Thomas Winston’s LOST WOLVES OF YELLOWSTONE opens, André Hörmann’s THE COWBOY is the Centerpiece selection, and Elegance Bratton’s MOVE YA BODY: THE BIRTH OF HOUSE gets the closing slot Jon Alpert will receive the HSDFF Brent Renaud Career Achievement Award, and Geeta Gandbhir will be the recipient of this year’s Impact Award.
The critically acclaimed Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival announced the lineup of films and honorees for its 34 th edition, taking place October 10 -18. Screenings will kick off at Oaklawn’s Event Center with the Opening Night presentation of Thomas Winston’s Lost Wolves of Yellowstone, followed by the North American premiere of Centerpiece Selection, André Hörmann’s The Cowboy, and Elegance Bratton’s Move Ya Body: The Birth of House screening on Closing Night. Other premieres include the North American premiere of Sheffield DocFest Grand Jury Award winner Welded Together, the U.S. premiere of John Dower’s The Balloonists, and the U.S. premiere of Jo Seyoung’s K-Number.
Jon Alpert will receive the HSDFF Brent Renaud Career Achievement Award, and Geeta Gandbhir will be the recipient of this year’s Impact Award.
HSDFF Executive Director, Ken Jacobson, said, “In a world that seems, at times, on the verge of spinning out of control, I marvel at the fact that something as simple as a gathering of people to watch documentary films on a big screen can feel as miraculous and urgent as it does this year. For 34 years, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival has brought the best in non-fiction filmmaking to Hot Springs. Our community has responded by welcoming filmmakers and other guests here to join with us in celebrating this remarkable art form. This year, I am struck by the sheer quality and dynamism of the filmmaking, the courage of those willing to share their lives with the filmmakers, and the emotional depths explored through these incredibly diverse stories. If this year’s festival lineup tells us anything, it’s that creativity and truth-telling still remain as vital as ever. From our Opening to our Closing Night and everything in between, I know that our audiences are in for a very special and unique experience.”
THE GALAS AND SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Thomas Winston’s Lost Wolves Of Yellowstone will open HSDFF on Friday, October 10 at the Oaklawn Event Center. The film follows the audacious plan and journey to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone as well as profiles the courageous story of Mollie Beattie, director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who led the way. Winston will attend and participate in a post-screening Q&A.
André Hörmann’s The Cowboy will make its North American premiere as the Centerpiece selection on Wednesday, October 15 at the Arlington Hotel & Spa. Focusing on the idea of the American Cowboy, the film introduces us to 11-year-old Crowley McCuistion, as he’s riding horses and learning how to rope on a Colorado ranch, and then takes us on a remarkable 10-year journey, witnessing his dream of being an American cowboy prove as elusive as a runaway bull. Hörmann will attend and participate in a post-screening Q&A. Elegance Bratton’s Move Ya Body: The Birth Of House will be the Closing Night selection, screening on Saturday, October 18 at the Oaklawn Event Center. The film traces the roots of house music that exploded out of Chicago’s underground music scene in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Bratton and producer Chester Algernal Gordon will attend and participate in a post screening Q&A.
HSDFF HONOREES
Jon Alpert will be in attendance for the Brent Renaud Career Achievement Award presentation, which follows a special work-in-progress screening of Jon’s new documentary short The Raging Rabbi on Tuesday, October 14 at 4:30 PM at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa. Winner of a staggering 17 National Emmy Awards, Jon Alpert has been making extraordinary documentaries on a wide range of topics for six decades. Nominated for two Academy Awards, Jon has won four DuPont-Columbia Awards, a Peabody Award, and was the first Inductee in the National Emmy Awards Golden Circle (Hall of Fame). Whether shooting films in war zones or capturing intimate and largely overlooked stories at home, Jon has demonstrated documentary filmmaking’s unlimited potential to educate, engage, and enlighten. Besides his unparalleled career as a documentary filmmaker, Jon has also had an immeasurable impact on the field, as a mentor to up-and-coming filmmakers (including Brent and Craig Renaud) and as co-founder of Downtown Community Television Center, one of America’s oldest and most honored community media centers. Immediately following the Career Achievement Award presentation, we will screen Craig Renaud’s new documentary short, Armed Only With A Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud.
