Doc10 opens in Chicago with ‘Predators’ and ‘The Perfect Neighbor’

Chicago’s Doc10 film festival — one of the only documentary-exclusive film fests in the country — is celebrating its 10th anniversary at a high-pressure time for the art form.

The festival programs a highly selective list of 10 films and screens them through Sunday. Yet filmmakers say the surge of streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu has shifted demand away from more complex or highly political docs and toward commercialized films featuring cults, pop stars and celebrities.

This year, the industry is bracing for even more change, as federal cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities will mean less seed money available to kick-start projects.

“It is an existential threat. It is a crisis,” said Anthony Kaufman, senior programmer of Doc10, which has a reputation for showcasing films that end up on Oscars shortlists.

“I know lots of filmmakers who had films that were funded, and now the government is going back and saying to them, ‘We're rescinding your funding.’ They’ve already spent the money. In some cases, they’ve already made the film, and that money is now being rescinded.”

Proposed cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will also have ramifications for the industry; documentary filmmakers have a long history of securing local and national distribution through PBS.

“You could say we are almost starting over,” Kaufman said. “Obviously, there was a time in the American film industry before there was PBS. There was also a time when there were no streamers, and there was no distribution for documentaries. So, essentially, we’ve gone back.”

Even with these threats looming over the industry, the Doc10 filmmakers say they remain optimistic and eager to show their work in Chicago and participate in postshow talkbacks.

Emmy-winning filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir, whose "The Perfect Neighbor" examines a Florida shooting caught on bodycam footage, said this is a moment for filmmakers to collaborate — to pool resources and rally around each other at events like Doc10 to ensure important documentaries can still be made.

“My own company had a project that just got its grant cut,” Gandbhir said “The grant got cut, and we had to stop working. But did that mean we gave up completely? No.”

This year’s Doc10 exemplifies the thought-provoking films being crafted, Kaufman said. Highlights include works about unjust laws, untraditional love and a cult-classic true crime television show from the 2000s. There will also be free screenings through the Docs Across Chicago program at venues around the city, like the Chicago Cultural Center and the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Here are a few standouts of the fest:

‘The Perfect Neighbor’

Gandbhir’s "The Perfect Neighbor" chronicles the story of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother in Ocala, Florida, who was shot and killed by her neighbor. The incident stemmed from a dispute over kids playing in a field and garnered national attention amid the debate over stand your ground laws.

“The film organically highlights the dangers of stand your ground and how that law and the Castle Doctrine laws are used by people who are emboldened by them,” Gandbhir said. “When you look at the numbers, it’s about 700 additional people killed a year because of the Castle Doctrine laws.”

Netflix is set to distribute "The Perfect Neighbor," but first, Gandbhir wants to show the film at as many festivals as possible and offer audiences the forum for talk-backs.

"The Perfect Neighbor" screens at 3:30 p.m. May 3 at the Davis Theater, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave.

‘Mistress Dispeller’

Directed by Hong Kong–raised filmmaker Elizabeth Lo, "Mistress Dispeller" has already won awards on the festival circuit. This doc is a love story with an interesting twist.

“It’s about this new industry that’s emerged in China,” said Lo, “where if you find out your spouse is cheating on you, instead of directly confronting them, you can hire this woman called a ‘mistress dispeller’ to infiltrate your family under a covert identity and befriend your partner and also their mistress and kind of influence them to end the affair.”

It took Lo about four years to pull this doc together. It is shot in real time from the point when a wife, Mrs. Li, hires mistress dispeller Wang Zhenxi to repair her marriage. The film takes viewers on a journey as the "dispeller" befriends Mrs. Li, her husband and his mistress — and the eventual outcome.

“When I set out to make this film, I wanted to use the film as a way to get to know mainland China,” Lo said. “I thought the best way to get to know a culture in the deepest way is through our love stories, because that’s when we’re most vulnerable.”

"Mistress Dispeller" screens at 4 p.m. May 4 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.

‘Predators’

Director David Osit tackles the rise and fall of the popular television show "To Catch a Predator" in this documentary. The original series, hosted by Chris Hansen, was designed to literally catch abusers by staging fake meet-ups where unsuspecting child predators would be caught in the act and surprised by cameras, interviews and police.

“I never set out to make a film about 'To Catch a Predator,' but I one day discovered the online fandom community of the show, which is very small but very passionate,” Osit said. “Watching raw footage [of the show] was always really profound to me. I would have a very intense emotional back-and-forth, watching it going from feeling really bad for some of these guys, which the show doesn’t really make you feel, and then feeling disgusted at them. Trying to hold both was a kind of exhausting enterprise.”

His own emotional connection led him to dive deeper. On its face, the film appears to be a typical true crime doc. However, the award-winning Osit said "Predators" lets viewers rethink what they know about a series that birthed spinoffs, remakes and even trending TikToks where regular people set up — and sometimes even attack — child predators.

“We’re not used to watching reality television, documentaries or true crime television. We’re not used to watching this stuff with nuance and [engaging] with it in a way that requires contemplation,” Osit said. “But the raw footage had all this contemplation as a part of it, and I thought, 'What if I could create a film where you’d have to sit with both?'"

"Predators" screens a at 8:15 p.m. May 2 at the Davis Theater.