Roll ‘em: DocFest returns for 17th year

Homer Documentary Film Festival returns with COVID-19 precautions and a solid line up of films.

A still from “Fantastic Fungi,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

A still from “Fantastic Fungi,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

After its cancellation last fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Homer Documentary Film Festival returns for its 17th year starting with a gala opening at 6:15 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Homer Theatre with a showing of “Summer of Soul,” one of five films in the festival.

Homer Theatre co-owner Jamie Sutton, and founder of the festival with his wife Lynette, said he talked with community members before deciding to hold the festival.

“That’s one of the things for us,” Sutton said in an interview last month. “Are we going to be leaders or not?”

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

This year’s event includes COVID-19 precautions, including fewer shows daily, a 2 p.m. vaccination-only show, 50% capacity, universal mask wearing inside, sanitizing between shows and a shorter play list. The roster includes what has become a Homer Documentary Film Festival standard — a mixture of feel-good musical films, explorations of science and nature, personality profiles and off-beat quirky pieces.

“We are striving to stay open because we know how much fun it is to go to the movies, and we will protect the public and our patrons, and to support the community in the best way possible,” Sutton wrote in an email.

Sutton said he recognized that for some documentary film festival fans, attending will be a difficult decision.

“For us there are folks in Homer who won’t go to the Doc Fest,” he said. “Going into a dark room with strangers — that’s a hard duty.”

To help make people more comfortable, the 2 p.m. showings will be for vaccinated customers only. People will have to show their vaccine cards. The mask wearing rule also was made to help people feel safer, Sutton said.

“The requirement to wear masks is a small imposition, irrespective of your politics, in exchange for, respect for, compassion for other folks who want to see a movie as badly as you do who have medical conditions,” he said.

Earlier this summer, as with other businesses hoping to ease back to normalcy as vaccination rates increased and COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalizations dropped, the Homer Theatre had begun showing movies to larger audiences.

“We started out at 50% and opened up to more people,” Sutton said. “‘Black Widow’ had 150 people. It was great. We were back rolling again. And here we are now with this relapse, and so we’ve had to go back to the earlier constraints.”

The festival features five films: “Summer of Soul,” about the 1969 weekend performances in Harlem of the top Black and Soul artists; “Roadrunner,” a biography of chef Anthony Bourdain; “Fantastic Fungi,” about the wonders of mushrooms and other mycelium life forms; “The Lost Leonardo,” the discovery of a $1,400 painting that could be by Leonardo da Vinci, and “Bear-Like(Der Bär in mir),” the adventure of a German filmmaker and biologist who develop a relationship with Alaska bears.

“Summer of Soul” fits into that category of a musical crowd pleaser. Filmed in the summer of 1969 in Harlem, New York, when Woodstock happened upstate, for six weekends some of the top soul acts performed, including Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, the Staple Singers, Herbie Mann and B.B. King.

“It was fabulously well filmed and recorded, and then it disappeared,” Sutton said.

Musician Questlove Thompson found the lost footage and produced the film. A celebration of Black music, it also captures the emerging 1960s movement of Black pride and unity.

“The whole Black power, that movement is at hand,” Sutton said of the time.

Made by Morgan Neville, the same filmmaker who did “20 Feet from Stardom” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” two previous Doc Fest film selections, “Roadrunner” focuses on the life of chef Anthony Bourdain. It looks at how an anonymous chef became a cultural icon.

Sutton said his favorite film is “Fantastic Fungi,” a look at mycelium, the mushrooms and other plants that enrich soil and form synapses to communicate among themselves.

“The synapses that mycelium form to communicate with itself, all of those have come into our brains,” Sutton said. “… People walk out of the movie with their view of the world dramatically changed.”

In “The Lost Leonardo,” an art collector buys for $1,400 a painting described as “in the school of Leonardo da Vinci.” When the collector takes it to an art expert to be examined, masterful brush strokes lie under a cheap restoration. The painting, “the Salvador Mundi,” could be a genuine da Vinci. It winds up selling at auction for $450 million. The film raises questions about its authenticity.

