Docs explore families shaped by addiction, secrets and history at Atlanta Film Festival

Filmmaker Basil Mironer travels to Russia to meet the family he never knew he had in the autobiographical documentary "Dandelions."

In an age of deep division — social, political, economic — storytelling can be a way to find common ground. And movies are one way that storytelling reaches across those divides. That’s especially true of the documentary genre, which offers insight into other lives and circumstances unlike our own, planting the seeds of compassion in the process.

“We passionately believe that empathy and understanding are the first spark toward change,” said New York-based filmmaker Matt Moyer in his director’s statement for his documentary “Inheritance.” Moyer’s devastating journey into the family legacy of opioid addiction in Appalachia won the documentary feature grand jury prize at the 2024 Slamdance Film Festival in Los Angeles and screens May 2 at the Tara Theatre as part of this year’s 49th annual Atlanta Film Festival.

Like “Inheritance,” a number of documentaries in this year’s Atlanta Film Festival tell origin stories, showing how the past exerts a heavy weight on the present.

Continue reading the full AJC article here.