Each year, the Tribeca Film Festival draws attention to vital social issues within its documentary programming, and 2020 is no different, though the event was cancelled because of concerns surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic. Here we spotlight three features films to take note of, which revolve around drug addiction and its traumatic effects on a family across multiple generations, life in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria, and the growing need for round-the-clock childcare in America.

The compelling and intense Jacinta centers on a 26-year-old recovering drug addict, whom we first meet at a women’s prison in Maine. Both Jacinta and her mother, Rosemary, are inmates there, but while the daughter has only one month left on her sentence, Rosemary has several years remaining. This means that after a lifetime spent as thick as thieves with her mother, Jacinta will no longer be joined at the hip to her.

The film starts out as a portrait of maternal love as Rosemary expresses concern as to whether her daughter will be able to survive on the outside without her. After Jacinta’s release, director Jessica Earnshaw follows her home to a drug-addled neighborhood, where her attempts at sobriety are complicated by a toxic familial environment. Jacinta has a daughter of her own, Caylynn, a preadolescent who has mostly been raised by her ex’s parents. Compared to the gritty scenes of Jacinta relapsing, quitting again, and relapsing, the moments with Caylynn provide much-needed rays of hope.

Earnshaw spent more than three years filming her subjects and getting to know them on increasingly personal terms. Along the way, she unearths similar events in both women’s pasts that hint at a terrible legacy that runs through at least two generations of their family. Will it continue for a third? It’s an unsettling question as Caylynn starts to develop a similar devotion toward her mother as Jacinta did to hers.

The film repeatedly cuts between old home movies and photographs of the younger Jacinta and Rosemary and present-day footage of Caylynn to highlight how they aren’t all that different from each other—and how fragile innocence is. Throughout Jacinta, the love between mothers and daughters is portrayed as a double-edged sword; it cuts but can also set one or both parties free.

To the Puerto Rican interviewees of Landfall, an incisive documentary set in the American territory during the years following Hurricane Maria, the 2017 storm shined a light on something many long suspected. Rather than being viewed as equals by their fellow Americans, its population is at best a resource to be exploited, and at worst an afterthought.

Director Cecilia Aldarondo travels to different locations on the island, spending much of her time at once-popular beachfront areas and venturing inland as well, profiling a cross section of ordinary civilians along the way. We get a sense of just how desperate the situation is for many, but the film also puts the present state of Puerto Rico into historical context, pointing out how the seeds for this modern-day humanitarian crisis were implanted over time.

As seen in archived footage, workers were repeatedly marketed as cheap labor in order to entice industries to relocate their operations from the mainland, resulting in a mass exodus from the countryside to factory towns. But the manufacturing work itself didn’t last. The director frames abandoned industrial buildings in a manner accentuating the quiet and stillness around them; here, she seems to be saying, is where the future of the island was prematurely buried. Some of the younger interview subjects, though, are getting back to their roots, literally speaking, as they re-embrace farming through non-mechanized means.

Meanwhile, the film occasionally turns its attention to cryptocurrency start-up executives and a luxury real estate firm that sees potential along the beachfront. Somehow, Aldarondo is a fly on the wall at their meetings, not only exposing their shadiness but positioning them as the latest wave of colonialists hoping to take advantage of Puerto Rico. But during the last third, the island stages a long-awaited comeback, with a rousing tone as fed-up protestors take to the streets, demanding political change and offering the hope of better days ahead.

The empathic Through the Night revolves around a married African American couple, Deloris and Patrick (aka “Nunu” and “Pop Pop”) Hogan, who run a day care in New Rochelle, New York, that includes overnight supervision. Nunu is the primary caregiver at Dee’s Tots, where she treats the young ones with a combination of gentleness and tough love. Most of the parents who frequently use its services appear to be single mothers, some working more than one part-time job while others have one employer with demanding hours.

Loira Limbal’s film shines a light on the need for a better social safety net, especially for lower-working-class, minority, and immigrant communities. While the Hogans make extra money through the overnight shifts, the work takes a toll on them physically and emotionally. Nunu visits a doctor complaining of pain, gets diagnosed with tendinitis, and is told she needs to slow down, but she refuses to out of guilt over what their clients would do without her. The couple, and especially Nunu, aren’t just running a day care; they’re providing invaluable community services and a gathering place.

There are plenty of scenes at Dee’s Tots that seem to occur in real time, allowing us to appreciate the hectic pace, how within just a few minutes a half-dozen or more small children can have a seemingly endless amount of needs that require fulfilling. Nunu and Patrick go about their work with such a kindly and selfless attitude that as viewers, we become invested in whether they will get to enjoy the rewards of the community they’ve helped foster. The ending doesn’t necessarily solve all of the couple’s problems, but is satisfying nonetheless, precisely because they have earned whatever good fortune they receive.

While Covid-19 has caused the cancellation of this year’s festival, that doesn’t mean these films won’t find other ways to reach audiences. Both Through the Night and Landfall are scheduled to air during the next season of PBS’ POV (which co-produced Through the Night). Jacinta, meanwhile, took home the Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award at Tribeca, which hopefully means the buzz around it will continue to grow in the coming months.