DC/DOX 2024 [Film Festival Preview]

It’s always wonderful when someone or something can beat the age-old idea of the “sophomore slump.” One of the newer documentary film festivals to hit the calendar, DC/DOX enters its second year this Thursday, running from June 13-16 in Washington, DC. Sponsored by brands like Hulu, National Geographic and Netflix, DC/DOX has in just one prior edition, cemented itself as a main player in the summer film festival landscape, and this second entry is no less impressive or indicative of a thriving documentary scene.

Headlined by 51 feature films from 17 countries, including 12 exciting world premieres, this weekend-long documentary festival is a fascinating cross-section of the current documentary film landscape, and features countless new features, new stories, brought to light by thrilling new voices.

One of those films is Antidote. From director James Jones, Antidote is a new deep dive into the perils of fighting for revolution in Putin’s Russia. Right from the very start, the film throws viewers into the paranoid political thriller world that will be their home for the next nearly 90 minutes, as it follows investigative journalist Christov Grosev and what life is like for people trying to talk truth to power under a dictatorship. In that same vein, viewers will also encounter Vladimir Kara-Murza, an opposition leader who was allegedly poisoned by Putin’s regime, twice, as well as an unnamed scientist who had worked in the Russian poison program, all connected by the same desire to see Putin fall and the life or death stakes therein.

Very much in conversation with similar thriller-like documentaries, primarily available wherever CNN and HBO documentaries can be seen, Antidote is a briskly paced and endlessly thriller drama, but with a very strong journalistic eye. Not in that it is or isn’t as factual as other documentaries, but the film itself seems propelled by the same sort of ceaseless rock-turning that fuels the very best investigative journalists. There’s a clear-eyed worldview that is refreshing here, balancing the life or death stakes of people under a tyrant being killed by said tyrant with a “yeah but if I don’t no one will” urgency that makes the film truly memorable.

Another great documentary found inside this festival, albeit one of a very different energy, Driver is a new documentary from director Nesa Azimi and follows a group of women long-haul truckers as they fight for a prosperous life and against a volatile, patriarchal world. Having its world premiere earlier this month at Tribeca, Driver is a quiet, yet engrossing, fly-on-the-wall style documentary driven by both fascinating characters and brilliantly rendered narrative. The main focus of the film is Desiree Wood, a woman who lost everything and is using trucking as a way to take back the life she had stolen from her. Wood’s longing for freedom is only second to her passion for change, with the dramatic crux of the film coming from her balancing of trucking with the leading of a movement for women’s rights within the trucking industry.

Driver’s greatness comes from this very naturalistic approach to telling one woman’s story. Incredibly intimate, the film embeds the viewer within the world of a woman trucker, and all the very relatable bullshit that goes with it. Not only is the trucking world inherently predatory (a simple flat tire could change any driver’s life forever), but in a largely male world, women drivers are crushed under external pressures beyond the cabin of their vehicles. The cinematography here is understated and rightly naturalistic, and pairing the intimate photography with a great lead character makes Driver one not to miss.

Rounding out this preview of DC/DOX is another investigative piece, this time about another destructive regime; Big Pharma.

Bitter Pill is the latest film from director Clay Tweel (Gleason), and introduces viewers to attorney Paul Farrell Jr., as he attempts to bring down “The Big Three” pharmaceutical brands, all of whom deserve blame and repercussions for their role in the opioid crisis nationwide. Bringing a more narrow narrative focus, viewers are introduced not just to Farrell and his family and fellow members of his movement, but also his hometown, a small town in West Virginia that has been all but destroyed the very crisis he wants revenge for.

Billed very much as a “David Vs. Goliath”-type narrative, the film certainly has that sort of energy, but what makes it truly worth your time is the singular presence at its very core. Paul Farrell Jr. is a force of nature here, a fascinating man with boundless energy and a willingness to fight that feels very much born out of small town America. He’s also a more than capable attorney, with a talent not just for litigation but connecting on a human level with those he comes in contact with. He’s one of the greater recent documentary “characters” and elevates Bitter Pill in an exciting way. Another must see documentary from this year’s lineup.
We will have more following the completion of this year’s festival.