Geeta Gandbhir will be in attendance for the Impact Award presentation, which follows the screening of The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix) on Sunday, October 12 at 4:45 PM at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa. Geeta Gandbhir is an award-winning filmmaker who began her career in narrative film under the mentorship of Spike Lee and Sam Pollard. After more than a decade in scripted film, collaborating with masters such as the Coen Brothers and Robert Altman, she transitioned to documentary filmmaking. Geeta directed Katrina: Come Hell and High Water (Netflix, 2025) alongside Spike Lee and Samantha Knowles, a three-part series revisiting post-Katrina New Orleans. Her current documentary The Perfect Neighbor won the directing award in the U.S. documentary category at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and will premiere on Netflix later this year. Other directing credits include The Devil Is Busy (HBO) — which screens at this year’s HSDFF — How We Get Free (Oscar-shortlisted, HBO), Born in Synanon (Paramount), Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (Emmy Award Winner, 2023).
ADDITIONAL EVENTS
Following a screening of his powerful new Netflix documentary short All the Empty Rooms, Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Joshua Seftel (Stranger at the Gate) participates in a live podcast conversation with Michael Merrill and HSDFF Executive Director Ken Jacobson, hosts of the “Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers” podcast. In 1985, the Chicago Bears dominated the NFL and embodied everything that encapsulated that memorable decade: flash, chaos and a get-out-of-my-way attitude. Their Super Bowl winning season had it all — the birth of Buddy Ryan’s 46 Defense, the “Super Bowl Shuffle” and a colorful group of misfits who became the toast of football. ESPN Films’ 30 for 30 released The ’85 Bears documentary in 2016. Join us for this special event celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest teams in NFL history. In addition to showing clips from the film, members of the 30 for 30 team will be in conversation with one of the team’s defensive stars, Pro Football Hall of Famer and Razorback great, Dan Hampton. The event will be moderated by ESPN Films Senior Producer Gentry Kirby with Hampton (Chicago Bears, 1979 – 90, University of Arkansas, 1975 – 78) and ESPN Films Senior Producer Marquis Daisy.
Three years after Little Rock-raised filmmaker Brent Renaud was tragically killed while covering the invasion of Ukraine, his brother Craig Renaud has completed an extraordinary and deeply personal portrait of Brent’s life, career and legacy, Armed Only With A Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud. The film honors Brent’s unwavering dedication to his craft and sheds light on the dangerous realities faced by journalists working in conflict zones. Following a screening of the short film, Jon Alpert, HSDFF’s 2025 Brent Renaud Career Achievement Award recipient and mentor to Brent and Craig, will moderate a conversation with Craig and photojournalist/ filmmaker Juan Arredondo, who was with Brent at the time and also sustained a gunshot wound. The special screening and presentation will be co-presented by the Clinton Presidential Center.
This year’s festival features a stellar lineup of extraordinary documentaries that celebrate Native and Indigenous stories and storytellers. Marking Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday, October 13th, the festival will screen the features Powwow People, a joyful new film by HSDFF’s 2023 Career Achievement Award winner Sky Hopinka; Remaining Native, directed by Paige Bethmann, which chronicles the story of an inspiring young athlete who honors his great-grandfather’s legacy; Colleen Thurston’s captivating Drowned Land, which follows a diverse group of allies who come together to protect the Kiamichi River in southeastern
Oklahoma; and Richard Ladkani’s riveting and panoramic Yanuni, which focuses on the courageous leadership of Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia as she fights to save her peoples’ tribal lands in the Brazilian rainforest.
Additional special presentations include Rebecca Miller’s Mr. Scorsese – Part 1: Stranger in A Strange Land And Part 2: All This Filming Isn’t Healthy, which goes deep inside the life, art, and career of legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese, with revelatory introspection from the master himself. Only Parts 1 and 2 (from the 5-part series) will be shown and will be screened back-to-back. HSDFF’s always popular Secret Screening will return for the third year in a row.
