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Cue the fist-pumps and pyrotechnics: For its 10th anniversary, Silverdocs is unstrapping its inner arena rocker. The film festival, which began in 2003 in Silver Spring’s AFI Silver Theatre and now occupies several venues in the suburb’s downtown, opens on June 18 with Don’t Stop Believin’, an earnest and inspirational film about the Filipino tribute singer who became the frontman of Journey. Five nights later Silverdocs will screen its closing-night film, Big Easy Express, in which three bands with varying degrees of debt to bluegrass—Mumford & Sons, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes—tour by train from Oakland to New Orleans.
If these seem like populist choices from a festival that’s reached middle age, consider the big tent Silverdocs continues to pitch each year, one with room for several brows.
This year’s slate stresses lives of creativity. Two titans of contemporary art are profiled in Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present and Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. There are eccentrics (Pee-Wee’s Playhouse co-creator Wayne White) and faded heroes (Cream drummer Ginger Baker and D.C. hardcore lions Bad Brains) and thwarted dreamers (opera director Robert LePage and James Brown impersonator Charles Bradley).
Silverdocs’ 114 films contain a handful of world premieres, as well as features from some of documentary film’s biggest names. In The House I Live In, Why We Fight director Eugene Jarecki overviews the American war on drugs. Detropia, by Jesus Camp directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, centers on a rebuilding Detroit.
But Silverdocs’ core audience—the crowd that’s serious about serious documentaries—may not want to rule out Journey. At the very least the band has something of a documentary pedigree: Frontiers and Beyond, a movie about Journey’s 1983 tour produced by NFL Films and featuring patrician narration from sports broadcaster John Facenda. He describes Journey and its crew as “70 modern-day troubadours and roustabouts, crisscrossing the country in seven tractor trailers and three buses, towing the portable pieces of state-of-the-art rock ‘n’ roll theater.”
Frontiers and Beyond isn’t showing at Silverdocs, an omission the festival may want to reconsider. After all, it’s the movie the band made to commemorate its 10th anniversary. —Jonathan L. Fischer
Silverdocs runs June 18 to 24 at the AFI Silver Theatre, Discovery HD Theater, and Round House Theatre in Silver Spring. Most passes are $13. For a full schedule and information about festival passes, visit silverdocs.com.
Monday, June 18
Openings
Schedule (Openings marked with **)
| Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey** | 7 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
Tuesday, June 19
Openings
Schedule (Openings marked with **)
| Virgin Tales** | 12:15 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| Chasing Ice** | 4:30 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
| Tea or Electricity** | 5:30 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| Sweet Dreams** | 6:15 p.m. | AFI Silver 2 |
| Tokyo Waka: A City Poem** | 7:15 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| 1/2 Revolution** | 8 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| Waiting Room** | 8:45 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| Meet the Fokkens** | 9:15 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| The Punk Syndrome** | 10:45 p.m. | AFI Silver 3 |
Shorts
|
Family Nightmare
| 3:15 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
Wednesday, June 20
Openings
Schedule (Openings marked with **)
| Chasing Ice | 12:45 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
| Waiting Room | 2:15 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
| Sun Kissed** | 4 p.m. | AFI Sivler Theatre 2 |
| The Punk Syndrome | 4:45 p.m. | AFI Silver 1 |
| Seeking Asian Female** | 6 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| Drivers Wanted** | 8 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| Virgin Tales | 8:30 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| China Heavyweight** | 10 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
Shorts
|
If Himmler Played Guitar**
Catcam** American Juggalo** Well-Fed** Meaning of Robots** | 12 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
Thursday, June 21
Openings
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Schedule (Openings marked with **)
| China Heavyweight | 11:30 a.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| Seeking Asian Female | 2 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
| Tea or Electricity | 3:30 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| A Girl Like Her** | 5:30 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists** | 6 p.m. | Discovery HD Theatre |
| Ann Richards’ Texas** | 6 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
| Detropia** | 7:30 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| Plimpton!** | 8:30 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
| Fame High** | 8:30 p.m. | Discovery HD Theatre |
| Joe Papp in Five Acts** | 9:15 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
| The Final Member** | 9:45 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
Shorts
|
If Himmler Played Guitar
Catcam American Juggalo Well-Fed Meaning of Robots | 4:45 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
Friday, June 22
Openings
Schedule (Openings marked with **)
| Meet the Fokkens | 10 a.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
| Detropia | 10:30 a.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| Photographic Memory** | 1:15 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| The Central Park Effect** | 2 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| Missing (shown with The Central Park Effect)** | 2 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| Wagner’s Dream** | 2:30 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
| Fame High | 3:30 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| The Revisionaries ** | 6 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| 1/2 Revolution | 6:15 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| The Final Member | 8:15 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| Sweet Dreams | 9 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| Drivers Wanted | 9:15 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
| Charles Bradley: Soul of America** | 10:30 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
Shorts
|
Family Nightmare
| 12 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
| 7: 30 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
Saturday, June 23
Openings
Schedule (Openings marked with **)
| Plimpton! | 12 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| A Girl Like Her | 1 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
| Trash Dance** | 3:45 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| Ann Richards’ Texas | 4:30 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| Joe Papp in Five Acts | 4:45 p.m. | Discovery HD Theater |
| Tokyo Waka: A City Poem | 5:45 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
| Sun Kissed | 6 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| Radio Unnameable** | 6:45 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| The Revisionaries | 8:15 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists | 10:45 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
Shorts
|
Mondays at Racine**
Love Hacking** | 12:30 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
Sunday, June 24
Openings
Schedule (Openings marked with **)
| Charles Bradley: Soul of America | 9:45 a.m. | Round House Theatre |
| The Central Park Effect | 10 a.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
| Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey | 12:15 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 |
| Photographic Memory | 12:45 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |
| Trash Dance | 1:30 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
| Radio Unnameable | 2 p.m. | Round House Theatre |
| Wagner’s Dream | 5:15 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
Shorts
| 10 a.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 1 | |
|
Mondays at Racine
Love Hacking | 11 a.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 3 |
| 5: 30 p.m. | AFI Silver Theatre 2 |