Document festival announces line-up

Gulȋstan, Land Of Roses is opening gala

by Amber Wilkinson

Gulȋstan, Land Of Roses
Gulȋstan, Land Of Roses

The programme for the 15th edition of the Document film festival at Glasgow's CCA has been announced. It will open on October 19 with Gulȋstan, Land Of Roses, directed by Zaynê Akyol and run until October 22, closing with Egil Hakjold Larsen's 69 Minutes Of 86 Days.

This year's festival aims to shine a light on global censorship issues, with unseen films from the banned 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival included in the line-up.

Festival co-ordinator, Eileen Daily said, “In this, Document’s 15th year and a year of unpredicted and unprecedented turmoil (both ludicrous and terrifying), we see it as our duty to interrogate the headlines and give a platform to issues which are lost in the noise.

"We cannot just accept the world as it is presented to us. We are lucky enough in this year’s programme to have some of the boldest and most innovative documentaries of 2017, you should come expecting to be challenged.”

Other highlights include Jehane Noujaim’s award-winning Control, about Al Jazeera’s representation of the second Iraq war to a global audience and Justin Schein's Left On Purpose, which aims to highlight the ethics of documentary filmmaking.

Panel discussions and ‘interrupted screenings’ will aim to provoke further debate.

There will be three, free community screenings ahead of the core Festival dates: UK premiere of The Memory Of The 25th Hour at Govanhill Baths, on September 21; Radio Kobani at Kinning Park Complex on October 5 and Nowhere To Hide at Platform on October 12. Free tickets for these screenings can be booked now via Eventbrite. Free Festival passes for community groups will also be available by invitation or by application.

The full line-up is below, for further details visit the official site.

● Gulȋstan, Land Of Roses
● 69 Minutes Of 86 Days
● Dil Leyla
● Prison Sisters
● Resistance Is Life
● Grab And Run
● Kim Jong-Il’s Comedy Club
● Spin
● A Filmless Festival
● I Want To Be A People’s Representative
● The Vachina Monologues
● Control Room
● We Are Humanity
● Left On Purpose
● No Man Is An Island
● Stranger In Paradise
● Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time
● La Batalla De Chile/The Battle Of Chile: Interrupted Screening
Machines
● Why Is Mr W. Laughing?
● We’ll Be Alright
● Butterflies
● Erase And Forget
Rat Film
● Plastic China
● Accidental Anarchist
● Eldorado XXI
Normal Autistic Film

Shorts Programme at Intermedia Gallery

● Children Of War: A Human Rights Anthology
● The Girls Club
● Home
● There Are No Syrian Refugees In Turkey
● Paper, Horse, And Birds
● Munecas Bravas
● Ne Pas Perdre Le Nord
● Green Screen Gringo/Radio Ghetto Relay
● Schrodinger’s Shoreditch
● Rebalda

Share this with others on...
News

Desert dogs Zeshaan Younus and Renee Gagner on I’ve Seen All I Need To See

Inviting curiosity Ildikó Enyedi on the value of science, perception, discovery and Silent Friend

Streaming Spotlight: the rites of Spring We shine our Beltane spotlight on films in which the old ways linger

Fighting fit for a debut feature Valéry Carnoy talks toxic masculinity, memory, confidence and Belgian 'soft-power'

Collective power We look ahead at the programme of this year's Folk Film Gathering

First wave of titles announced for Fantasia 2026 Sensory strangeness, queer vampires, sinister shopping and more lined up for Montreal.

More news and features

We're bringing you news and reviews from the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and Queer East.



We're looking forward to Cannes.



We've recently brought you coverage of Visions du Réel, Fantaspoa, Overlook, BFI Flare and SXSW, the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, the NY Rendezvous with French Cinema, the Glasgow Film Festival, the Berlinale, Sundance and Palm Springs.



Read our full for more.


Visit our festivals section.

Interact

Don't forget that you can follow us on YouTube for trailers of festival films and more. You can also find us on Mastodon and Bluesky.


It's a busy time for festivals and here's the latest from the spring events:


Cannes 16 titles added to line-up


Cannes Announces full jury


Cannes Directors' Fortnight selection


Cannes Payal Kapadia heads Critics' Week jury