Emmy winner Nick Davis has a documentary coming that asks a question we should all be asking ourselves: What would I have done?

“This Ordinary Thing” tells the story of non-Jews who risked everything to save Jewish strangers during the Holocaust. The film drops on VOD June 12 across iTunes, Amazon, and major platforms, timed to Anne Frank’s birthday.

Davis weaves together never-before-seen archival footage with testimonies from over 40 rescuers who, working alone and putting their families in danger, saved thousands of lives. The kicker? None of them saw themselves as heroes.

To bring these stories to life, Davis assembled a cast of heavy hitters. Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons, F. Murray Abraham, Ellen Burstyn, Carrie Coon, Stephen Fry, Bill Irwin, and Joanna Gleason perform excerpts from the original transcripts. The ensemble has five Oscars between them, plus dozens of Emmy and Tony nominations.

The doc was nominated for Documentary of the Year at the 2026 Cinema for Peace Awards in Berlin. Music comes from Tony winner Adam Guettel.

“The word ‘inspiring’ does not cut it,” wrote The Forward.

It’s a timely reminder that even in the darkest moments, ordinary people can do extraordinary things. And it forces you to wonder if you’d have the guts to do the same.

One of the greatest documentaries ever made about filmmaking is getting the deluxe treatment it deserves. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse hits 4K UHD on May 19, exclusively through Lionsgate Limited.

Eleanor Coppola’s raw, unflinching chronicle of her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s chaotic production of Apocalypse Now remains a masterclass in documentary filmmaking. She captured everything, the disastrous weather delays, Martin Sheen’s health crisis, the political turmoil in the Philippines, and Francis spiraling under the weight of his own ambition. The documentary even includes secretly recorded conversations with Coppola at his most vulnerable.

The three-disc collector’s edition is loaded. Beyond the 4K restoration of the 97-minute doc, it includes audio commentary from Eleanor and Francis, plus a new featurette titled “Eleanor Coppola: Art Is All Around Us.” A third disc dives deep into Eleanor’s broader body of work, featuring her shorts from the ’70s and behind-the-scenes docs she shot on films like Marie Antoinette, The Virgin Suicides, and CQ.

Eleanor passed away in 2024, making this release a fitting tribute to an artist who understood that the struggle behind great art is often as compelling as the finished work itself. Pre-orders are live now at Lionsgate Limited for $79.99.

A surly middle schooler who only cares about plants might be the most relatable protagonist you’ll see this year.

“Mabel” opens today at Cinema Village in New York, marking the feature debut of director Nicholas Ma. The coming-of-age story centers on Callie, a biracial teen played by newcomer Lexi Perkel, who’s more interested in botany than people. After her family moves and she has to switch schools, Callie talks her way into a high school science class taught by substitute teacher Ms. G (Judy Greer). There, she starts an experiment growing chrysanthemums in complete darkness and somehow convinces her bubbly younger neighbor Agnes to help.

Christine Ko and Quincy Dunn-Baker round out the cast. Ma co-wrote the script with Joy Goodwin, and the film was produced by Ben Howe, Luca Borghese, and Helen Estabrook.

“Mabel” screened at the 2024 San Francisco Film Festival before landing its theatrical release. The film hits digital on April 21, just four days after its Cinema Village run begins.

It’s refreshing to see an indie coming-of-age story that ditches the usual teenage angst for something more specific. A precocious kid using plants as a bridge into adolescence? That’s a new one.

Spike Lee co-wrote an animated short about friendship under apartheid, and it’s making its world premiere at Tribeca Festival next month.

“Apart” follows two boys, Themba and Joel, whose bond is tested by the violence and racism of apartheid-era South Africa. The film was directed by Pola Maneli, a South African artist whose work has appeared on the cover of The New Yorker and hangs in the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Grammy-winning South African musician Black Coffee supervised the music, while fashion designer Laduma Ngxokolo designed isiXhosa-inspired wardrobe for the characters.

