Playing as part of 2026 Doc Stories
Executive producer Sean Penn joins us in person to introduce the film, followed by a post-screening Q&A with executive producer Dianna Agron, director James Marcus Haney, and documentary participant Anya Diianchuk.
In Black Sunflowers, James Marcus Haney drops us into the underground culture of a generation living through wartime Ukraine. Over four years, he follows artists, drifters, soldiers, and friends as they gather in warehouses, fall in love, debate their futures, and find pockets of freedom amid mounting uncertainty. Working with a crew of Ukrainian producers, Haney crafts a kinetic, kaleidoscopic film alive with movement, color, and music. The soundtrack pulses through every frame, turning dance floors into spaces of connection, release, and resistance. Haney’s camera moves with intimacy, capturing the euphoria of collective experience and the violence that threatens to pull these lives apart. The result is an immersive portrait of youth refusing to surrender its vitality, even as the world around them is transformed. Black Sunflowers is a rush of music, movement, and life lived against the clock. —Jessie Fairbanks