Documentary films have become the conscience of the nation, providing a deeper study of contemporary, and often unnoticed, social issues. By using the unique medium of film, Documentarians are able to cultivate a more compelling and fruitful discussion by mixing strongly-driven narratives with vivid imagery.

In recognition of the rising importance of documentaries to public dialogue, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society is proud to announce its twelfth annual Documentary Week from July 27 – August 1, 2026.

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ASK E. JEAN

Monday, July 27 7:30pm

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Followed by a Q&A with film director Ivy Meeropol

ASK E. JEAN is the thrilling story of E. Jean Carroll’s life, from her early days as Miss Cheerleader USA to her rise as a trailblazing journalist, author, and beloved advice columnist. Carroll broke barriers as the first female editor at Esquire, Playboy, and Outside, helping to redefine women’s roles in media with her sharp wit and fearless voice. In recent years, she reignited public discourse by standing up to power, becoming the only woman to beat Donald Trump twice in court, and sparking a national conversation about truth, accountability, and resilience. This film is a portrait of an indomitable woman who proved it’s never too late to reclaim your voice, rewrite your story, and change the world.

“Enthralling and unapologetic as it’s subject” – Variety

Ivy Meeropol is the Director and Producer of ASK E. JEAN, a feature documentary film about the advice columnist and journalist E Jean Carroll who sued Donald Trump for rape and defamation and won. In 2023, she completed AFTER THE BITE (HBO), a feature documentary about the explosion of great white sharks and seals on Cape Cod. She premiered her HBO documentary ROY COHN: BULLY, COWARD, VICTIM at the 2019 New York Film Festival and in 2020 the film was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary. She was the Senior Story Producer on the CNNFilms documentary THE END: INSIDE THE LAST DAYS OF THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE, which premiered at the National Archives in Washington, DC. She directed and produced the feature INDIAN POINT, about an aging nuclear power plant close to New York City, which was honored with the Frontline Award for Journalism in a Documentary Film and aired on NHK during the anniversary of Fukushima in Japan. Ivy created and directed the 6-part nonfiction series THE HILL (Sundance Channel), about Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) and his young staff (nominated for best series by the International Documentary Association). She produced the feature documentary MUSEUM TOWN, which premiered at SXSW, and has produced and directed for the Emmy Award winning climate change series YEARS OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (National Geographic) and for DEATH ROW STORIES (CNN). Ivy’s debut film, HEIR TO AN EXECUTION (HBO), explored the legacy of her grandparents Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. It premiered at Sundance and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and serves on the Professional Advisory Board of The Jacob Burns Film Center.

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BEHIND THE LINES

Wednesday, July 29 7:30pm

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Followed by a Q&A with film director and writer John B. Benitz and book author Andrew Carroll, subject of the film.

Historian Andrew Carroll travels the world to find and preserve letters written during times of war. The film is based on Carroll’s New York Times best-selling book of the same name, and was selected as a finalist for the 2024 Ken Burns Prize for Film.

Behind the Lines is narrated by Annette Bening and features performances by Laura Dern, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Michael C. Hall, Gary Cole, Rachel Bloom, Dewanda Wise, Paul Walter Hauser, Wes Studi, among others.

John B. Benitz is a writer, director, and producer of both stage and screen. His film Children of the Struggle, starring civil rights icon Dick Gregory was shown in film festivals across the country, on PBS, and is seen in high schools and colleges nationwide. It was also recognized by the NAACP Film Commission for its “true and poignant portrayal of the fight for black voting rights.” He was a consulting producer for the indie film hit, MFA seen on Netflix and has directed theatre at such venues as the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, The Kennedy Center, Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center and LaMama. 

Behind the Lines was one of six finalists of the coveted Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, which recognizes exemplary documentary films that tell compelling stories about American history. In addition, the film won Best Documentary at the Croatia International Film Festival and he was nominated as Best Director at the Woodstock International Film Festival.

He is a full professor at Chapman University in California where he teaches acting.

Andrew Carroll is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including Letters of a Nation, War Letters, and Behind the Lines.

He edited the critically acclaimed anthology Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families, and the book inspired the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-award-winning film, “Operation Homecoming.”

He is the founder of the Legacy Project, an all-volunteer initiative that seeks out war-related correspondences from every conflict in U.S. history, from the Revolution to the present day, to honor the legacy and sacrifices of this nation’s troops, veterans, and their loved ones. He has helped to preserve hundreds of thousands of letters and emails, and the number keeps growing.

To find these correspondences, he has traveled to all 50 U.S. states and more than 40 countries, including two—at the time—active war zones, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Andrew Carroll has received, among other accolades, the Daughters of the American Revolution’s “Medal of Honor”; “The Order of Saint Maurice,” bestowed by the National Infantryman’s Association; and the “Chairman’s Medal” from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest award given by the chairman of the NEA.

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PETER ASHER: EVERYWHERE MAN

Thursday, July 30 7:30pm

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Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine

“If you’re a devotee of Swinging London of the ’60s or the Sunset Strip folk rock scene of the ’70s, Asher is already an icon. But even if you’re not, his integrality to countless pop culture narratives beggars belief, because he has, indeed, lived many lives both in the spotlight and immediately adjacent. The pleasure of Everywhere Man is that every time you think you’ve seen the wildest piece of Peter Asher adjacency, the next chapter proves you wrong.” — The Hollywood Reporter

“A nostalgic ride of what it once meant to be a real rockstar… Filmmakers Dayne Goldfine and Daniel Geller were not afraid to bedazzle their new documentary, Peter Asher: Everywhere Man, with as much talent as possible.” — RogerEbert.com

Dan Geller — Director/Producer/Camera

Dayna Goldfine — Director/Producer/Location Sound

For over 35 years, Emmy-award winning directors/producers Geller and Goldfine have jointly created critically acclaimed multi-character documentary narratives that braid the personal stories of their protagonists to form a larger portrait of the human experience. Their most recent film, HALLELUJAH: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, debuted in September 2021 at both the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals, had a worldwide theatrical release via Sony Pictures Classics and was shortlisted for a documentary Oscar. Hallelujah is currently streaming on Hulu.

Geller and Goldfine’s work also includes The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2013), which had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and its European premiere in Berlin, and played theatrically internationally; Something Ventured (2011), which premiered at SXSW and went on to play festivals and screen internationally, as well as in educational distribution, VOD and DVD worldwide, including a national PBS broadcast in January 2013; Ballets Russes (2005), which was recognized as one of the top five documentaries of 2005 by the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review, appeared on a dozen critical top-ten lists, including Time Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Hollywood Reporter, the San Francisco Chronicle and Slate; Now and Then: From Frosh to Seniors, which premiered theatrically in October 1999 and aired on PBS in October 2000 as the lead program of the Independent Lens series; Kids of Survival: The Art and Life of Tim Rollins + K.O.S. (1996), a feature-length documentary about the South Bronx-based art group, which aired on Cinemax in September 1998 and was the recipient of two national Emmy Awards; Frosh: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm (1994); and, the award-winning Isadora Duncan: Movement from the Soul (1988).

Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine were admitted to the Documentary Branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2014.

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