The best new doc­u­men­taries from the 2020 Sun­dance Film Festival

Per­haps more than any­thing else, Sun­dance prides itself on its doc­u­men­tary pro­gramme. Each Jan­u­ary, films from across the US and the world look to explore issues as diverse as the envi­ron­ment, tech­nol­o­gy, cor­po­rate greed, polit­i­cal cor­rup­tion, the drug trade, gun con­trol, LGBT+ rights, civ­il rights, and the impact of pop­u­lar cul­ture on people’s lives. Some of these films will go on to play else­where, at A‑List fes­ti­vals like Berlin and Cannes. A few may even win Oscars. This year, with music tak­ing more of a back seat than before, there left a greater focus on the big news-mak­ing sto­ries of recent times.

The Dis­si­dent, which made head­lines before it even reached Park City (with the appar­ent hack­ing of Ama­zon founder Jeff Bezos’ phone – some­thing even the British tabloids may not have thought of), presents the slay­ing of Sau­di-US jour­nal­ist Jamal Khashog­gi as a grim and gris­ly thriller, while draw­ing a clear line to those respon­si­ble. Direc­tor Bryan Fogel (of Icarus fame) quick­ly assem­bled a pile of evi­dence and tes­ti­mo­ny for what appears to be the defin­i­tive film about a brazen crime that shook the world. As some pun­dits were quick to point out, with real­i­ty this shock­ing, how can Hol­ly­wood hope to compete?

Crimes and mis­de­meanours weren’t restrict­ed to the Mid­dle East, of course. The sto­ry of Dan­ish inven­tor Peter Mad­sen, who bru­tal­ly mur­dered Swedish jour­nal­ist Kim Wall on board his sub­ma­rine, is unpacked in Into the Deep. Aus­tralian film­mak­er Emma Sul­li­van hap­pened to be mak­ing a film about this seem­ing­ly charis­mat­ic fig­ure any­way, before he revealed his true psy­cho­path­ic colours. She kept shoot­ing as the hor­ror grad­u­al­ly unfold­ed, with the film nod­ding back to ear­li­er, hap­pi­er times to high­light the clues that now seem all too clear and chill­ing. Like many of this year’s notable Sun­dance hits, it will play on Netflix.

Anoth­er assas­si­na­tion, of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-broth­er of North Kore­an leader Kim Jong-un, is the sub­ject of the appro­pri­ate­ly enti­tled Assas­sins. Kim was struck down in broad day­light at Kuala Lumpur Inter­na­tion­al Air­port by a pair of young women car­ry­ing the dead­ly nerve agent VX. But when ques­tioned, it turned out the pair had been lured unknow­ing­ly – into what they were told was a prank TV show (one of the girls was an aspir­ing actress).

A com­plex web emerged that again sug­gest­ed those at the very top were respon­si­ble. Kim had after all once been tipped as the future leader of the com­mu­nist nation, mak­ing the CCTV footage of him casu­al­ly strolling into the air­port with­out any pro­tec­tion all the more bizarre.

Rus­sia had to fig­ure in some­where, of course – and where bet­ter than with Wel­come to Chech­nya, from jour­nal­ist-turned-film­mak­er David France. The film apt­ly sums up the cur­rent state of the nation with star­tling, heart-break­ing tes­ti­mo­ny. We hear from those who feared and fled for their lives, togeth­er with jaw-drop­ping footage of fero­cious attacks, so-called hon­our killings and ter­ri­fy­ing bor­der cross­ings, filmed in life-threat­en­ing secre­cy. Nail-bit­ing, pulse-rac­ing stuff – ter­ri­fy­ing and awful, yet vital and com­pelling. The author­i­ties’ denial of human rights abus­es is, of course, as absurd as it is despicable.

Final­ly, artist-film­mak­er Ai Weiwei’s Vivos is an alto­geth­er more dif­fer­ent beast to his recent Human Flow. Shot more inti­mate­ly, the film looks at the 43 stu­dent activists who dis­ap­peared in Mex­i­co, again at the hands of the author­i­ties. The fate of them remains a mys­tery. Their loved ones still wait with unre­solved grief. It’s anoth­er appalling injus­tice which con­verse­ly made for a fine­ly craft­ed work. Doc­u­men­tary cin­e­ma, at least, is in safe hands.