I’m kind of a walking contradiction when it comes to film festival offerings.

I am fully in support of independent filmmakers showing the big-budget mainstream film companies how hard work and passion for your project can produce a something more satisfying than all the CGI and over-paid movie stars combined. I love that idea, except I don’t always enjoy what is offered at every film festival. There is a lot of mainstream and self-indulgent works at those as well that tend to put politics over entertainment. There’s a time and place for that, but it has become overwhelming at some fests.

Yet, there are some gems, particularly in the documentary world, that are very much worth checking out. Here are three of my favorites of recent:

Grand Theft Hamlet

This year’s SXSW Film Festival was held earlier this month in Austin, and it seems the event is almost getting as bombarded by big name productions as San Diego Comic Con. Yet, there is still a place for indies, including this great documentary that takes place in the world of the 2013 game of Grand Theft Auto Online. When the lockdown was in place, a group of actors got together online to try to perform a production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet…all while dodging the bullets and cop interference that comes with Grand Theft Auto life in San Andreas. Just the idea of this alone is priceless.

The call for actors put out two years ago is even funny:

This is a Film About the Black Keys

A good, solid rockumentary about the road to fame of Dan Auerbach and Patrick J. Carney: The Black Keys. Anyone who loves the Black Keys music will enjoy this film, and you’ll appreciate them even more knowing how hard they worked to get their sound out there from Akron, Ohio to a worldwide audience. This one also appeared at SXSW this month, to great (and well-deserved) fanfare.

Enter the Clones of Bruce

This one popped up last summer at Tribeca, but I’ve seen it still hitting screens at cinemas like Alamo Drafthouse. I think it is also part of Alamo’s Fantastic Fest (but don’t quote me on that). Anyway, this is a great look at the “Bruceploitation” craze that happened in the 70s shortly after the death of the unmatchable Bruce Lee, with some films that straddle the line of cringy and cool. Even though this is a 2023 release, the recent trailer for reboot of The Crow, had me thinking about the comparison of Bruce and his son Brandon Lee’s early demise. Just as people were really discovering what an amazing screen presence they were.

If you’re in the mood to escape the mainstream, and find a documentary that isn’t trying to hard to teach us all a preachy lesson yet again, give these a try.

Even when something is rotten in San Andreas.