HOT SPRINGS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
FRIDAY 10/9-SATURDAY 10/17. Mostly virtual, selected events at Hot Springs Mall, 4501 Central Ave. $8-$300. 

The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the longest-running documentary film fest in North America, is putting on a virtual/drive-in hybrid of an event this year, with a total of 110 films (50 feature-length, 60 shorts); 50 percent of which are directed by women and 47 percent made by filmmakers of color.

The 2020 selections, new Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks said, “illuminate the urgent realities of this turbulent year.” Catch Mary Wharton’s “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President” on opening night (pictured at right), Laura Gabbert’s surprisingly prescient food film “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versaille,” Julia Reichart and Steve Bognar’s “9 to 5: The Story of a Movement” on closing night, and tons more; get passes and a Virtual Festival Technical Guide at hsdfi.org/attend.

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