In the middle of an extraordinary year — 2020 — they were at work on films that charted other resonant histories. In Becoming Cousteau, Liz Garbus, 51, chronicles an emerging environmentalist; in Summer of Soul, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, 50, confronts the erasure of Black stories; in The Rescue, which he directed with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, 48, depicts the challenge faced by a group of unlikely heroes; in The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes, 60, chronicles a literal band of outsiders; in Procession, Robert Greene, 45, enables a group of trauma survivors to reenvision their own backstories; in Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 40, animates a refugee’s tale; and in Julia and My Name Is Pauli Murray, both of which she directed with Julie Cohen, Betsy West, 70, acquaints audiences with…