Sundance 2025: The Dating Game, Prime Minister, How to Build a Library | Festivals & Awards

The phrase “the personal is political” remains as true today as it did in its heyday. The statement from the second feminist wave of the 1960s highlights how incorrectly labeled “personal” problems may be traced to a political source. Many recent documentaries are making those connections, showing how politics has shaped people’s lives in both intended and unintended ways. Many of the documentary features in this year’s Sundance Film Festival lineup dig beyond headlines and assumptions to reveal more about a subject, the broader topic at hand, and perhaps the chance to learn more about ourselves in the process. 

One of the best films to explore the connections between personal and political is Violet Du Feng’s bittersweet look at the state of dating in China, “The Dating Game.” After decades of the country’s One Child Policy and the cultural preference for men, there are now 30 million more men than women, many of whom may never find their match. A few working-class hopefuls turn to an enterprising dating coach named Hao, who invites them to his city, Chongqing, and revamps their dating profiles, their approach to women, and their looks. He talks up their egos and defies them to find confidence and conquer their fears of rejection. 

His three students are amiable guys who, because of their shy demeanor, location, and class, have not had much luck in the world of dating. In fact, most of them seem to have no experience with the opposite sex at all, leaving them with awkward guesses as to how to talk with women and ask them out on a date. Hao’s brash techniques are far different than his wife Wen’s, who tells her women clients to be themselves and not take on a persona that isn’t theirs. The dueling dating approaches add more tension to the film as Wen grows tired of her husband’s macho posturing and broad statements about women. Finally, she shares her feelings in a barnburner speech that leaves Hao silent, hopefully prompting some reform to his approach. 

“The Dating Game” takes on the experiences of these few characters to show just how things have and have not changed about dating in China. Dating apps weigh heavily in the men’s makeover, even if their effectiveness is questionable. Some parents even take matters into their own hands by going to parks where other parents congregate to find happiness and companionship for their kids. We briefly hear from other single women who have given up on men altogether for fake online boyfriends who are kind and romantic. The film balances the reality of these experiences with compassion, a sense of humor, and quiet observation, giving the subjects a chance to reflect on their own behaviors and memories. Their dating issues began long before the camera started rolling, and it’s clear that it will continue long after the credits.

In another part of the world, in 2017, New Zealand elected its 40th Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. Almost immediately, she became a notable figure on the world stage. She was young, a woman, and within a few months of assuming office, announced she was pregnant, becoming only the second leader in office to give birth. But it was her leadership style that truly turned heads, as she led with compassion and empathy, traits not often seen in other heads of state. After a harrowing massacre in Christchurch, she successfully campaigned to rid her country of assault weapons and semi-automatic guns. At a time when male leaders unleashed war against their neighbors and spoke like playground bullies, Ardern’s term was an astonishing rebuttal and proof that leadership could look like something we’ve rarely seen before. 

Directors Michelle Walshe & Lindsay Utz’s film “Prime Minister” takes a fairly straightforward approach with a gentle touch. It’s a traditional kind of documentary, following Ardern’s journey into politics and her term as prime minister in mostly a chronological timeline. Through home movies filmed by Ardern’s husband and taped interviews she kept throughout her time in office, viewers get a behind-the-scenes look at the world leader as she pours over data and prepares her speeches. Ardern reflects on her time in office with a pragmatic perspective, musing at the whirlwind nature of moving so quickly from opposition party leader to leading the country, the heartbreaking crises she faced in just a few short years, and the media scrutiny she endured for simply being different. 

It is in those moments that “Prime Minister” grows up from the standard biographical documentary to exploring the issues many women in leadership roles face: colleagues and outsiders questioning her capabilities, sexist comments about what she should or shouldn’t do as a leader and mother, and enduring misogynist harassment by protestors and dissenters. In a move of self-preservation for her and her government, she resigns, showing restraint that few other world leaders possess. Her success showed what women in power could do, but the backlash proved just how much further there is to go for equality. 

Over in Kenya, Maia Lekow and Christopher King’s well-meaning documentary “How to Build a Library” provokes a similarly interesting conversation about decolonizing institutions but doesn’t fully unpack the subject. Two women, Shiro and Wachuka, take on the task of revitalizing the dusty stacks of the McMillan Library in Nairobi and its two regional branches. It’s a formidable chore but one that’s desperately needed to benefit local readers and students. However, the pair must confront the library’s racist history that once excluded its Black readers from entering its doors and imagine what a decolonized library of the future will look like. 

With their passion and wit, Shiro and Wachuka make for compelling characters. They’re both determined to bring these libraries to the future, complete with new facilities, books that better represent their readership, and resources for all. But when they run into issues with local politics, bureaucracy, and serious debates about updating the library, the documentary treads lightly on those setbacks before moving on. As the years drag on, and local leadership changes, the work takes a toll on their friendship but not their dedication to the mission. We watch as the pair continue to fight to bring events to the library, catalog the main branch’s vast collection, and show the benefits of restoring a library to its neighbors in spite of these roadblocks. 

“We don’t fight for our rights like we used to,” one of the stars of “How to Build a Library” observes. It can certainly feel that way looking over world events at the moment. Yet, whether on a personal level fighting for love or a cause or on the international stage, there are people willing to fight for a better tomorrow and we are better for learning their stories.