The world's greatest spectacles. "Megadoc" and "It’s Dorothy!" at the AFF
Few pleasures compare, for a true cinephile, to watching documentaries about cinema itself. A film within a film within a film—to borrow a phrase—lets us linger in the world of a production long after the credits roll, for better or worse, since good stories are not reserved only for masterpieces. What they always offer is a glimpse into the mind of a creator chasing something truly unique.
At the 16th American Film Festival (November 6–11), audiences will be transported into two such universes: Francis Ford Coppola’s gilded Megalopolis in Mike Figgis’s Megadoc and the Technicolor dreamscape of Oz in Jeffrey McHale’s It’s Dorothy!
The first plays like a live dispatch from the set of Coppola’s decades-in-the-making magnum opus. Just as he once encouraged his wife Eleanor to chronicle the making of Apocalypse Now, here Coppola invites Figgis to capture the creation of Megalopolis. It’s Dorothy! takes us further back in time, guided by Dorothy herself through her many reincarnations—from Judy Garland to Diana Ross to Fairuza Balk.
The best way to step behind the scenes with these documentarians? Secure a festival pass and treat yourself to a week immersed in cinema at the American Film Festival.
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Coppola's Polis – Megadoc, dir. Mike Figgis
“It’s impossible to screw things up here,” Francis Ford Coppola repeats as he prepares to shoot the work of his life, Megalopolis. That confidence means the nearly ninety-year-old director is more open than ever to experimentation, unexpected solutions, and bold suggestions from his actors. Anyone who has seen his latest film knows just how deeply the author of Apocalypse Now values risk-taking. And with Coppola, risk is always paired with enormous ambition—a combination that fascinated Mike Figgis, invited to document the process behind Megalopolis. Through conversations with actors (including Aubrey Plaza and Shia LaBeouf), fellow directors (George Lucas), producers, Coppola’s family, and Coppola himself, Figgis builds a layered portrait of a filmmaker uncompromising in his vision and, perhaps more importantly, persuasive enough to bring others along with him. Premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, the film doubles as a manifesto for autonomous cinema—free from the dictates of media conglomerates and streaming giants. It celebrates works that may be demanding, ambiguous, not always successful, but that relentlessly push the language and horizons of film. (description by Aleksander Kmak, translated by Barbara Feliga)
The girl in the red shoes – It’s Dorothy!, dir. Jeffrey McHale
“Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly / Birds fly over the rainbow / Why, then, oh, why can’t I?” sang Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. But her famous 1939 role was neither the first nor the last incarnation of the Kansas girl carried off by a tornado to the other side of the rainbow. L. Frank Baum’s 125-year-old novel has inspired countless adaptations: Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz with Diana Ross, which gave wings to Black girls; the much-derided Return to Oz (1985) starring 11-year-old Fairuza Balk; and the TV production The Wiz Live! (2015). Dorothy has also carried particular resonance for generations of gay men, once colloquially called “friends of Dorothy.” In It’s Dorothy!, Jeffrey McHale (You Don’t Nomi) weaves together archival treasures with conversations featuring American music icons including Shanice Williams, Rufus Wainwright, and Ashanti. The result is a look at the phenomenon of American pop culture with the attentiveness of an anthropologist, but also with a lightness characteristic of Americans.
(description by Adam Kruk, translated by Barbara Feliga)
Join us for the 16th American Film Festival, November 6–11, 2025, at the New Horizons Cinema in Wrocław. The full program will be announced October 21, with tickets for screenings and online access available starting October 23 at noon.
