A Home for Historical Docs

Across the evolving and expanding landscape of historical documentary films, divergent styles and new voices are emerging which deserve broader opportunities for public exhibition.

By leveraging our existing relationships with renowned filmmakers and major distributors, and drawing from experiences at our favorite film festivals from around the world, we’re designing a groundbreaking annual event that will honor filmmakers who bravely excavate and interpret history through the lens.

Our Program

We’re seeking new historical documentaries from around the world, by filmmakers of all ages and levels of experience. A core part of our mission is to foster and encourage the next generation of historian filmmakers by prominently featuring films made by high school and college students, alongside established filmmakers. Awards will be grouped into three main categories:

  • International History

  • American History

  • American Southern History

Films will be selected from our open call for submissions, as well as curated from our own research and recommendations.

  • Every screening will be followed by a Q&A, led by experienced moderators and interviewers. We’ll also be hosting expert panels and filmmaker masterclasses.

  • Festival-goers and filmmakers will have ample opportunities to meet and connect at happy hours, after parties, and mixers in a relaxed environment.

  • We’re partnering with local historians and museums to offer scheduled excursions outside the theatre to learn about the rich history of Savannah.

6 9 %

of Americans report watching historical documentaries, making them the most popular source of information about the past.

- American Historical Association

The Team

  • Pat Longstreth

    FESTIVAL DIRECTOR

    Pat’s independent films have screened at over 50 festivals internationally, earning festival awards and regional Emmys. His most recent short documentary, The Day That Shook Georgia, was selected for The Better Angels Lavine Fellowship as part of the Lavine / Ken Burns Prize for Film, and broadcast nationally on PBS’s Reel South. With over 20 years of experience in film and television, he has served as a director, editor, visual effects supervisor and adjunct professor. He has a Master of Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis.

  • Anne Longstreth

    EVENT COORDINATOR

    Anne is a director and producer of multiple regional Emmy award-winning documentary films, as well as a seasoned accountant for TV and film. She gained broad exposure to production finance at big studios like Comedy Central, financial accounting for independent productions like The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) produced by Indian Paintbrush, and on-set production accounting for feature films such as Disney’s remake of Lady and the Tramp (2019). She has a Masters of Arts in International Business and an undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Florida.

Judges

  • Nicole London

    is an Emmy Award-winning and GRAMMY-nominated producer and director. She is the director and producer of The Disappearance of Miss Scott. Her other directing credits include Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom, Becoming Fredrick Douglas, and the recently released We Want The Funk (part of PBS’s Independent Lens). She was also the producer for Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, for which she was nominated for a 2020 Grammy for Best Music Film, and which won the 2021 News & Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary.

  • Matthew Hashiguchi

    is a Peabody Award–winning documentary filmmaker, a 2024 Wyncote PBS Fellow, and a Professor of Multimedia and Film Production at Georgia Southern University. His latest film, The Only Doctor, earned the 2025 Peabody Award for Public Service and was broadcast nationally on PBS’s Reel South and internationally on Al Jazeera Witness. The film was also supported by the 2019 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund and the 2021 American Stories Documentary Fund from Points North Institute and CNN Films. It premiered at the 2023 Hot Docs Film Festival.

  • Amy Paige Condon

    is an award-winning journalist and editor for the Savannah Morning News. She is also a freelance writer and the author of "A Nervous Man Shouldn't Be Here in the First Place: The Life of Bill Baggs," which was a finalist in the biography/memoir category for the 2021 Georgia Author of the Year awards. She has co-written five cookbooks, the most recent collaboration, "A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Recipes from an Indigenous Food Warrior,” with chef Crystal Wahpepah is slated for release in March 2026. Amy founded the Refinery Writing Studio in 2017 to help aspiring and established writers develop their storytelling skills.

Programmers

  • Tomasz Warchol

    is the founding director of CinemaSavannah, bringing arthouse, indie, and foreign films to the city of Savannah since 2003. He was a faculty professor at Georgia Southern University for 35 years, where he taught film and literature courses, directed a Film Studies Program and a campus-wide film series. Now happily retired, he devotes most of his time to managing CinemaSavannah and supporting local film culture.

  • Abbey Hoekzema

    is a documentary filmmaker and co-founder of DOC Savannah, a non-profit collective of nonfiction storytellers. Her work has been presented at film festivals nationally, including the New Orleans Film Festival, Miami Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, Dallas VideoFest, DOCUTAH, and Doc Edge Film Festival. Her short Mentor (2020) premiered on PBS’s Reel South and Georgia Public Broadcasting. She was a 2020 Southern Producing Lab Fellow for Daniel & Nate, which premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2022. She completed her MFA in Documentary Production and Studies at the University of North Texas and currently teaches film production at Georgia Southern University.

  • Chad Faries

    is a professor of creative non-fiction at Savannah State University, as well as a published author of poetry and memoir. Drive Me Out of My Mind, which chronicles his first ten years living in over twenty-four different houses across the country won the Emergency Press Open Book Prize. Faries has also told stories on The Unchained Tour, produced by The Moth founder George Dawes Green. He has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he was editor of The Cream City Review and was a Fulbright Fellow in Budapest, Hungary.

Savannah, GA

 

“Hostess City of the South”

Known for our convenience, hospitality, and historical significance, Savannah was recently shortlisted as a possible new location for the Sundance Film Festival. Every October, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) hosts the largest university run film festival in the country with over 60,000 attendees. With many exquisite theater venues, restaurants and high quality hotels in close proximity, there are few metropolitan areas that can match our comfort and walkability. We are home to the Savannah Book Festival, the Savannah Music Festival, and many other events and organizations that bring people together in the spirit of art and cultural appreciation. We are also home to the Georgia Historical Society and Doc Savannah, a group of rising award-winning documentary filmmakers.

We love history and we love documentaries.

For more information about planning your trip, we recommend starting at www.VisitSavannah.com

Average high in March
70 degrees

Travel + Leisure Best U.S. Cities
#3 in 2024

The Venue

is a premiere visual and performing arts facility that serves as a creative meeting space for residents, the local arts community, and organizations to experience, engage with, and create art.

Feature films are frequently screened in its ultramodern auditorium, as well as in its black box-style theater.

Ben Tucker Theater
Stadium seating for 338 attendees with full lighting and sound capabilities.

Studio Theater
Multi-use theater with space for 125 attendees, suitable for matinee screenings and panels.

Ideally located just off I-16 on the Southeast side of the historic district, visitors can easily make their way to the venue and avoid the high traffic areas of downtown.

General Schedule

  • Thursday, March 5th


    5 pm | Filmmaker meetup

    7 pm | Opening Night Film

    9:30 pm | After Party

  • Friday, March 6th


    8 am | History Tours

    10 am | Masterclass

    Noon | Film Block 1

    2 pm | Film Block 2

    4 pm | Student Films

    7 pm | Evening Feature

    9:30 pm | After Party

  • Saturday, March 7th


    8 am | Filmmaker breakfast

    10 am | Film Block 1

    Noon | Filmmaker Panel

    2 pm | Film Block 2

    4 pm | Film Block 3

    7 pm | Evening Feature

    9:30 pm | After Party

  • Sunday, March 8th


    9am | History tours

    11 am | Awards brunch

    12:30 pm | Closing Film

  • Single tickets will be available for all screenings (subject to availability)

  • General Admission passes will provide access to all screenings and history tours

  • VIP passes will provide access to all screenings, history tours, masterclasses, after parties, and awards brunch

  • Student discounts will be available

Tickets & Passes

The box office will open in October 2025. Check back for updates or sign up for our email newsletter below.