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USA 2025 | Documentary Feauture | Directed by Lindsay Utz, Michelle Walshe | World Premiere Sundance Film Festival 2025 |

A view inside the life of former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, capturing her through five tumultuous years in power and beyond as she redefined leadership on the world stage. Jacinda Ardern’s outlook is summarized by a quote from her childhood hero, Sir Ernest Shackleton: “Optimism is true moral courage.” She reluctantly took on what she called “the worst job in politics” as Leader of the Opposition. Then as prime minister, Ardern went on to lead with humanity, compassion, and common sense. She didn’t hesitate to implement nationwide gun law reforms following a devastating mass shooting and guided her country through the pandemic by relying on science — even at the expense of her own popularity. Co-directors Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe craft an intimate portrait of Ardern’s journey, featuring footage shot by her husband and never-before heard audio interviews recorded while she was prime minister. As only the second head of state in the world to give birth while in office, she was relentlessly challenged to prove her competence as a leader, which is why stepping down earlier than expected was an act of confidence, not a sign of defeat.

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USA 2025 | Documentary Feauture | Directed by Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss | World Premiere Sundance Film Festival 2025 |

When upstate New York’s Middletown High School received audiovisual recording equipment, an unconventional and devoted teacher, Fred Isseks, started a class in the early 1990s called Electronic English to take advantage of the resources. Turning his classroom into a production studio, Isseks encouraged his students to find the stories that needed telling, and he taught them how to shoot, produce, and edit the footage, even inviting local news figures to be interviewed by the class. But the rumor that a local landfill was dumping toxic waste into the water supply, unbeknownst to the townspeople, became a fixation for Isseks. His students invested themselves in a mission to uncover the truth and make it be known, with their youthful demeanor helping to sometimes gain access to those who didn’t take their class project seriously.

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USA 2024 | Documentary Feauture | Directed by Tony Gerber, Jesse Moss | World Premiere Sundance Film Festival 2024 |

What if Jan. 6 happened again, only much, much worse? In a new Sundance documentary, 'War Game,’ politicians and military leaders simulate another contested election, in January 2025, and take it to the extreme. In “War Game,” a new documentary from Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber, these men are members of the Order of Columbus, an extremely religious, paramilitary organization that refuses to accept the results of a contested presidential election. This is not real. It’s part of an unscripted, real-time “war game” simulation being conducted by a nonpartisan veterans group called Vet Voice Foundation — inspired by a Washington Post op-ed from three retired generals who warned that the government needed to start preparing for another, even more deadly insurrection in the wake of the 2024 election.

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USA 2024 | Documentary Feauture | Directed by Amanda McBain, Jesse Moss | World Premiere Sundance Film Festival 2024 | Apple +

What would American democracy look like in the hands of teenage girls? A political coming-of-age story and a stirring reimagination of what it means to govern, “Girls State" follows young female leaders — from wildly different backgrounds across Missouri — as they navigate an immersive experiment to build a government from the ground up. As questions of race and gender equality in a representational democracy reach a fever pitch, these young women confront the complicated paths women must navigate to build political power. Following a distinctly female perspective and filled with teenage insecurity, biting humor and a yearning for true friendship, the young leaders of “Girls State” win hearts and minds—not just elections.

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USA 2023 | Documentary Feauture | Directed by Matthew Heinemann | World Premiere Telluiride Film Festival 2023

“American Symphony,” Matthew Heineman’s documentary portrait of the artist as a man pulled from all sides, begins in early 2022, just as Batiste starts crafting the eponymous original composition and Jaouad prepares to reenter the hospital. Heineman follows the couple during the tumultuous year as Batiste juggles various professional demands while supporting his partner during her cancer treatments. Batiste and Jaouad’s simpatico creative attitudes keeps their shared spirit afloat during this period; Heineman deliberately contrasts Jaouad’s foray into painting while in the hospital — a necessary creative shift given the radiation’s effect on her vision rendered her incapable of reading or writing — with Batiste’s musical labor. “American Symphony” culminates with Batiste’s premiere of the symphony at Carnegie Hall, but it really captures a chaotic year in the life of a musician.

