By the end of the decade will every town in New England, or even the United States, have a documentary film festival? Or a documentary film series? Perhaps there is a documentary to be made about that happening. Here are some of the best places to find such festivals over the next few months.
Camden International Film Festival, Sept. 15-18
This delightful Maine seacoast town hosts one of the best-curated doc festivals around, offering shorts and features including Kim A. Snyder’s “Newtown,’’ Morgan Spurlock’s “Rats’’ (the only vermin you’ll find in Camden), Mike Plunkett’s “Salero,’’ about the stark beauty of Bolivian salt gathering, and, in case you need any more encouragement, Ben Nabors’s “The Happy Film.’’
www.camdenfilmfest.org
Newburyport Documentary Film Festival, Sept. 16-18
Another picturesque and historic New England coastal community, this in Massachusetts, has mustered an impressive slate of 16 features and eight shorts. Among them are Patrick Shen’s meditative “In Pursuit of Silence’’; Maisie Crow’s “Jackson,’’ about the near prohibition of abortion clinics in Mississippi (only one remains open for the entire state); and Phil Furey’s “Since: The Bombing of Pan Am 103,’’ about the victims and survivors (on the ground) of the 1988 terrorist bombing.
www.newburyportfilmfestival.org
The DocYard, Sept. 12-Dec. 5
The DocYard starts its latest series of new, cutting-edge films on Sept. 12 at the Brattle Theatre, with Morgan Knibbe’s “Those Who Feel the Fire Burning,’’ about the tragedies faced by displaced people seeking refuge. Other offerings also screening at the Brattle include Bonni Cohen Shenk and Jon Shenk’s distressing doc about date rape and cyber-shaming, “Audrey & Daisy’’ (Oct. 17), and Dean Fleischer-Camp’s “Fraud’’ (Nov. 21), an investigation into the fabrication of a biography and family history on YouTube.
thedocyard.com
GlobeDocs Film Festival, Sept. 28-Oct. 2
Now in its sophomore year, the festival offers free screenings of 12 features and a program of shorts at various venues, starting with the Fenway Park showing of Joseph Maar’s tributes to a certain soon-to-be-retired Red Sox idol, “David Ortiz: The Journey’’ and “The David Ortiz Era.’’
www.filmfest.bostonglobe.com
Boston Palestine Film Festival, Oct.14-30
The tiny, beleaguered state of Palestine produces more than its share of documentaries, many about the issues troubling the region. Among those programmed in this year’s BPFF are Mai Masri’s “Children of Fire’’ (1990), part of a retrospective of the filmmaker’s work. She will be at the screening for a Q&A. Other films include “Open Bethlehem,’’ by Leila Sansour, a portrait of the troubled birthplace of Jesus — and the filmmaker’s hometown — and Amber Fares’s “Speed Sisters,’’ about the first all-female race-car team in the Middle East. All screenings are at the Museum of Fine Arts.
www.bostonpalestinefilmfest.org
Boston Jewish Film Festival, Nov. 9-21
A cinematic treasure, for fiction and nonfiction films alike. This year the offerings include Stephen Apkon and Andrew Young’s “Disturbing the Peace,’’ about Combatants for Peace, an alliance between Israel Defense Forces elite troops and former Palestinian fighters united to seek peaceful solutions to the ongoing conflict, and Slawomir Grünberg’s genre-bending “Karski & the Lords of Humanity,’’ which combines documentary footage and animation to tell the story of the Underground courier named in the title. Jan Karski risked his life to bring back reports about atrocities in the Warsaw Ghetto and Polish transit camps only to be ignored by the Allied powers.
The festival takes place at a variety of venues, including the MFA and Coolidge Corner Theatre.
www.bjff.org
Peter Keough can be reached at petervkeough@gmail.com.
