
Directors: Stephen Maing and Brett Story
Producers: Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone
102 min, 2024, US
WAR GAME
Directors: Jesse Moss, Tony Gerber
Producers: Todd Lubin, Jesse Moss, Jack Turner, Mark Dicristofaro, Jessica Grimshaw, Nick Shumaker
94 min, 2023, US
SPOTLIGHT ON UKRAINE: SPECIAL SCREENING AND DISCUSSION
PORCELAIN WAR
Dirs. Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev
Producers: Aniela Sidorska, Paula Dupré Pesmen, Camilla Mazzaferro, Olivia Ahnemann
88 min, 2024, United States, Ukraine, Australia