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In 2018, a shocking event made headlines around the world: a young American missionary, John Chau, was killed by arrows while attempting to contact one of the world’s most isolated Indigenous peoples on remote North Sentinel Island. From EmmyⓇ-winning directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (“Boys State”) with OscarⓇ-winning producer Simon Chinn and Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn of Lightbox, comes National Geographic Documentary Films’ THE MISSION, which uncovers the gripping story beyond the headlines. Through exclusive interviews and with unprecedented access to Chau’s secret plans, personal diaries, and video archives, THE MISSION examines the mythology of exploration that inspired him, the evangelical community that supported his quest, and reveals his own father’s heartbreak as Chau’s youthful thirst for adventure became a fatal obsession.

Produced by: Jonathan Chinn, Simon Chinn, Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine, Will Cohen

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USA 2022 | Documentary Series | Directed by Zach Heinzerling | HULU | World Premiere HULU

Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence

A group of bright Sarah Lawrence College students fall under the dark influence of a friend’s father, Larry Ray. With unprecedented access to the survivors who lived with Ray, the film follows the cult from its origins through its still-unfolding aftermath.

Executive producers: Zachary Heinzerling, Liz Garbus, Dan Cogan, Jon Bardin, Krista Parris, Mindy Goldberg

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USA 2022 | Documentary Series | Directed by Jenny Carchman | HBO MAX + / | World Premiere HBO

Sex Diaries chronicles eight New Yorkers in short, intimate profile as they navigate sex and dating in the city. The verité portraits are woven together with video diaries that share personal reflections on dating, cultivating relationships and exploring sexual desire, and include check-ins with Alyssa Shelasky, editor of New York Magazine’s “Sex Diaries” column, as diarists recount the ups and downs of their experiences. A contemporary look at a search for connection, Sex Diaries offers a range of unique explorations of sex, intimacy, and relationships today.

Credits: Produced by Vox Media Studios; directed by Jenny Carchman; episodes three and four are directed by Carchman and Alexandra Nikolchev; produced by Shirel Kozak, Alexandra Nikolchev, Mae Ryan; co-executive produced by Alyssa Shelasky; executive produced by Big Pond Films’ Allyson Luchak and Jenny Carchman, Mark W. Olsen and Max Heckman with Scoop Wasserstein and Motto Pictures' Julie Goldman.

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USA 2022 | Documentary Series | Directed by Liz Garbus | Netflix + / Story Syndicate | World Premiere NETFLIX

Harry & Meghan is an unprecedented six-part documentary series that explores the span of their relationship, from the early days of the couple’s courtship to the challenges and controversies that prompted them to step back from the royal family. The series includes interviews with family and friends who’ve never spoken publicly about the couple’s relationship before, as well as historians and journalists who dissect how media influenced Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the royal family and the Commonwealth at large. At its core, their relationship looks like many others: They met, had a whirlwind romance, fell in love, got married, had children, and built a life based on shared values and mutual support of each other’s work and ambitions. But the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are no ordinary couple. Theirs is one of the most high-profile love stories in history, and even the most plugged-in fans and followers of their story have never heard it told like this before.

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Children of the Underground tells the pulse-pounding true story of charismatic vigilante Faye Yager, who built a vast underground network that hid hundreds of mothers and children, saving them from the alleged abuse of husbands and fathers when a broken court system would not. Stepping out into the spotlight of daytime TV talk shows to raise awareness for the cause, Yager placed herself in the crosshairs of the FBI, setting off a highly publicized trial that raised the specter of a dark side to the movement. When she helped the ex-wife and children of the wealthy banker who pioneered the ATM disappear, Yager finally met her match and a loud public reckoning was at hand. Was Faye Yager actually the saint so many people made her out to be? Enter the true story of her Underground and learn the tangled truth about this visionary but haunted heroine.

The series is produced by Story Syndicate, the production house founded by Oscar® and Emmy® Award-winning filmmakers Dan Cogan and Liz Garbus (I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Britney Vs Spears and Nuclear Family).

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In covert modern warfare, the line between right and wrong has blurred. This docuseries examines the moral ambiguities of war as embodied by the 2018 case in which a US Navy SEAL platoon accused its chief, Eddie Gallagher, of war crimes.

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The First Wave a documentary feature, spotlighting the everyday heroes inside one of the country’s hardest hit hospitals at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic as they come together to fight one of the greatest threats the world has ever encountered.