The term “intersex” covers a broad range of people who are born with reproductive anatomy that doesn’t easily fit the categories of male or female. Often their stories have been shrouded in mystery and shame by the medical establishment and media. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Julie Cohen (RBG) captures a new generation of intersex people who are […]
Nikki Giovanni is a trailblazing poet who rose to be a key figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and remains just as vibrant today. Filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson capture her artistry and spiky personality in this warm portrait. “She is a vibrant, prickly, unpredictable presence in both private and public […]
One of the greatest injustices ever committed on North American soil is examined in sweeping historical detail by filmmakers Jesse Shortbull and Laura Tomaselli. As American settlers moved west, the U.S. government signed treaty after treaty with Lakota and other Indigenous tribes, only to continually break their legal and moral commitments with complete impunity. As […]
Lisa Cortés’ Sundance opening night documentary tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock ‘n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the […]
NYC PREMIERE In his book Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi explored the history of anti-Black racist ideas and their impact on the United States. Oscar-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams takes inspiration from Kendi’s work to explore those themes with an array of powerful […]
Winner of the Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion award, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a collaboration between Oscar-winning director Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) and the artist Nan Goldin. Poitras follows Goldin as she leads a campaign of protests against the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma. That’s just one layer of the […]
David Bowie had a multitude of personas as a musician, painter, actor, and world traveler. This documentary portrait, told in his own words from decades of interviews, is as bold and visually inventive as he was. Coming six years after his death, the film celebrates the immortality of his art, drawing upon an astonishing depth […]
Winner of prizes at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals, All The Breathes follows two brothers in New Delhi who have dedicated their lives to caring for the bird species called the black kite. As the city’s pollution poses increasing dangers for the birds, the brothers Nadeem and Saud set up a home animal hospital. […]
Filmmaker Ondi Timoner has won two grand prizes at Sundance (for Dig! and We Live in Public) and this year receives DOC NYC’s Robert and Anne Drew Award for observational filmmaking. Her latest film is deeply personal chronicling the final days of her 92-year-old father, Eli, as he chooses to end his own life (legally, […]
Louis Armstrong meticulously recorded audio diaries of himself that reveal a different side of his personality than the showman we know. Those tapes play a key role in this deeply enriching documentary portrait of the virtuoso jazz musician, one that also draws upon a stunning array of additional archival footage. “The movie builds beautifully into […]