Also back by popular demand is our uniquely Hot Springs live storytelling event — “True Stories.” This series of short, personal stories told by a diverse mix of visiting filmmakers and local legends, held in front of a faux roaring fire, is designed to enthrall, entertain, surprise, & inspire. Hosted by author Kai Coggin (she/her), the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Hot Springs.
National Park College and Hot Springs Village Shorts Programs For the first time, HSDFF is expanding its program to the National Park College in Hot Springs
for a specially curated package of short films intended to build connections between the festival and the NPC community. For the second year in a row, HSDFF brings its documentary programming to nearby Hot Springs Village for a curated shorts program.
The Emerging Filmmakers Program, a long-standing partnership between HSDFF and Arkansas PBS, is one of HSDFF’s most cherished educational initiatives. This full-day experience welcomes middle and high school students from throughout the region to engage in thought-provoking screenings, interactive Q&A sessions, and hands-on workshops. Designed to immerse young storytellers in the craft of documentary filmmaking, the program features guidance from award-winning filmmakers and top industry professionals. Since its inception, the program has welcomed hundreds of students from more than 30 schools.
The Brent Renaud Mentorship Program, is presented in partnership with Arkansas PBS. Working filmmakers join Peabody Award-winner Craig Renaud to offer a behind-the-scenes look at their creative processes and share practical guidance for building a sustainable career in filmmaking. This unique opportunity allows participants to gain an insider’s perspective on the art and craft of documentary filmmaking.
THE FILMMAKER FORUM
Now in its third year, the HSDFF Filmmaker Forum is a three-day filmmaker/industry conference and convening to be held October 12 – 14 during this year’s Festival. In this unprecedented year, in which federal government funding has been stripped from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public media, there is no more urgent time for filmmakers and industry leaders to meet, discuss and raise critical questions about where the documentary field stands and where to go from here. The Forum offers dynamic programming focused on the art, craft and business of documentary storytelling with a focus on public media, and a wider lens on the nonfiction ecosystem as a whole. The Filmmaker Forum is sponsored by CPB, Wyncote Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and Video Consortium.
Additional film highlights include Ryan White’s 2025 Sundance award winner, Come See Me In The Good Light about Colorado Poet Laureate Andrea Gibson. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, they responded by weaving verse into a profound response to mortality. With their wife and fellow poet, Megan Falley, by their side, Andrea prepares for one final, unforgettable performance while reflecting on the life, love, and community that sustained them. Mark Obenhaus and Laura Poitras’ Cover-Up catch up with arguably the most important investigative reporter of our time, the dogged truth seeker and reluctant participant Seymour Hersh, who broke the My Lai massacre story and many others. The enigmatic Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants joins Dr. Steve Boyes in his search for rare elephants in this fascinating documentary about the awe and mystery of the natural world. Morgan Neville’s Man On The Run profiles the post-Beatles Paul McCartney.
Paige Bethmann’s multiple award-winning coming-of-age documentary, Remaining Native follows 17-year-old Ku Stevens, a runner training alone on the Yerington Paiute reservation in Northwest Nevada, chasing his dream of competing for the University of Oregon. Brandon Kramer’s emotionally wrenching Holding Liat, winner of the Berlinale Best Documentary prize, follows the story of Liat Beinin Atzili and her husband who were kidnapped during the Hamas
attack on Israel, leaving their family shattered and desperate for answers. Brittany Shyne’s 2025 Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize winner, Seeds looks at black farmers in the American South, following multigenerational families determined to preserve their heritage despite mounting obstacles — navigating lawsuits, shifting federal promises, and the changing landscape of modern agriculture. In their intimate and unsparing Love+War, Academy Award winners Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo) follow legendary photojournalist Lynsey Addario as she navigates the joys and responsibilities of family and the dangers inherent in her work that often brings her right in the middle of conflict zones. Anastasiya Miroshnichenko’s inspired portrait Welded Together makes its North American premiere at HSDFF. The 2025 Sheffield DocFest Grand Jury Award winner follows a young woman determined to save her younger sister from the trauma of her own childhood. Having built a life for herself as a welder, Katya is prepared to do what it takes to help her family. However, her efforts to build a better life for her sister are complicated when she is forced to make a life-changing decision.