The Hottest August is a fascinating attempt to answer future generations, when one day they come to us and ask, “What were you doing while the planet burned?” With a nod to Jean Rouche’s seminal vérité documentary Chronicle of a Summer, director Brett Story focuses her observational lens on New York City and its outer boroughs for the month of August 2017. It’s a month heavy with the tension of a new president and growing anxiety over everything from rising rents to marching neo-Nazis. Offering a mirror to a society on the verge of catastrophe, The Hottest August is a powerful and thoughtful meditation on the fragile relationship between the individual and society, in an era of economic crisis and global warming.