Double Exposure: Investigative Film Festival

This month the National Portrait Gallery will play host to Double Exposure: Investigative Film Festival and Symposium, the first-ever investigative film festival in the United States. The exciting three-day event will showcase feature films and cutting-edge forms of digital storytelling inspired by the investigative instinct with a series of screenings in the museum’s Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium.

Highlights include the DC premiere of Spotlight at the opening-night gala. The film tells the story of the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative unit in the United States. The team’s coverage of the Catholic sex abuse scandal in Massachusetts won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The all-star cast features Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d’Arcy James, and Stanley Tucci.

Additional film screenings on October 1 and 2 will cover a wide range of documentary topics from government surveillance, border protection, and human trafficking to the human and environmental cost of “fast fashion.” Each film will be followed by a discussion between audiences, filmmakers and subjects. Passes and individual tickets are available online and at the door, with special online discounts to readers who use the discount code IFF-NPG2015.

The festival’s concurrent symposium will take place at the Newseum and the Woolly Mammoth Theatre. The symposium is a unique space for filmmakers, investigative journalists, and members of the public to explore common issues, promoting new forms of inspiration and collaboration. Confirmed speakers include Alex Gibney, who just won three Emmys for his film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prisoner of Belief; Brian Knappenberger, director of The Internet’s Own Boy and The Hunting Ground; Matt Heineman, producer and director of Cartel Land; David Felix Sutcliffe, co-director of (T)error; and Johanna Hamilton, director of 1971; along with leading journalists, including James Risen, Lowell Bergman, Betty Medsger, and Andrew Feinstein.

 For a full festival schedule or to purchase passes and individual tickets visit investigativefilmfestival.com.