A scene from the documentary "Crime + Punishment"

It was a strong day of films at the Nashville Film Festival  highlighted by a pair of documentaries – “Crime and Punishment” and “To a More Perfect Union: US vs. Windsor.”

“Crime + Punishment” tells the story of the NYPD 12, a group of whistle blowers who exposed discriminatory policing practices – specifically the department’s outlawed practices of quota-driven policing and officer retaliation.

Director Stephen Maing gives a voice to the officers and civilians being targeted as well as the people who fight for them in a film that is outstanding cinematic investigative journalism.

“Windsor” is also an engaging piece of cinema, telling the story of Edie Windsor and her attorney Roberta Kaplan’s quest to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, a law which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples. Director Donna Zaccaro interweaves Windsor’s more than 40 year relationship with Thea Spyer with a perspective on the history of discrimination against the LGBT community to create a fantastic film.

Other films from Wednesday:

“Best of All Worlds” can best be described as an Austrian “Florida Project” – a stirring, and ultimately uplifting, tale of a seven year old boy whose mother battles drug addiction while trying to shelter her son from that lifestyle.

“Leave No Trace” the latest from Debra Granik, the person behind Jennifer Lawrence’s break out film “Winter’s Bone,” is a meticulously paced film about a father named Will (Ben Foster) and his teenage daughter Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) who live off the grid in a Portland, Oregon state park until they are discovered and put into social services. As Tom begins to adjust, Will reverts back to his desire to go back off the grid – creating tension between the father and daughter.

McKenzie and Foster are both very good and the film has this slow burn that really fits the material. I do wish the film would have filled in the background story for these characters a little more, but overall it is still worth seeing when it is released later this year.

“First Reformed” also will be in theaters soon, but despite the presence of Ethan Hawke the latest from writer/director Paul Shrader feels like it wants to be some profound studio of theological issues and how they pertain to today’s debate over climate change, but ultimately collapses into a pile of pretentious hogwash.