Documentary Series 2026
September 11 – September 24
The Lindsay’s fourth annual Documentary Series returns soon—and it’s bigger than ever!
Mark the new school year with a selection of fun and fascinating films about art, nature, music and more. This series will include nine films playing multiple times between Friday, Sept. 11, and Thursday, Sept. 24.
Immerse yourself in the works of renowned artists with Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World and David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts. Enjoy the first theatrical run of local filmmaker Len Caric’s Forever Young: A Bob Dylan Tribute, highlighting musicians Billy Price and Joe Grushecky.
Discover Earth’s many wonders in A Life Illuminated and In Our Nature. Explore how relationships and artistic expression evolve with age in Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other. Contemplate pressing issues with Deepfaking Sam Altman, American Doctor and No Country for Mothers.
As usual, The Lindsay is delighted to offer filmmaker Q&As and other exclusive treats throughout this year’s Documentary Series. Join us on this enlightening and enriching journey!
Forever Young: A Bob Dylan Tribute
NR | 1h 10min
Director: Len Caric
Stars: Joe Grushecky, Billy Price
Last year, iconic Pittsburgh musicians Joe Grushecky and Billy Price teamed up for a one-night-only show at Lawrenceville’s Thunderbird Café & Music Hall. The hook: They would exclusively be playing Bob Dylan songs.
Forever Young: A Bob Dylan Tribute is local filmmaker Len Caric’s documentary leading up to and capturing that magical evening in Pittsburgh’s long and storied musical history.
“These are not young artists at the beginning of something—they are masters at the height of their wisdom and artistry. People need to see what great musicianship looks like,” says Caric.
He interviews both musicians and puts their combined performing chops on glorious display. The film’s world premiere is on Aug. 30 at The Lindsay, and its first theatrical run will be during our Documentary Series.
“When do you ever get to see two living legends of your own hometown on the big screen?” posits Caric. “This is a chance to celebrate Pittsburgh’s own, to feel proud of what this city produces and to experience music that genuinely means something.”
Exhibition on Screen: David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts
NR | 1h 425min
Director: Phil Grabsky
Star: David Hockney, Martin Gayford, Tim Marlow
David Hockney, a globally celebrated artist, died earlier this year at age 88. The English painter “restored the human form to art,” The New York Times declared in his obituary.
The Lindsay is honoring this late legend by bringing back Exhibition on Screen: David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts. Director Phil Grabsky focuses on two well-known exhibitions held in 2012 and 2016 at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.
The film offers a fresh look at many Hockney originals and in-depth interviews with the man himself.
Hockney’s unequivocal talent delivers a “splash of spring to make hearts soar,” raves The Times. “This illuminating documentary portrait” immortalizes “a master in sharp focus,” praises The Guardian.
“There’s copious interview material with the artist. … Hockney comes across as an ever-enthusiastic, always curious figure, forever concerned with painting and how to make his marks on the canvas.”
Deepfaking Sam Altman
NR | 1h 33min
Director: Adam Bhala Lough
Stars: Adam Bhala Lough, Divyendra Singh Jadoun, Kara Swisher
Adam Bhala Lough found himself at a crossroads. The filmmaker’s many attempts to interview OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had failed. To save his documentary, Lough decided to create and interview an AI facsimile of Altman.
That’s how “Sam Bot” was born and became the driving force behind Deepfaking Sam Altman. This absurd premise is both comedy gold and an avenue for bigger questions about humanity’s relationship with AI.
“Give Lough credit: His film simultaneously illustrates the deficiencies of generative AI and the dangers of investing in it emotionally, while remaining … self-amused in a distinctly human way,” writes The New York Times.
Lough’s musings about whether he is actually forming a real attachment to “Sam Bot” provides the heart of this “sardonic and surprisingly sweet look at the burgeoning influence of ChatGPT,” applauds ScreenRant.
Rolling Stone adds: “Deepfaking Sam Altman is a globe-trotting, thought-provoking, utterly surreal exploration of how far today’s AI can be pushed and whether it can ever really substitute for human ingenuity.”
In Our Nature
NR | 60min
Director: James Parker
Stars: Hannah Bodham Blackwell, Quilen Blackwell, Richard Louv
American children are averaging mere minutes outside every day and hours staring at screens. This has led to increases in obesity, isolation and other unhealthy habits continuing into adulthood.
In Our Nature attempts to address this growing problem by showing the efforts being made to give kids information information and resources to take advantage of the great outdoors.
You’ll find out how Southside Blooms in Chicago, Red Oak Forest School in Kentucky and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) in San Antonio are creating green-space access for local youths.
Director James Parker’s film “serves as a tool that reminds viewers of their place on the planet and how crucial it is that they understand and preserve the nature around them,” compliments The Washington Informer.
We hear in the film: “The stakes are whether we want our kids and future generations to be more alive or less alive. It’s kind of that fundamental.”
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
NR | 1h 31min
Director: Sasha Waters
Stars: Mary Oliver, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” That’s a line from Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day, which was part of a collection that won the 1992 National Book Award.
