NHDocs Celebrates Tenth Anniversary

Black Barbie, and how that doll came to be. A queer Russian artist who protests the government in costumes made from junk and tape. A dive into the world of legendary jazz drummer Max Roach. Another look at music legend and New Haven native Karen Carpenter. 

All of these subjects and more are featured in movies to be screened as part of the New Haven Documentary Film Festival, or NHDocs, which observes its 10th anniversary this year. The annual nonfiction film fest will screen over 100 movies in various locations across New Haven and Hamden, from Oct. 12 to Oct. 22.

As in previous years, the defining feature of the film festival is the wide-ranging eclecticism in its selections. Executive director and lead programmer Gorman Bechard pointed to several documentaries that take on tough, important subjects, such as At Your Cervix, ​“the first documentary to expose the little-known practice of the non-consensual use of patients as practice dummies by the American medical education system,” as NHDocs’s website states. ​“In an era when conversations about both consent and reproductive justice are paramount, it shines a light on the use of anesthetized or unconscious patients by medical students to practice pelvic examinations without the knowledge or consent of those patients.”

A Belgian film, The Illusion of Abundance, tells the story of three Latina women, ​“Carolina, Bertha and Maxima are leading today’s fight against modern conquistadors. Whereas governments and corporations, trapped in a global race towards unlimited growth, need to get the cheapest raw materials, these three women tell us a story of tireless courage: how to keep fighting to protect nature when your life is at risk? When police repression, corporate harassment, injuries or even death threats are part of your daily routine?”

And 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture ​“is a feature documentary that follows the story of tireless researchers who trace the origins of the anti-gay movement among Christians to a grave mistranslation of the Bible in 1946. It chronicles the discovery of never-before-seen archives at Yale University which unveil astonishing new revelations, and casts significant doubt on any biblical basis for LGBTQIA+ prejudice.” 

Other films take a lighter approach to investigating their subjects, like Disconnect Me, which ​“examines the ever-pervasive role of technology in our lives.” The filmmaker, Alex Lykos, ​“disconnects from his smartphone, indeed all of his devices, for a full 30 days. How will he and those around him react? What will be the effects on his life? Specifically made for the cinema, Disconnect Me is a fresh interactive film which encourages audiences to engage with the film in real time using their smartphones. Along the way, Alex investigates the social impacts of the smartphone and social media, interviewing children, teenagers and adults.”

Similarly, in That Time I Got Social Media, ​“a social media newcomer discovers the power and pitfalls of online life raising important questions about identity, connection, and her own past.… What started as a simple experiment to document getting social media for the first time as a ​‘behind-the-times’ 30-year-old soon enough became the start of a six-years-in-the-making documentary short.”

And The Age of Love ​“follows the playful and poignant adventures of 30 seniors who attend a first-of-its-kind speed dating event for 70- to 90-year-olds, and discover how the search for love changes — or doesn’t change — from first love to the far reaches of life.”

As Bechard reiterated in taking about the festival’s lineup this year, ​“there’s something for everybody.”

In continuing to grow and develop, NHDocs has seen a few changes since last year, the biggest of which is that the organization was incorporated this spring as a nonprofit. 

“There are so many grants available to organizations like ours,” Bechard said, especially given the festival’s longtime focus on trying to keep the festival affordable and diverse. ​“We’re offering documentaries you can’t see anywhere else.” Bechard hopes that finding grants will enable NHDocs to provide travel expenses for more filmmakers to attend the festival for Q&As after the screenings of their films. Additional funds would also support the festival’s student competitions, including one sponsored by the CT Vegan Center.

Another change is one in venues, which has led to the festival screening films in a wider variety of venues in and around New Haven. Last year, NHDocs held screenings at Criterion Cinema, which will be closing after Oct. 12, and at the State House, which closed in the spring. ​“This year we have 10 venues,” Bechard said, ranging from stalwarts like the New Haven Free Public Library, New Haven Museum, Best Video, and Cafe Nine to new venues like Witch Bitch Thrift, Gather, St. Paul and St. James Episcopal Church, and the Cannon. The new spots were brought into the fold as Gorman and Kristine Bechard reached out to places they were customers of, or had heard good things about.

“I asked and they said yes,” Bechard said. Always ask, he added; ​“the worst thing they can say is no.”

Within the public library system, NHDocs is this year holding screenings at both the Ives Branch downtown, which has been screening NHDocs films for years, and Stetson Branch, which is new this year. ​“I want to expand more into the community,” Bechard said, and Stetson branch manager ​“Diane Brown is freaking great.”

“The library has been amazing” generally, he added, and it has helped them keep ticket prices at ​“pay what you can.”

As he has made the rounds looking for films to screen this year, Bechard has noticed a few trends. He’s seen an uptick in documentaries about the Holocaust; ​“I think that has to do with Holocaust deniers,” he said. In music documentaries, there has been a rise in films about jazz. There aren’t a lot of ​“light, fun films” out there, but Bechard has found some to include in the festival.

As a champion of feature-length films, he notes the spread of documentary series on streaming services and sometimes wonders ​“if it’s starting to hurt documentaries, because it’s dumbing things down.” Some series, comprised of six hour-long parts, perhaps ​“should have been a 90-minute film.”

But the state of documentaries, from where Bechard is standing, remains strong, and the deep roster of films in the festival this year reflects that. Young filmmakers know how to keep budgets low, hit the festival circuit, and find distributors. For Bechard’s part, one facet of finding films for NHDocs is to ​“raid Sundance. I raid Tribeca. I raid Hot Docs.”

And in putting NHDocs together, he hews to the faith that people still want to gather to watch films together and talk about them. If last year still felt like a rebuilding year from the pandemic and its shutdown, this year ​“I already can tell from the ticket sales that it’s probably going to be a better year,” Bechard said.

“If you’re intimidated by other festivals because you feel they’re not for you, for whatever reason, this is a very diverse, affordable, fun, festival,” Bechard said. ​“Look through the schedule and you’ll find something you like. You’ll find something that will make you laugh, will educate you, will turn you on, will make you tap your feet. There’s just something for everybody here.”

The New Haven Documentary Film Festival runs Oct. 12 to Oct. 22. For full information on NHDocs, its lineup, schedule of screenings, and its student competitions, visit the festival’s website.