Laura Poitras has been announced as the 2017 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree.
Poitras helmed the Edward Snowden doc Citizenfour and recently released her Julian Assange nonfiction feature Risk, a six-year project. Out of Cannes, it was announced that she will executive produce the Chelsea Manning doc, XY Chelsea.
Past Guggenheim honorees include Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and Alex Gibney.
As previously announced, opening the Washington, D.C.-based fest is Bryan Fogel’s Icarus, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and follows Russian “anti-doping” doctor Grigory Rodchenkov, who became a whistle-blower, detailing Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program that took place ahead of the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The five-day fest will close out with Year of the Scab from John Dorsey, which follows the 1987 NFL season when football players participated in a union strike, leading to replacement players taking the field.
The 15th edition of AFI Docs will showcase 103 films, representing 28 countries, and is set to run June 14-18.
