Sean Penn, Ava DuVernay and Laura Poitras Turn Out For San Francisco’s Doc Stories

Sean Penn isn’t exactly a fixture on the regional documentary festival circuit. But SFFILM’s Doc Stories has a way of attracting high-profile supporters.

On Saturday, Penn was at the fest’s Vogue Theatre in San Francisco to introduce James Marcus Haney’s “Black Sunflowers,” a documentary about a generation of young Ukrainians coming of age amid martial law and the demands of a country at war. Penn, an outspoken supporter of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, signed on as the film’s executive producer before its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

“Who do you imagine yourself singing like if you could sing like somebody?” Penn told the packed theater. “This movie is the song I dreamed I could sing.”

Penn was one of several Oscar winners at the 12th edition of Doc Stories that concluded on Sunday.

Anne Lai, SFFILM executive director, said the organization’s mission, embodied by Doc Stories and the annual San Francisco Film Festival, is to keep independent voices alive by supporting filmmakers with distinctive work and helping them reach audiences.

“That means not only supporting films and filmmakers who are trying to put distinctive work out into the world, but also growing and sharing that work with audiences,” said Lai. “So as we talk about consolidations of studios and what happens on the margins, I think a lot about us as an organization is trying to look at what is in the margins because a lot of the most interesting things do not come through the mainstream.”

Academy Award-winner Laura Poitras attended the fest with her short “They’re Here,” about ICE agents’ descent on Minneapolis. It was one of 11 short documentaries that screened at Doc Stories.

Poitras and “They’re Here” co-director Rachel Lauren Mueller spoke in depth about making the film during the fest’s Doc Talks series.

“We describe (the film) as a horror documentary,” said Mueller, who is Minneapolis-based and shot most of the doc in January and February 2026 while residents were evading and resisting the paramilitary occupation of their city.

“Being in the occupation just as a human being and not even as a filmmaker was one of the most difficult experiences of my life,” Mueller said. “There were tanks rolling down my street. It was not the first time. That also happened after the murder of George Floyd, but this was different because the streets were filled with tear gas. They were kidnapping people from street corners right around my house.”

Poitras, known for her feature documentaries including “Citizenfour,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” and “Cover-Up,” said that the gravity of the situation was one reason she and Mueller decided to make “They’re Here” a short film.

“I’ve worked in short form and long form, and the truth is feature-length documentaries often take longer, and I think we both felt a sense of urgency of making something that could be released in a more contemporaneous moment,” said Poitras.

“They’re Here” was one of several Oscar-qualified films that screened at Doc Stories. Others included Sam Pollard’s “Tutu,” J.M. Harper’s “Soul Patrol,” and Ava DuVernay‘s “14th.”

DuVernay said the Democrats’ midterm victory could make “14th” and its exploration of belonging and birthright citizenship even more resonant.

“The film goes far beyond this moment,” said DuVernay. “This film is about the structural challenges that we have had as a country, and until you know the machinery of elections, they are not going to get us to where we need to be. So, this is the right time for people to get past the vote, vote, vote of it all and into the OK, this is how we actually make systemic change.”

Doc Stories is considered an essential stop on the Oscar-season circuit because of its curation and the Bay Area’s concentration of AMPAS Documentary Branch and guild members. Its selections have a strong track record with the Academy. More than two dozen Doc Stories selections have earned Academy Award nominations, and several have won, including “No Other Land” and “Summer of Soul.”

“The doc community here is very engaged, committed, and vibrant, and they show up for each other,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s director of programming. “They want to see each other’s work and talk about what they are working on.

“There is usually some synergy just because of where we sit in the calendar year and the types of films that are campaigning, which is wonderful because it means we get a heightened profile for the festival. The doc community here is very engaged, committed, and vibrant, and they show up for each other. They want to see each other’s work and talk about what they are working on,” said Fairbanks.

Like DOC NYC’s annual Visionaries Luncheon, Doc Stories’ annual brunch brings together the who’s who of the doc community and lets filmmakers, producers, editors, cinematographers, and publicists schmooze with branch members before the Oscar Short List voting deadline. DuVernay and Netflix’s doc VP Adam Del Deo flew in for the lunch, as did the filmmakers behind “To Hold a Mountain” and Frontline’s Raney Aronson-Rath, who is campaigning for “One in a Million.”

Unlike for-profit DOC NYC, Doc Stories is a nonprofit festival, with a much smaller brunch than DOC NYC’s annual Visionaries Luncheon.

“Different organizations engage with the awards campaign in different ways,” said Fairbanks. “We don’t charge people a fee to be a part of our events. If you want access to the brunch, you can sponsor us, a nonprofit organization, and get access to the room; otherwise, you have to be a filmmaker who is a part of our organization, or you are an (AMPAS) voter. Monetizing that allows us to retain our independence when it comes to what we curate and what we put in front of audiences.”