The 15-minute short blends traditional 2D animation, cutout, 3D, and 2.5D techniques. Over 600 days, a crew of 266 people produced 18,000 frames using 14 different software tools. The animation style nods to woodcut prints, the DIY art form used to spread anti-apartheid messages and evade censorship.

The entire film was made by human artists, no AI involved.

“Apart” screens twice at Tribeca as part of the Animated Shorts program curated by Whoopi Goldberg: June 6 at Spring Studios and June 13 at AMC 19th Street East.

For indie creators, it’s a reminder that handmade animation still matters, especially when telling stories rooted in history and cultural resistance.

A grocery run. A commute. Planting a tree in the yard. These mundane moments became the raw material for something unexpected.

IT GOES THAT QUICK follows two families across eight years as filmmakers Ashley Connor and Joe Stankus blur the line between documentary and fiction. What began as a playful project, casting their own relatives in short films about everyday life, evolved into something deeper as the cameras kept rolling.

Set against strip malls and highways in the American Northeast, the 70-minute feature captures the texture of ordinary existence. But as years pass and the filmmakers keep shooting, those trivial routines start to mean something. The result is part time capsule, part meditation on why we pick up cameras in the first place.

Connor, a cinematographer nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for MADELINE’S MADELINE, brings her eye to HBO’s THE CHAIR COMPANY and features like REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES. Stankus, a Brooklyn writer/director whose shorts have played New York Film Festival and Rotterdam, makes his feature debut here.

The film premieres April 25 at MoMI’s First Look Festival, with both directors in attendance. For indie filmmakers wrestling with how to make something personal without a budget, this one’s worth watching. Sometimes the best stories are hiding in your parents’ driveway.

A son’s tribute to his late father is heading back to where it all began.

“Voices: The Danny Gans Story” will screen three times at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival on April 25, 26, and 27. The timing is significant. Danny Gans attended Cal Poly SLO in 1976, playing baseball as a left-handed power hitter before being drafted by the Chicago White Sox. His widow also attended school there.

The documentary, directed by Danny’s son Andrew, explores the life of the legendary Las Vegas entertainer who held the title of “Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year” for more than a decade. Danny performed to sold-out crowds at The Mirage and Encore, beloved for his voice impressions, comedy, and heartfelt performances.

But the film digs deeper than the public persona. It examines the private complexities of a man who went from professional baseball to entertainment stardom.

Danny died suddenly in 2009. May 1, 2026 marks the 17th anniversary of his passing. The festival screenings fall during Mental Health Awareness Month, adding another layer of resonance to this emotional documentary.

Andrew will attend all three screenings and be available throughout the festival. The film has been winning awards and leaving audiences in tears at festivals nationwide.

A new series shot on Vancouver Island is about to make waves, and it’s the first bilingual French-English drama ever produced in British Columbia.

*Surf Bay, côte Ouest* launches nationally on TV5+ April 24th, with a Crave release set for 2027. The 10-episode series follows Camille Felton as Margot Swann, a pro surfer whose Olympic dreams collide with environmental activism when she fights to protect her hometown’s old-growth forest from tourism development. The clash puts her at odds with her own community and family.

Producer Anthony Cauchy, originally from France, developed the project after falling for BC’s surf scene. “The surf beaches of Vancouver Island are truly unique,” he says. Director Dominic Desjardins (*Paris Paris*) adds that the show offers “active environmentalism that isn’t defeatist at all, which feels refreshing.”

Shot in Tofino, Ucluelet, and around Vancouver, the production brought together a bilingual cast and crew, with over 60% speaking French. The series even landed a David Suzuki cameo and support from surf brands like Billabong and Rip Curl.

The series had its world premiere at Montreal’s Festival Courts d’un Soir, with a public Vancouver screening set for April 17th at L’Alliance Française.

For a BC indie production pulling off a bilingual series with this scope, it’s proof that regional stories can punch above their weight, especially when they tap into something universal like the fight to protect what you love.