AFI Docs will be sitting out the summer this year.
After going fully online in 2020 and mostly online in 2021, as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, the festival — which has become an important launchpad for nonfiction films and a crucial piece of Washington’s cinematic ecosystem — will be folded into AFI Fest this November.
“D.C. is still where we want to be,” American Film Institute president and chief executive Bob Gazzale said on Tuesday, noting that the festival would have marked its 20th anniversary in June. “I just didn’t want to go halfway this year.”
AFI Fest has been through seismic changes before: In 2013, after 10 years in Silver Spring, the festival formerly known as Silverdocs was rebranded as AFI Docs, its running time shortened from seven days to five, its reach expanded to include venues in downtown Washington, and its role beefed up to connect filmmakers with policymakers and opinion leaders. It wasn’t uncommon to see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former senator Barbara Boxer or former Senate majority leader Harry Reid at a screening, or filmmakers trudging to Capitol Hill with issue-driven films in tow. The Charles Guggenheim Symposium, held in honor of the late Washington-based filmmaker, played host to such groundbreaking artists as Spike Lee, Werner Herzog, Barbara Kopple and Errol Morris.
AFI Docs, usually held in mid-June, also leveraged the D.C. media to help the marketing push for nonfiction films such as “Best of Enemies” (2015) and “American Factory” (2019), the latter of which won the Oscar for best documentary. (The Washington Post was a media sponsor of AFI Docs over the past several years.) Among filmmakers, marketers and connoisseurs, AFI Docs became a prestige stop on the festival circuit, its growth coinciding with an explosion of innovation in nonfiction storytelling and interest in the form, especially among younger audiences.
Gazzale’s decision to fold AFI Docs into AFI Fest, which will take place Nov. 2-6 — a decision he insists is temporary — reflects anxieties that still pervade the film community after two years navigating covid, the advent of streaming and changing audience expectations. In 2020, AFI Docs director Michael Lumpkin quickly pivoted to take the festival online; in 2021, most of the programming remained virtual, although there were some live screenings at AFI’s Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring. Although the lack of overhead made the festival a financial success, Gazzale observes, “The novelty of watching movies on a laptop has over time proven less of a benefit to both artist and audiences.” Documentary programming will be expanded at AFI Fest in November, but by how much is still to be determined.
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The latest move by AFI Docs exemplifies a film industry in the throes of hesitation, self-doubt and second guessing. In January, just two weeks before it was scheduled to begin, the Sundance Film Festival went entirely online for a second year in response to the omicron surge; although spring festivals such as True/False, South by Southwest and Tribeca intend to convene filmgoers in person, the documentary festival Full Frame will be entirely virtual in April. Amid that uncertainty, Gazzale has chosen to reassess how AFI Docs can have the most impact. One option, he suggests, may be holding a series of one-off events throughout the year in Washington, similar to a 2018 screening of “RBG” that helped it become a sleeper hit that summer.
Although Gazzale promises that AFI Docs has not gone away forever, apprehension has already rippled through the Washington film community that this might be the beginning of the end. The festival’s longtime presenting sponsor, AT&T, pulled out last year, another example of covid-era constrictions, and Lumpkin’s position has yet to be filled (Gazzale is in the process of interviewing candidates).
“We’ve always found a way,” Gazzale says, regarding the vacuum in corporate support and leadership. But those challenges, as well as the current environment of precariousness, have led him to take a breath and reassess. Referring to AFI Docs’ crucial role in creating the current golden age of documentaries he noted, “We have to figure out how to do that smarter in this new world. And we couldn’t do that in June.”
correction
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the festival’s longtime presenting sponsor, Audi, pulled out last year. The sponsor was AT&T. Also, Harry Reid was incorrectly referred to as former House speaker. He was Senate majority leader from 2007 through 2014. This version has been corrected.
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