Introducing AFS’ first annual celebration of new non-fiction films and filmmakers, Doc Days, a long weekend festival of brand-new documentary films with visiting filmmakers from the US and abroad. In addition to screening new documentaries from the festival circuit, the weekend will include events, parties, discussions, and moderated Q&As by Austin’s documentary film community. Scheduled with no overlapping screenings, it’s possible to see every film selected for the festival.

About the films:

MINDING THE GAP – May 10, 8pm
Producer Diane Quon in attendance.
Bing Liu and his friends, young men growing up in the rustbelt, have experienced poverty and violence in their families. Liu picks up a camera to ostensibly to make skate videos with his crew, but instead follows them as their lives transition into adulthood, and makes universal revelations about American life and masculinity today. Winner of a breakthrough director award at the Sundance Film Festival.

OPUNTIA – May 11, 5pm
Director David Fenster in attendance.
Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca journeyed from Florida to Texas to Chihuahua in the 16th century, avoiding starvation through the discovery of the prickly pear fruit, and surviving disease due to his contact with various Native American groups who taught him the arts of shamanic healing. OPUNTIA director David Fenster uses a psychic medium to contact Cabeza de Vaca and tell his story, which heralds the age of Spanish colonization of the Americas.

DEVIL\’S FREEDOM – May 11, 8:30pm
With Producer Roberto Garza in attendance.
Director Everardo González draws out the harrowing stories of victims and the perpetrators of drug violence in his home country of Mexico through the use of masks, which shield his subjects so they can speak openly and directly to the camera.

OF FATHERS AND SONS – May 12, 1:30pm
Screening will feature a Skype Q&A with director Talal Derki.
A stunning observation of childhood inside an Islamist Caliphate. Director Talal Derki (RETURN TO HOMS) imbeds himself on the Iraqi-Syrian border to film the daily life a radical Islamist family. Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

THE SENTENCE – May 12, 4:30pm
Director Rudy Valdez in attendance.
Mexican-American filmmaker Rudy Valdez explores the hot-button political issue of mandatory minimum sentencing on the most intimate and personal plane possible: he picks up his camera when his beloved sister is served with a 15-year sentence. Valdez crafts an emotional saga about love, family, and the fight for justice.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ANDRE – May 12, 7pm
Director Kate Novak in attendance.
Before he became a staple on the global high fashion scene as the editor-at-large of Vogue Magazine, André Leon Talley was a working class African-American kid growing up in a segregated North Carolina town. Director Kate Novak takes a deep dive into André’s unique life story, and his strongly held beliefs about art, style and identity.

HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING – May 13, 2:30pm
An intimate, expressive story of two young African-American men in small-town Alabama in this first feature-length film from photographer RaMell Ross.