THE TASTE OF DEMOCRACY

WORLD PREMIERE With college on the horizon, fashion designer Mindy Scheier and 17-year-old artist son Oliver struggle over his increasing desire for independence. Oliver suffers from a degenerative condition that increasingly impairs his physical abilities and spurs angst for the mother and son. Amid family struggles, Mindy develops Runway of Dreams, a New York Fashion Week show dedicated to innovative and adaptive design. - Brandon Harrison

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with director W. Zach Starr, producers Sean Fine and Andrea Fine, and protagonists Mindy Scheier and Oliver Scheier.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

WORLD PREMIERE Maestro cinema auteur David Cronenberg walks us through his life and career, punctuated with illustrative clips from his most iconic films, including The Fly, Videodrome, Crash, A History of Violence, Crimes of the Future, Eastern Promises, Dead Ringers, and many more, including his most recent triumph, The Shrouds. Cronenberg is an intensely fascinating interview subject, and hearing him contextualize his creative process and work is a spellbinding experience. - Jaie Laplante

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Giuseppe Papasso and Barbara Tarricone and executive producer Donato Santeramo.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

WORLD PREMIERE Photographer Ethan Russell rose to fame by capturing legendary musicians at their most candid and unguarded, from the Rolling Stones to the Beatles. Russell’s relationships with subjects were built on access and trust, resulting in stunning and intimate images. Through stories behind his most iconic photographs—including Altamont, the Beatles’ rise and decline, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono—the film offers a vivid visual record of a seminal chapter in rock history. - Karen McMullen

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Christopher Booker, producer Genna Terranova, and protagonists Ethan Russell and Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

NYC PREMIERE In 1970s Los Angeles, feminist artists excluded from galleries and museums created their own spaces, culminating in the groundbreaking Woman’s Building. With rare archival footage and the voices of Judy Chicago, Senga Nengudi, Suzanne Lacy, and Lily Tomlin, the film revisits a movement that transformed performance into a tool for consciousness-raising, catharsis, and political action. An exhilarating history of feminist artistic resistance, Acting Like Women celebrates the power of collective creation to challenge institutions and imagine new possibilities. - Ruth Somalo

Acting LIke Women is one of 10 nominated films in DOC NYC’s inaugural Archival Storytelling Competition, developed in collaboration with Archival Producers Alliance and co-presented by Footage.Net, Fox Archives, and Global ImageWorks. To see the list of other nominated films, click here.

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with writer/director/producer Cheri Gaulke, writer/producer Anne Gauldin, and cinematographer Kristy Tully.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

NYC PREMIERE Luke Lorentzen's rapturous "Cinema of Paying Attention" finds beauty in the everyday among a team of craftsmen in a small Maine town, as they build a 56-foot sailboat on commission. Capturing the precision of the team’s artisanal expertise is just one of the film’s hypnotic pleasures. An Americana, community-in-time portrait, Boatbuilders is also about a new generation of American men, exploring a gentler masculinity as they navigate tensions of close quarters and looming deadlines. - Jaie Laplante

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with director/producer Luke Lorentzen.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.