For the second year in a row, I have the pleasure of doing Press for DC/DOX Documentary Film Festival in Washington DC. As a longtime documentary enthusiast, I am incredibly lucky to live in an area with a major film festival bringing filmmakers from around the world to showcase their artistry. The third annual DC/DOX festival will be held June 12-15, 2025 in Washington, DC. Passes are currently available at dcdoxfest.com.
As many of you know, I love curating and sharing events that spotlight Black history and culture. In that spirit, I’ve put together a dedicated list just for the DC/DOX Documentary Film Festival. Explore the highlights below! Once you click the you can read the full description along with information about the film director and documentary crew.
Danielle Scott: Ancestral Call
Danielle Scott, a legally blind Afro-Cuban, Polish-Jewish, and Asian mixed-media artist at the cusp of international fame, risks her own wellbeing by exposing herself to the intergenerational trauma of the Atlantic Slave Trade. She traces her ancestors’ lives for a greater purpose: creating art that exposes the wretched pain and intense beauty of the era, while guiding her audience through an experiential journey towards healing and hope.
Edge of Daybreak
In 1979, incarcerated musicians recorded an album of original R&B music in a Virginia maximum-security prison. They called themselves the Edge of Daybreak, and their songs about love, freedom, and destiny became a local sensation for a time. Decades later, DJs rediscovered this forgotten gem, and it was introduced to new audiences in the Oscar-winning film “Moonlight,” reuniting the surviving band members and offering eloquent proof that the irrepressible spirit of human creativity can soar beyond prison walls.
Hoops, Hopes & Dreams
The untold story about how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and an all-star team of civil rights activists took to basketball courts to connect with young voters, and how their strategy echoed in contemporary politics through President Obama’s historic campaign.
Hold Me Close
The unique power and complexity of the relationship between two Queer Black womxn, Corinne and Tiana, is explored as they navigate the cycles of life’s joys and challenges together in the home they share. Using audio they self-recorded daily over the course of a season, the film intimately captures their love through elegantly composed tableaus of domestic life, shot on Super 16mm film, paired with searingly personal documentary audio. It bears witness to the distinct nature of their bond.
Immutable
Students from the Washington Urban Debate League navigate the challenges of daily life while striving for excellence in competitive debate. Beginning at an annual summer debate camp during the final days of the COVID pandemic, the film follows a group of dedicated young debaters. They immerse themselves in research, critical thinking, teamwork, and performance, hoping these skills will not only help them win tournaments but also overcome the obstacles standing between them and their full potential.
I Was Born This Way
Surviving the oppression of racism and homophobia, and childhood trauma, Carl Bean found his voice through song as a gospel singer in the New York Gospel scene, and then through his 1974 album, Universal Love. But it was his singing of the 1977 disco hit “I Was Born This Way” that would earn him fame; the song was celebrated as the world’s first gay anthem.
Making Spaces: The Legend of Union Arts
A moving portrait of a creative sanctuary lost to gentrification. Centered on the now-vanished warehouse at 411 New York Avenue NE, the film revisits the final year of Union Arts DC—a vibrant hub that from 2012 to 2016 was home to visual artists, musicians, performers, and dreamers. Through archival footage, intimate interviews, and the voices of artists who worked and performed there, the documentary captures the spirit of a space where art thrived and community flourished—until developers arrived with plans for a boutique hotel. As tenants rallied to save their space, Making Spaces: The Legend of Union Arts becomes a powerful elegy for what was lost and a rallying cry for what’s still at stake in the future of DC’s cultural landscape.
SEEDS
Through lyrical black-and-white imagery, SEEDS offers an intimate and meditative portrait of Black generational farmers in the American South, where the fragility of legacy and the power of land ownership come into sharp focus. A sobering reality looms over these centennial farmers: while Black Americans once owned 16 million acres in 1910, today only a fraction remains. In a landscape where white farmers often access funding with ease, Black farmers continue to fight for survival and the right to pass down their land.
The People Could Fly
A poetic documentary about the history of Black gathering spaces in Louisville, KY, from the 1960s to the mid-2000s. This intimate portrait explores the ritual of roller skating and how roller rinks became sanctuaries for Black culture. Using a mix of archival footage, still photos, newly shot material, and newsreels, THE PEOPLE COULD FLY examines the history of a segregated Louisville and the magic its Black community created as an act of resistance.
The Shadow Scholars
Patricia Kingori is the youngest woman and Black professor in Oxfordʼs 925-year history. Captivated by the hidden, multi-billion-dollar ʻfake essayʼ industry, Patricia enters the world of the ‘shadow scholars’ – an estimated 40,000 highly-educated, underemployed Kenyans making ends meet by writing academic papers for global students.
Widow Champion
Widows in rural Kenya, cast out from their land and homes, are forced to live in destitution with their children, often seeking shelter in markets or beneath trees. In many communities, wives live on the same compound as their husband’s family. When a husband dies, cultural practices dictate that the widow must be inherited by one of his brothers to be ‘cleansed’ and remain within the family—despite the region’s high HIV rates. More and more women are rejecting this tradition, facing severe consequences for their defiance.
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