US PREMIERE Kurdish-Canadian filmmaker Zaynê Akyol interviews some members of the Islamic State in Syrian Kurdistan, as well as some of their wives, in the aftermath of the defeat of ISIS. “This absorbing and admirably even-handed documentary looks the beast in the eye to weigh the context, cost, and consequences of fundamentalism.” (POV magazine) – […]
A groundbreaking all-archival documentary film about Lady Bird Johnson, one of the most influential and least understood first ladies. Beautifully honed from 123 hours of Lady Bird’s intimate audio diary, the film brings her to life and reveals her as a shrewd political strategist who preserved natural resources for the American people through her policies […]
NYC PREMIERE A rundown halfway house in Ukraine houses the country’s most vulnerable—children cramped between precarious homes and the foster care system. Simon Lereng Wilmont documents fast-disappearing childhoods amidst ever-worsening political strife with great intimacy and access. As the film records how children suffer and survive violence and abandonment, the “orphanage” becomes a metaphor for […]
Aftershock puts a spotlight on the crisis of Black maternal deaths in the United States by focusing on the cases of two New York City mothers, Shamony Gibson and Amber Isaac, who died during childbirth-related complications in recent years. We watch how their bereaved families become activists on this issue. “Aftershock is a moving ode […]
NYC PREMIERE For his 2015 Oscar-nominated film Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky memorably captured the key moments of the Maidan Revolution in 2013-14 that ushered in pro-democracy political change. In his latest film, his subject is exponentially even more urgent, as Ukraine faces an existential threat when Russia launches its […]
During the 19 months before the Taliban retook Afghanistan, filmmaker Tamana Ayazi and Oscar-nominated director Marcel Mettelsiefen gained unique access to Zarifa Ghafari, the youngest female Afghan mayor. IN HER HANDS follows the 26-year-old Ghafari as she navigates multiple layers of political and personal turmoil, including a tense relationship with her father (a leader in […]
NYC PREMIERE Lea Najjar’s debut follows plumes of smoke from the devastating 2020 explosion in Beirut and guides us through the rooftops of the city where men play kash hamam with pigeons, luring them in, casting them away, watching them fly. In this cyclical motion, Najjar finds a resonance with the endless strife of living in […]
After Sherman director Jon-Sesrie Goff turns his lens towards the South Carolina’s landscape, the notion of home, a community of friends and loved ones, his father, Reverend Dr. Norvel Goff, and himself. Expertly deploying personal and historical archival footage, observational and experimental techniques, the film is a poignant polyphonic exploration about how systemic racial discrimination […]
Filmmaker Reid Davenport, a past honoree of DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 showcase, creates a diaristic portrait of his life, at times from his wheelchair. Candid and unsentimental, Davenport captures quotidian moments of human connection and frustration on the streets of Oakland. When a circus tent goes up outside of his apartment, his reflections turn to […]
Filmmaker Sierra Pettengill begins with footage filmed by the US military in the 1960s of dress rehearsals for show-of-force responses to the domestic unrest that was unnerving America at the time. The material’s horrifying implications quickly settle in, however, as Pentengill digs deep into other archival material to answer the question of how these large-scale […]