Documentary lovers have a happy reason to head to Hillsboro Village this month. The Belcourt Theatre, Nashville’s nonprofit arthouse cinema, has brought back Doctober, its fall celebration of documentary film, throughout October 2026. Once a regular staple of the Belcourt’s fall programming, the series was last seen in 2018, and its return feels like a homecoming for film fans across the city.
The lineup mixes curiosity, music, adventure and laughter. Now playing, The History of Concrete follows filmmaker John Wilson as he tries to turn a documentary about concrete into a Hallmark-style story, with funny and thoughtful results. Awake, My Soul: The Story of Sacred Harp, re-edited and remastered for its 20th anniversary, celebrates more than 200 years of Sacred Harp singing in the rural South. You Had To Be There looks back at the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell that launched Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner and other comedy icons.
Still to come, Everest: The Other Side opens Friday, October 30, following ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson and filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. The series then reaches beyond October with Once Upon a Time in Harlem, opening November 13, a living archive conceived in 1972 by William Greaves and completed by his son David, capturing Harlem Renaissance luminaries gathered at Duke Ellington’s home. It is a joyful month for anyone who loves true stories on the big screen.
Photo: The Belcourt Theatre
