A showcase of the best DOCUMENTARY films in the world today.
AUDIENCE AWARDS (from FEEDBACK Film Festival):
Best Feature Film: The Showmen
Best Short Film: The secrets of chocolate
Behind the Scenes DOC: Surviving the Spectrum: The making of Ever Green
New Media Film: Generation: Cure
Best Direction: Forever Damned
Best Environmental Film: Passage Home: Tulalip Tribes remove barriers to salmon habitat
Best Human Nature Film: The power of trance practice
Best Nature Film: The Protectors
Best Society Film: DANCE: Generations
Best Drama Short Film: What’s Left
Best Story: Ever Green & The F***ing Spectrum
Surviving the Spectrum: The making of Ever Green, 9min., USA
Directed by Peter Kangas
This is a behind the scenes look of the upcoming Proof of Concept Short Film, Ever Green & The F***ing. Spectrum. A raw exploration of neurodiversity, family dysfunction, and the Hollywood gaze on disability with a fully inclusive crew.
https://www.instagram.com/spectrumotionpictures
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/surviving-the-spectrum-audience-feedback
GENERATION: CURE, 23min., USA
Directed by Brett Langolf, Alex Boydston
GENERATION: CURE begins as a run—but quickly becomes something more. Through the story of Chad and the loss that drives him, the film captures how a community rallies around cystic fibrosis, turning grief into momentum. What unfolds is not just a tribute, but the start of something bigger: a call to show up, give back, and help shape what comes next.
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/generation-cure-audience-feedback
FOREVER DAMNED, 21min. USA
Directed by Julius Corbin
Two brothers born into slavery were given a choice of freedom but they had to pay the ultimate price… their own mortality. Now cursed as vampires, the brothers must fight for salvation and escape from the shadows.
https://instagram.com/foreverdamned.film
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/forever-damned-audience-feedback
Passage Home: Tulalip Tribes remove barriers to salmon habitat, 8min., USA
Directed by Charles Atkinson, Jeff Ostenson
Restoring fish passage to spawning habitat is one of the most cost-effective ways to recover salmon runs. The Tulalip Tribes are leading the way in the Snohomish watershed to remove barriers in hopes of ensuring future generations of salmon.
https://www.instagram.com/nwtreatytribes
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/passage-home-audience-feedback-doc-festivl
The secrets of chocolate, 27min., Belgium
Directed by Patrice Goldberg, Cyril Fleury
We’re diving into the secrets of chocolate. Why is it so tasty? Why is it so hard for us to stop eating it? What are its main health benefits? And what will the chocolate of the future look like? To answer these questions, we met up with some Belgian experts, but also with innovative chocolatiers in England and Switzerland.
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/the-secrets-of-chocolate-audience-feedback
The Power of Trance Practice, 28min., Belgium
Directed by Patrice Goldberg, Cyril Fleury
The word ‘trance’ probably makes you think of a state induced by drugs or by shamanic rituals. But there is a lesser-known method that can produce a trance. This altered consciousness can be achieved without the need for rituals or substances. We can learn to trigger it naturally, much like hypnosis or meditation. In Belgium in particular, researchers are studying its effects on our mental and creative abilities, but also on pain perception and our health in general.
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/the-power-of-trance-practice-audience-feeback
THE PROTECTORS, 24min., USA
Directed by Kelso Harper, Carin Leong
This immersive film follows researchers racing to save 74 remaining southern resident orcas while federal budget cuts threaten the very science needed to rescue them. The story combines compelling on-the-water storytelling with urgent stakes: research institutions have lost significant staff and funding just as scientists were making critical breakthroughs in understanding what these whales need to survive. With both the orcas and the research at a tipping point, this is a rare story where timing truly matters
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/the-protectors-second-audience-feedback
DANCE: Generations, 38min., Spain
Directed by Dawn Gifford Engle
A dance class for seniors in Catalonia decides to create an extraordinary show for the 93-year-old mother of their Paris-born dance teacher. Their journey to France to perform for her turns into a life-affirming, inspirational voyage of discovery.
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/dance-generations-audience-feedback
What’s Left, 30min., USA
Directed by Odinger Mitchell
In the twilight of his years, a once celebrated chef, now a humbled widowed dishwasher, conceals his storied past while caring for his adult special needs son. As the echoes of his culinary fame fade, a serendipitous encounter reignites his passion, compelling him to embrace his mentorship role and rediscover the art of inspiration. This is a fictionalized view of a unromanticized reality. Not star chefs, not kitchen combat. The characters of the culinary world who’s stories are never told. A story about a father’s love for his son, and relighting his inner beacon, allowing his light to shine outwards once more and illuminate the path for others.
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/what-s-left-audience-feedback
Ever Green & The F***ing Spectrum, 15min., USA
Directed by Peter Kangas
Paul, a young autistic man, struggles to process his father’s terminal cancer diagnosis while haunted by Ever Green—a character from a Hollywood autism film he despises. Through therapy sessions and painful memories, Paul confronts his grief, his strained relationship with his father, and society’s stereotypical portrayals of autism. A raw exploration of neurodiversity, family dysfunction, and the Hollywood gaze on disability.
https://instagram.com/spectrumotionpictures
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/ever-green-the-f-ing-spectrum-audience-feedback
THE SHOWMEN, 2hr. 12min., Canada
Directed by Daryl Scott Granger
The Showmen begins with a richly textured journey into the origins of travelling carnivals, using animated archival imagery to show a history that featured oddities and other curiosities. As the documentary moves to present day, it follows World’s Finest Shows, a midway operated by generations of the Jamieson family. This film reveals how iconic games and rides have evolved to modern day versions. From the origins of phrases like “close but no cigar” to the enduring appeal of indulgent carnival food, this film balances nostalgia with realism, exposing the long hours, physical strain, and financial pressure endured by the showmen. Beneath the lights and laughter, there’s a hardworking crew who sacrifice comfort to building dazzling, temporary worlds that foster lasting memories of spectacle and joy in our communities.
https://www.theshowmen.ca/
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/the-showmen-audience-feedback
Documentary Film Festival. Los Angeles & Toronto 