You’ll learn exactly how she spent her extraordinary life after watching Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World. The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet attained universal acclaim during her long career.
Famous figures such as Stephen Colbert, Oprah Winfrey, Helena Bonham Carter and Steve Buscemi recite a few of Oliver’s most beloved poems. You’ll also hear from her close friends, including filmmaker John Waters.
Viewers will be “moved by the film’s soft nature that mirrors Oliver’s practice and mind,” proclaims RogerEbert.com. It “makes an affecting case for her work and gives us a vivid look at her world,” lauds The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s an entertaining bio-doc that puts due emphasis on Oliver’s writing, in all its elegant and empathetic simplicity.”
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
NR | 1h 40min
Directors: Manon Ouimet, Jacob Perlmutter
Stars: Maggie Barrett, Joel Meyerowitz
Maggie Barrett, a struggling novelist, and Joel Meyerowitz, a successful photographer, met later in life, fell in love and married. Now in their golden years, the couple grapples with creative fulfillment and their own mortalities.
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other documents their ever-evolving love story to an inflection point when Joel, 84, is tasked with taking care of Maggie, 75, after she breaks her femur.
Directors Manon Ouimet and Jacob Perlmutter capture the couple’s shared joys and festering resentments during this particularly raw time. Hard truths are shared as Maggie and Joel search for collective and individual peace.
“Watching the two navigate the unknown with such frankness is part of what makes this documentary engaging,” praises Next Best Picture. It succeeds at “capturing the tiny nuances that add up to make a life,” commends Variety.
“Barrett and Meyerowitz open up their relationship honestly, inviting curious eyes without any vanity on their part. Perlmutter and Ouimet’s observational filmmaking is attuned to capturing the nuances that make this story intriguing.”
Note: The Thursday, Sept. 24, screening at 1 p.m. kicks off the Valley Care Foundation Aging Seniors Series at The Lindsay. Tickets for this special screening and associated event, courtesy of the Valley Care Foundation, are free to seniors 55 plus. Details to come!
A Life Illuminated
NR | 1h 29min
Director: Tasha Van Zandt
Star: Edith Widder
Edith Widder has always believed that the bottom of the ocean would be less scary if we could simply see it. Her pioneering marine bioluminescence work has enabled us to witness some of this planet’s most wondrous residents.
A Life Illuminated spotlights Widder and her ongoing quest to communicate with Earth’s most mysterious creatures using the language of light. As she says while embarking on one underwater voyage, “I never get tired of this.”
Director Tasha Van Zandt follows Widder on these descents into the ocean’s depths, where she obtained astonishing footage of rarely seen marine life in their natural habitats.
“The film serves as a notably feminist tribute to Dr. Widder as she does for marine life what Jane Goodall did for primates,” writes POV Magazine. “A Life Illuminated builds a rousing story of persevering in the face of adversity.”
IndieWire adds: “That compulsion—a genuine, profound desire to share her findings with the world—makes for a classic, stick-to-your ribs documentary experience about a fascinating person.”
American Doctor
NR | 1h 33min
Director: Poh Si Teng
Stars: Thaer Ahmad, Mark Perlmutter, Feroze Sidhwa
Three U.S. physicians—one Jewish, one Palestinian and one Zoroastrian—volunteer in Gaza.
American Doctor takes viewers into severely under-resourced hospitals and operating rooms in that region. The doctors put their expertise to the test in order to save the wounded and refuse to stay silent upon returning home.
“The hospital scenes are the film’s heart, and they have an immediacy that the interspersed footage of the doctors at home in the United States cannot match,” writes The New York Times.
This “vital documentary” is propelled by “tremendously effective experts from different walks of life,” applauds Collider. Every American should see “director Poh Si Teng’s unflinching new exposé,” proclaims The Hollywood Reporter.
“What makes American Doctor stand out is how it eschews the bigger picture to focus primarily on the practical. … What makes American Doctor so powerful is the way it reveals the shared humanity of physicians and patients in the face of death.”
NR | 1h 15min
Director: Raeshem Nijhon
Star: Reshma Saujani
Motherhood can feel impossible, especially with social media trying to label women as either a “girl boss” or “tradwife.” Culture wars distract from the systems that make it difficult for many American mothers to feel supported.
No Country for Mothers follows Reshma Saujani, CEO and founder of national nonprofit Moms First, as she guides audiences through the past and present of American motherhood.
“We’ve been intentionally divided and distracted through culture wars, and mostly I think a lot by politicians,” Saujani tells The Guardian. “I think that the only way to beat back the culture wars is to get moms to come together.”
No Country for Mothers feels like “an antidote to the isolation many mothers may be feeling and the larger cultural divides that are separating mothers,” raves Forbes.
Saujani tells The Guardian: “They know that the moment that we choose our power over their blame, it’s over for them. This film is gasoline, and we are the match.”
Note: For the screening on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 6:30 p.m., Pittsburgh Today Live co-host Heather Abraham and YaJagoff! co-founder Rachael Rennebeck will introduce the show and lead a post-screening panel discussion.
