NYC PREMIERE A young Brooklyn girl has suffered mysterious symptoms for years when her determined father stumbles upon a vicious medical debate: the existence of chronic Lyme disease. In 1975, the CDC and health insurance companies set guidelines still used today to deny the diagnosis and treatment for its debilitating symptoms. The film investigates the […]
NYC PREMIERE Oscar-nominated director Dror Moreh (The Gatekeepers) returns with an examination of genocide and US foreign policy in this striking documentary filled with the insights of politicians and diplomats from the past 40 years. With affecting archival footage and extensive interviews, the film centers around former UN Ambassador Samantha Power’s haunting question: Why do […]
2020 SHORT LIST: SPECIAL JURY RECOGNITION FOR TRUTH TO POWER Journalism’s role of exposing corruption has rarely been as dramatically portrayed as in Collective. Filmmaker Alexander Nanau follows a team of Romanian reporters in real time as they doggedly uncover a deadly scandal that reaches the highest levels of government. Like a real-life version of […]
Oscar-winning filmmaker Bryan Fogel (Icarus,DOC NYC 2017) investigates the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The film breaks new ground with access to key sources including Khashoggi’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz, Turkish police and prosecutors, and the young Saudi dissident with whom Khashoggi was working. Revealing that this […]
In 1971, on Thanksgiving Day, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a commercial flight, holding passengers ransom for $200K. After his demands were met, he freed the hostages, forced the plane back in the air, and escaped mid-flight via parachute, never to be heard from again. Combining meticulous archival footage, stylish re-enactments, and in-person […]
In this provocative look at strange political bedfellows, Israeli filmmaker Maya Zinshtein (Forever Pure, DOC NYC 2016) investigates the political alliance between American evangelicals and Israel’s right wing, and their influence on the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Why do American church leaders encourage parishioners to make donations to Israel, even from poor communities? Because they […]
Runner Up: Audience Award DOC NYC 2020 NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE | In 1970, off the coast of Cape Cod, Lithuanian sailor Simas Kudirka jumped from his Soviet ship onto a US Coast Guard vessel seeking asylum. Denied refuge by the American crew, Simas was sentenced to a Soviet labor camp for treason, sparking an international cause […]
WORLD PREMIERE | At the height of the Cold War, the CIA is tasked with an audacious covert mission: recovering a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine from the bottom of the ocean. The mission hangs in the balance as the agency and its activities are caught in a power play between the press and the White […]
Just 70 miles north of the Mexican-US border is a land haunted by ghosts. Brooks County, Texas is a barren landscape designed as a deterrent to illegal crossings, but people continue to attempt to cross, and many die trying. The municipality lacks the resources to properly deal with this sad reality, and the numbers keep […]
On September 23, 1994, a group of Colombian separatist guerillas went “miracle fishing,” abducting American journalist Tom Hargrove to hold for ransom. Finding no support from either the US government or the local corrupt authorities, Hargrove’s family were forced to negotiate directly for his release, working with a tight circle of friends—with Hargrove’s 20-year-old son […]