NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Drug-stricken Gottsunda is an underprivileged suburb of the city of Uppsala, Sweden, which has turned into a ghetto for immigrant families. In this first-person essay film that alternates observational scenes with experimental interludes shot in Super8, director Loran Batti crafts 21 elegant, self-reflexive scenes about his memories, his background, his encounters with […]
NYC PREMIERE Mega-talented keyboardist and songwriter Billy Preston was often referred to as “the best musician in the room.” Stylistically influenced by the Black church, Preston’s illustrious career includes collaborations with Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, the Beatles, and more. A private man who turned to drugs to dull the pain of personal […]
NEW YORK PREMIERE A 50-something queer man who always had issues with his looks, David becomes obsessed with the idea of changing his eye color. When he finds a company that can perform this surgery, he believes has finally found solace. Vacillating between destructive vanity and admirable resilience, David is a fascinating subject in a […]
NYC PREMIERE After discovering the work of Oscar Torres, her once world-famous queer filmmaker cousin, