2025 OPENING NIGHT, CENTERPIECE, CLOSING NIGHT, AND SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
DOC NYC is proud to announce the first wave of program selections for our 16th edition, running in-person from November 12 – 20 at IFC Center, SVA Theatre and Village East by Angelika, and continuing online through November 30. The 2025 festival showcases more than 200 films and dozens of events, including in-person appearances by filmmakers at most screenings.
Binge on all 200+ films in the 2025 program with the All Film Pass for only $699 through October 17th! Ticket packs and individual film tickets for in-person and online screenings are also now available.
Opening Night:
Whistle
Nov 12 at SVA Theatre (US Premiere)
This year’s opening night film invites us into a world where sensitive, passionate people gather not just to participate in a public competition but to be seen, to connect, and to honor a shared craft. At the Masters of Musical Whistling festival in Hollywood, founder and force-of-nature Carole Anne Kaufman (aka the Whistling Diva) devotes herself to creating an inclusive, international stage for an art form that is largely practiced non-professionally, yet deeply meaningful for its performers.
Closing Night:
Ask E. Jean
Nov 20 at SVA Theatre (NYC Premiere)
Over a five-decade career, the journalist, author, and talk show host E. Jean Carroll has been revered for her brass tacks style. In 2019, galvanized by the #MeToo movement, Carroll went public with something she had buried for years: She had been sexually assaulted by Donald Trump. When the president accused her of lying, Carroll fought back with two lawsuits.
Centerpiece Screening:
The Merchants of Joy
Nov 14 at SVA Theatre (World Premiere)
For the five families that control NYC’s Christmas tree trade, the most wonderful time of the year starts months before the first fir tree displays hit busy sidewalks in the five boroughs. There is the competition for sources and locations—not to mention strategizing to stretch the proceeds of five scant weeks into a living for the rest of the year. Celia Aniskovich’s delightful peek behind the curtain of a holiday tradition captures a truly singular cast of characters, among them NYC’s seasonal stand workers, who add extra spice to every sale.
Centerpiece Screening:
Steal This Story, Please!
Nov 13 at SVA Theatre (NYC Premiere)
Amy Goodman “believes that journalism put to its highest use can be the greatest force for good that the world has ever seen,” says her former colleague Dave Isay in Steal This Story, Please! It’s the reason that Goodman and her signature show Democracy Now! (celebrating its 30th year in 2026) are revered for integrity and dauntlessness.
Special Presentation:
Benita
Nov 14 at IFC Center (World Premiere)
NYC experimental documentary filmmaker Benita Raphan died by suicide during the loneliness of the COVID-19 shutdowns. DOC NYC 2024 Lifetime Achievement filmmaker Alan Berliner, who was her friend and creative advisor, creates a kind of posthumous collaboration with Benita on her final project, using as many of her images, sounds, and words as possible. BENITA is a deep dive into the many complexities of artists’ lives, from the whimsical to core existential questions, and lessons we can learn about the intersection of mental health and creativity.
Special Presentation:
Black is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story
Nov 13 at SVA Theatre (North American Premiere)
Photographer Kwame Brathwaite, who used his art as activism, captured the joy of Black American life, documenting jazz musicians, celebrities, everyday Harlem scenes, and more—while popularizing the phrase “Black is Beautiful,” amplifying the movement that redefined Black pride. Through interviews with his family and celebrities like Jesse Williams, Gabrielle Union, and Alicia Keys, the film honors this unsung, prolific artist’s profound contribution to photography and culture.
Special Presentation:
The Trial of Alec Baldwin
Nov 13 at SVA Theatre (World Premiere)
A provocative examination of celebrity haters, public vitriol, and the toxic price of fame. DOC NYC alumna Rory Kennedy depicts how the tragic accidental death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust in 2021 hatched a distressing cottage industry of career-furthering paparazzi and prosecutors maneuvering for payoffs and power. Talented and adored, yet also flawed and prone to explosions of anger, NYC-based Hollywood star Alec Baldwin becomes a lightning rod of envy and online hate as he fights to protect himself and his family from our culture’s revolting empathy gaps. Rory Kennedy’s sober assessment never lets you forget the Hutchins family’s tragedy while walking us through a riveting final act detailing the shocking revelations of Baldwin’s trial in New Mexico.
Special Presentation:
We Met at Grossinger’s
Nov 13 at IFC Center (World Premiere)
We Met at Grossinger’s is a dazzling excavation of cultural memory and mythology. Throughout decades of prejudice stifling the integration of Jewish immigrants in America, the Borscht Belt in the Catskills provided an oasis of belonging, and Grossinger’s Resort and Hotel was the crown jewel. The real-life inspiration for the setting of the 1987 classic film Dirty Dancing, Grossinger’s provided both a physical and mental getaway where Jews—and others from marginalized communities—needing a break from NYC could relax. The resort’s growing reputation attracted a wide variety of comedians, athletes, and political figures, including Jackie Robinson and Eleanor Roosevelt. DOC NYC alumna Paula Eiselt resurrects this vanished world with an immersive warmth, providing a timely reminder of the historic richness of Jewish culture and its immeasurable contributions to American life.
Special Presentation:
Mad Hot Ballroom
Nov 15 at Village East by Angelika (20th Anniversary)
Twenty years after it first charmed its way into audiences’ hearts, DOC NYC presents a retrospective screening of Marilyn Agrelo and Amy Sewell’s classic about NYC public school fifth-graders competing in the extracurricular world of ballroom dancing. The filmmakers followed students from a school in each of Bensonhurst, Tribeca, and Washington Heights as they learned about ambition, discipline, respect, and perspective—all to the beats of merengue, rumba, tango, and other rhythms. The film exists as a snapshot of a tolerant and respectful time, with expressions of such values seemingly in much shorter supply today. Some of the students featured in the film, now in their 30s, are expected to attend alongside some of their former teachers.
The 2025 DOC NYC festival will take place both in person and online starting on Wednesday, November 12, with in-person screenings and events held at IFC Center, SVA Theatre and Village East by Angelika through Thursday, November 20. The festival’s online offerings will continue through Sunday, November 30, 2025. The All Film Pass, which allows access to all in-person and online DOC NYC screenings, is now available.