In a different telling of the same theme in “Bear Man,” a previous documentary film festival selection about the ill-fated Timothy Treadwell, “Bear-Like(Der Bär in mir)” is about another lover of Alaska grizzly bears — except he doesn’t get mauled. Filmmaker Roman Droux and biologist David Bittner get up close to the bears of Katmai National Park, but with respect and caution.

“It’s just a lovely movie,” Sutton said.

For 2021, there are no DocFest passes. Admission to the gala event is $20 or $15 for seniors, youth, Peace Corps and military. Admission per film is $9 or $7 for seniors, youth, Peace Corps, military and matinees. For advance ticket sales, more information and trailers, visit https://www.homerdocfest.com/2018-festival.

Reach Michael Armstrong at marmstrong@homernews.com.

A still from “Der baer in mir (the Bear in Me)” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

A still from “Der baer in mir (the Bear in Me)” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

A still from “Summer of Soul,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

A still from “Summer of Soul,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for “Roadrunner,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for “Roadrunner,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for “Der baer in mir (the Bear in Me)” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for “Der baer in mir (the Bear in Me)” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for “Fantastic Fungi,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for “Fantastic Fungi,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for "Summer of Soul," showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for “Fantastic Fungi,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for “The Lost Leonardo,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

The poster for “The Lost Leonardo,” showing at the 17th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival. (Photo provided)

More in Life

These high-protein egg bites are filled with tomatoes, parsley and feta, but any omelet-appropriate toppings will do. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
A little care for the caretakers

These high-protein egg bites are perfect for getting a busy teacher through the witching hour in late afternoon.

Dr. Thomas F. Sweeney was a dentist seeking adventure and riches. He also had some mistaken ideas about the difficulties that life in remote Alaska entailed. (Public photo from ancestry.com)
Mary Penney and her 1898 Alaska Adventure — Part 5

The three-masted ship called the Agate was a reliable 30-year ocean veteran when it entered Cook Inlet in mid-October 1898.

Kaleidoscope School of Arts and Science students perform “Let’s Eat,” their fifth grade musical, at Kenai Central High School in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Healthy eating headlines elementary school musical

Kaleidoscope School of Arts and Science stages “Let’s Eat” for its annual fifth grade musical.

Blueberries are photographed in Cooper Landing, Alaska, in August 2024. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
Minister’s Message: A reminder that the earth provides

There is new life, even when we can’t see it.

The Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference is held at Kachemak Bay Campus starting on Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Homer, Alaska. (Delcenia Cosman/Homer News)
Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference returns for 23rd year

This year’s keynote presenter is author Ruth Ozeki.

This salad mixes broccoli, carrots and pineapple chunks for a bright, sweet dish. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
A bright and sweet Mother’s Day treat

Broccoli, pineapple and carrots are the heart of this flavorful salad.

file
Minister’s Message: Prudence prevents pain, and, possibly, fender benders

Parents carry the responsibility of passing down prudence and wisdom to their children.

This Library of Congress photo shows the U.S.S. Maine, which exploded and sank in the harbor at Havanna, Cuba, about the same time the Kings County Mining Company’s ship, the Agate left Brooklyn for Alaska. The Maine incident prompted the start of the Spanish-American War and complicated the mining company’s attempt to sail around Cape Horn.
Mary Penney and her 1898 Alaska adventure — Part 4

The Penney clan experienced a few weeks fraught with the possibility that Mary might never be returning home.

Students throw brightly hued powder into the air during a color run at Kaleidoscope School of Arts and Science in Kenai, Alaska, on Saturday, May 3, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Color run paints students with kaleidoscope of hues

Kaleidoscope School of Arts and Science on Saturday gathered parents and students… Continue reading

Most Read