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The Lindsay’s Third Annual Documentary Series
August 29, 2025 – September 11, 2025
A new school year is upon us. At The Lindsay, this means it’s officially documentary season!
Our third annual Documentary Series will get everyone’s intellectual juices flowing with a selection of six fun and fascinating films. Visit us from Aug. 29-Sept. 11 to soak up a wealth of information on art, ecology, language, health care and much more.
Art enthusiasts will definitely want to check out Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light and the Thomas Kinkade reexamination Art for Everybody. Sanibel explores the devastating effects of natural disasters, while Single-Use Planet enlists Beaver residents to investigate a manmade environmental calamity.
Rebel With a Clause is a lighthearted experiment in sewing divisions through bringing out our inner grammar nerds. Caregiving is a moving snapshot of the many, many Americans facing the daunting task of caring for a sick or aging loved one.
Tickets for these exhilarating and thought-provoking documentaries—plus a few showtimes also featuring filmmaker Q&As—are now available on our website. Embrace that academic spirit and enjoy a documentary (or two, or three) at The Lindsay!
Rebel With a Clause
NR | 1h 26min
Director: Brandt Johnson
Stars: Ellen Jovin, Brandt Johnson
For Ellen Jovin, grammar isn’t a set of rules in need of policing. That’s why this “roving grammarian” started setting up public “Grammar Tables” with the express purpose of inviting anyone to ask questions and, ideally, inspire civil and scintillating discussions.
Rebel With a Clause chronicles Jovin’s experiences behind her Grammar Table in all 50 states. Director (and Jovin’s husband) Brandt Johnson follows Jovin around as she interacts with everyday folks who have equally passionate opinions about the English language.
Johnson and Jovin’s documentary is “the funniest movie so far this year,” declares The Berkshire Edge. “The action is breezy and lighthearted” while also offering “instances of surprise” for even the most diehard grammar aficionados, writes The New York Times.
“Grammar is language glue that binds us together,” Jovin told CBC News. “While we’re talking … we get this human connection, this sense of community, and it just feels so joyous and sometimes even raucous.”
Johnson and Jovin will join us for an in-person Q&A following the 7 p.m. Rebel With a Clause screening on Friday, Aug. 29.
Art for Everybody
NR | 1h 46min
Director: Miranda Yousef
Star: Thomas Kinkade
Chances are good you’ve seen a Thomas Kinkade original. You may even own a print or mug made by one of the most commercially successful (and critically reviled) artists in American history.
Art for Everybody documents Kinkade’s difficult life and shows that there was more to this “Painter of Light” than anyone could’ve guessed.
Director Miranda Yousef takes viewers into Kinkade’s “vault” of previously unreleased works that his family discovered following the artist’s shocking 2012 death. There are thousands of paintings in that collection, many of which are darker and more formally interesting than the average Kinkade pastoral.
“Many fascinating threads” are explored in Yousef’s “insightful and highly entertaining documentary,” raves Variety. Art for Everybody is a “well-structured, meticulously researched and revealing” film, proclaims The New York Times.
Adds RogerEbert.com: “Miranda Yousef has come up with a structurally complex and very empathetic portrait of a troubled man. … This is a fascinating documentary about a family discovering the depth and complexity of their patriarch while coming to terms with his flaws.”
Sanibel
NR | 1h 6min
Director: Jamie Winterstern
Stars: Emily Miller, Judy Beerman
Sanibel was originally conceived as a wholesome look at seashell culture in Southwest Florida. Its two stars, Emily Miller and Judy Beerman, are jovial figures with deep roots in that very tourist-friendly area.
Six weeks into filming, Hurricane Ian ravaged the Florida coast—including the tiny island of Sanibel. There was no way director Jamie Winterstern’s film could continue as planned amidst so much destruction and despair.
“It looked like a nuclear bomb had let off,” Miller told WBBH-TV. “All I could do was cry and say, ‘My beloved island!’”
Winterstern’s film suddenly became an exercise in capturing a grieving community’s efforts to heal and rebuild. Miller and Beerman instantly became symbols of hope and examples of resilience.
