Must Watch Trailer for ‘Folktales’ – One of the Best Doc Films of 2025
by Alex Billington
June 24, 2025
Source: YouTube
“The dogs teach us to be more human. Maybe more patient…” 🐕 Magnolia Pictures has unveiled the official trailer for Folktales, one of the best films of the entire year so far. Truly. This wonderful new documentary film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and was my #1 favorite film of the entire festival. In Oscar-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady’s life-affirming film, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway where they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions. It’s a remarkably intimate and poetic look at the experiences these students have at this traditional “folk school” in northern Norway. One of the most important parts of their education is taking care of a sled dog – they’re the cutest, most adorable snow doggies and the film spends so much time on them. It’s the best, really, one of the greatest doggie dogs ever made. I love this film so much! It’s a deeply moving, inspiring, very spiritual cinematic experience – not just about dogs and nature, but also about humanity. How we find our place in this world, how we grow, how we learn, how we must survive. It’s all so beautiful – an absolute must watch this year.
Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady’s doc Folktales, from YouTube:
🇳🇴 In Norse mythology, the three “Norns” are powerful deities who weave the threads of fate and shape humans’ futures. Today, Pasvik Folk High School in northern Norway aims to produce a similar life-changing effect on its students. Folktales tells the timely and heartwarming story of teenagers who choose to spend an unconventional “gap year” learning to dog sled and survive the Arctic wilderness, in hopes of finding connection and meaning in the modern world. Guided by patient teachers and a yard full of heroic Alaskan huskies, they discover their own potential and develop deep relationships with the land, animals and humans around them. Through intimate verité storytelling and exhilarating cinematography, Ewing and Grady examine humans on the cusp of adulthood, finding themselves at the edge of the world. Folktales is co-directed by acclaimed doc filmmakers Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady, director of the films Jesus Camp, 12th & Delaware, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, One of Us, Dogs, as well as the narrative feature I Carry You with Me previously. It’s also produced by Ewing & Grady. This first premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year (read our review). Magnolia Pics will debut Folktales in select US theaters starting on July 25th, 2025 this summer. For more info, head to the film’s official site.
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