At DC/DOX last June I saw “Kokomo City,” which details the lives of four Black trans sex workers facing multiple hardships. Director D. Smith, a trans woman and a Grammy nominee, spoke with me via phone during DC/DOX—and with the film now set to play in theaters this weekend, our conversation has been reposted.

How did you decide to make this documentary?

To do something like this, you really have

It’s not often that a film without superheroes or Tom Cruise leaping from cliffs is shown in IMAX, let alone on 70mm film stock (remember film?). “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated, nearly three-hour solipsistic walk through J. Robert Oppenheimer’s complicated, extraordinary life demands to be seen on the largest screen possible: The IMAX experience not only makes the staging of the atomic bomb test that much more

“PRUNING” Director: Lola Blanc

In this psychological horror short, Madeline Brewer (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) stars as an agitprop right-wing commentator in the model of Tomi Lahren, who will seemingly press any button in order to generate outrage. “Pruning” shows that Brewer’s character knows better than to say what she does but still going ahead

Given his notorious history of heists one might assume that Gerald Blanchard would stay out of sight. Or at least keep his mouth shut. Yet Blanchard’s narcissism, for it can be labeled as nothing else, will not allow him to stay mum about his life of crime. Thankfully, filmmaker Landon Van Soest gives Blanchard just enough rope to air out his dirty laundry for the whole world to enjoy in the new documentary “The Jewel Thief,” premiering this week on Hulu.

Ondi Timoner’s father Eli died in 2021 after an incredible career as a business executive. Even after a stroke in middle age—which resulted in his being exiled from the very airline he founded—Eli pressed on and lived his best life, leaving behind several children and grandchildren.

Eli’s final years were difficult as he was in constant pain and suffering from COPD and congestive heart failure.

“How Do You Measure a Year?” is a familiar lyric from a song in the Broadway show “Rent”; it’s also the title of a fascinating and experimental short documentary from Jay Rosenblatt (“When We Were Bullies”). Each year on his daughter Ella’s birthday, Rosenblatt filmed himself asking her a similar series of questions, including:

“How would you say we get along?”

“What are your hopes for the future?”

It’s always great to be first.  This weekend the nation’s capital saw the premiere of DC/DOX, a new film festival dedicated to truth in filmmaking. 

Opening night kicked off at the National Portrait Gallery, where festival founders Jamie Shor and Sky Sitney spoke about the necessity of founding a new venue for documentaries in the capital in the wake of AFI DOCS, which used to be