“They’re very special people,” Winterstern told WBBH. “I think being able to give them a voice is an accomplishment of what this movie does, and I’m proud of it.”
Winterstern will participate in a virtual Q&A following the 5 p.m. Sanibel screening on Monday, Sept. 1.
Single-Use Planet
NR | 57min
Director: Steve Cowan
Stars: Rocco Martini, Sharon Pillar, Lew Villotti
We’re all taught from an early age to separate trash from recyclable materials. So then why does so much plastic still end up in our oceans? In Single-Use Planet, director Steve Cowan attempts to uncover the political and economic factors that have resulted in plastic becoming a major aquatic pollutant.
“While filming content for another project out at sea, we found ourselves at times amidst vast gyres of ocean plastic stretching from horizon to horizon,” Cowan tells KQED.
“We knew at that point that we had to tell the story of the growing dangers of the overuse of discardable, single-use plastics that are threatening our oceans and, in many cases, our health.”
Cowan’s investigation begins in Pennsylvania and features plenty of politicians, scientists and concerned citizens from the Keystone State. Single-Use Planet interviews a few figures from the Pittsburgh area—including multiple Beaver residents and leaders.
“Ultimately, each person and family will make their own decisions about using plastic,” says Cowan. “We simply hope to provide as much information as possible to inform those decisions.”
Local environmental experts and advocates will join us for an in-person panel discussion following the 2:45 p.m. Single Use-Planet screening on Saturday, Sept. 6.
Caregiving
PG | 1h 54min
Director: Chris Durrance
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Uzo Aduba, Matthew Cauli
Every day, roughly 63 million Americans serve as primary caregivers for an ill or aging loved one. Their lives are put on pause due to this immense responsibility they perform out of pure devotion—but also at great physical, mental and financial costs.
Caregiving spotlights the daily challenges and triumphs experienced by just a few of these individuals. Director Chris Durrance’s subjects include a young father caring for his wife and son; a 14-year-old helping his father look after his ailing mother; and a young woman taking care of her dementia-stricken father.
Durrance’s documentary was executive produced by Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper and narrated by Emmy winner Uzo Aduba. Both actors have served as caregivers for parents during their battles with cancer.
“Caregivers are heroic people,” says Cooper in a press release.”Their ability to focus and give all of themselves is something I stand in awe of. … It is my hope that Caregiving will provide affirmation and support for those who do this profoundly meaningful and increasingly vital work.”
The Lindsay showed a shorter Caregiving cut earlier this summer in front of a sold-out crowd. Documentary Series audiences will see the full version of this moving and powerful film.
Durrance will participate in a virtual Q&A following the 7 p.m. Caregiving showing on Monday, Sept. 8.
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light
NR | 1h 58min
Director: Paul Wagner
Stars: Claire Danes, Hugh Dancy
Georgia O’Keeffe was affectionately known as the “Mother of American Modernism.” She lived for 98 captivating years that produced countless masterpieces and a great deal of interest in her personal life.
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light is a comprehensive window into O’Keeffe’s remarkable talent, her relationship with fellow artist Alfred Stieglitz and the renowned painter’s lasting impact on an entire medium.
The film is narrated by Hannibal star Hugh Dancy, and Emmy winner Claire Danes serves as O’Keeffe’s voice. The Brightness of Light was directed by Paul Wagner, who won the 1985 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short as co-director of The Stone Carver.
Paul and Ellen Casey Wagner, his producing partner and wife, were inspired to make The Brightness of Light after perusing a museum exhibit about O’Keeffe in 2018. Their goal was to make the greatest documentary about O’Keeffe in nearly half a century.
“In the last years of Georgia O’Keeffe’s life, curator Sarah Greenough of the National Gallery of Art created an exhibit including letters to and from Alfred Stieglitz,” Paul Wagner says. “O’Keeffe had only two requests regarding the presentation. We have attempted, in creating our film, to adhere to the same two standards—to make it beautiful and to make it honest.”
Paul and Ellen Casey Wagner will participate in a virtual Q&A following the 3 p.m. The Brightness of Light showing on Sunday, Aug. 31.
