7 Uplifting Sundance-Supported Documentaries the DFP Team Recommends This Fall

By Jessica Herndon

Life can be chaotic and rough, so when it’s time to watch a film, we understand the urge to cue up a feel-good flick. Luckily, our Documentary Film Program has had the privilege of supporting storytellers who have created works that are incredibly uplifting. These films ultimately fill us with hope, perk us up, and can rouse laughs along the way. This fall, seven inspiring nonfiction stories with ties to Sundance Institute through different stages of development with our Documentary Fund, Documentary Film Producers Track, and labs and intensives are reaching wider audiences through theatrical releases, TV broadcasts, and streaming services.  

Harness a healthy dose of heartwarming energy through a collection of touching docs with ties to the Institute, like Hummingbirds, a coming-of-age story about the creative expression of two best friends living on the Texas-Mexico border; You Were My First Boyfriend, which finds Cecilia Aldarondo recreating awkward moments from her teen years; and The Truffle Hunters, the story of a group of men 70 years and older who search for truffles with their dogs.

Below, check out our list of Sundance-supported documentaries and hear from our DFP team members about the true stories.

Agent of Happiness
Directors: Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
Producers: Arun Bhattarai, Noémi Veronika Szakonyi, Máté Artur Vincze
Logline: Amber is one of the many agents working for the Bhutanese government to measure people’s happiness levels among the remote Himalayan mountains. But will he find his own along the way? 
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2021 Documentary Fund and premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. 
“Tasked with documenting it in others, Amber is searching for his own happiness among situational odds. Directors Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó have crafted a heartwarming, comedic, and sensitive depiction of this journey. Expertly balancing the pangs of yearning with glimmers of hope, they have landed with an exceptionally earnest film that exudes warmth. Highly relatable from any corner of the world.” — Kat Schulze, Coordinator, Documentary Film and Ignite Programs

Hail Satan?
Director: Penny Lane
Producer: Gabriel Sedgwick
Synopsis: Hail Satan? offers a look at a group of misunderstood outsiders whose commitment to social and political justice has empowered thousands of people. An inspiring and entertaining documentary from acclaimed director Penny Lane
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2018 Documentary Fund, Creative Producing Documentary Lab, and Creative Producing Summit and premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
“Penny Lane’s body of work has been an enduring invitation to feel, laugh, and think — often in that order — with Hail, Satan? being the film with the widest reach to date. Exploring the Satanic Temple’s pursuit of religious freedom, Lane has created a bitingly funny indictment of the Christian right’s assumption of power within American politics.” — Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film and Artist Programs

Hummingbirds 
Directors: Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía “Beba” Contreras
Producers: Jillian Schlesinger, Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, Leslie Benavides, Diane Ng, Ana Rodríguez-Falcó, Rivkah Beth Medow
Logline: Bordertown besties make magic of one last summer together as they face uncertain futures.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2020 Documentary Film Grant and the 2021 Women In Film/Sundance Institute Financing Intensive.
“Co-directors and protagonists Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía ‘Beba’ Contreras have crafted a transcendent portrait of being young, queer, and creative — breaking boundaries and borders imposed by the government or self-imposed. While the film explores deeply serious themes, the manner of exploration is through love and humor, exuding joy and laughter.” — Kristin Feeley

The Mole Agent
Director: Maite Alberdi
Producer: Marcela Santibañez
Logline: This moving documentary follows an 83-year-old widower on a spy mission as he infiltrates a nursing home to see if its residents are being mistreated.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2018 Documentary Fund and premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. 
“Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards, The Mole Agent is a spy movie unlike anything you have ever seen! A poignant look into the rich lives of an older persons community in Chile. Grounded by Sergio’s kindness and determination, you watch as a spy blossoms. Hard to walk away from this without laughter exuding and happy tears falling. And once you’ve wiped those tears, immediately begin any film by the incomparable director, Maite Alberdi, for films of equal sensitivity.” — Kat Schulze, Coordinator, Documentary Film and Ignite Programs

Shirkers
Director: Sandi Tan
Producers: Sandi Tan, Jessica Levin, Maya E. Rudolph
Logline: In 1992, Sandi Tan and her friends shot a quirky film on the streets of Singapore. Then the footage disappeared, sending her on a hunt for answers.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2015, 2016, and 2017 Documentary Film Grant, 2017 Creative Producing Summit, 2017 Women’s Financing Intensive, and premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary.
“Director Sandi Tan tackles the cold case of a missing trove of film canisters from her youth, which contain not just celluloid, but the vestiges of a simpler time. The ensuing investigation is a playfully curious ode to the mid-1990s DIY culture, the art of cinema, and those fierce childhood bonds you swear will never fade.” — Evan Neff, Coordinator, Documentary Fund

The Truffle Hunters
Directors: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw 
Producers: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Synopsis: Deep in the forests of Piedmont, Italy, a handful of men, 70 or 80 years young, hunt for the rare and expensive white Alba truffle, which to date has resisted all of modern science’s efforts at cultivation. They’re guided by a secret culture and training passed down through generations, as well as by the noses of their cherished and expertly trained dogs. They live a simpler, slower way of life, in harmony with their loyal animals and their picture-perfect land, seemingly straight out of a fairy tale. They’re untethered to cell phone screens or the internet, opting instead to make their food and drink by hand and prioritizing in-person connections and community.
The demand for white truffles increases year after year, even as the supply decreases. As a result of climate change, deforestation, and the lack of young people taking up the mantle, the truffle hunters’ secrets are more coveted than ever. However, as it soon becomes clear, these aging men may just hold something much more valuable than even this prized delicacy: the secret to a rich and meaningful life.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2018 Documentary Fund, 2019 Film Music and Sound Design Lab, Catalyst program, and premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. 
“A wondrous and layered cinematic feast for the eyes, The Truffle Hunters makes you wish teleportation to Italian hills was real and that there was technology to beam truffle-filled food to your living room. Until science catches up to these wishes, sit down and behold the intimate beauty of human and canine rituals expertly captured by directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw.” — Kat Schulze, Coordinator, Documentary Film and Ignite Programs

You Were My First Boyfriend
Directors: Cecilia Aldarondo, Sarah Enid Hagey
Producers: Cecilia Aldarondo, Ines Hofmann Kanna
Logline: In the hybrid documentary You Were My First Boyfriend, filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo embarks on a quest to reconcile her tortured teen years. She revisits some of her most formative and cringeworthy childhood experiences by tracking down old crushes and reenacting visceral memories of youthful humiliation and desire — ultimately finding a path to self-acceptance.
Supported by Sundance Institute’s 2017 Women’s Financing Intensive and 2018 Documentary Fund.
“A film that is so creatively ambitious and filled with heart you can’t help but cry and laugh out loud. Director Cecilia Aldarondo invites the audience into those awkward teen years via hilarious and emotional reenactments, interviews, musings, and recalibrations of old narratives. Confronting said narratives that may be easier to leave dormant, this film showcases the power of excavation. Like all of Aldarondo’s films, the result is this quiet and unsuspecting emotional catharsis that will leave you pondering for days to come.” — Kat Schulze, Coordinator, Documentary Film and Ignite Programs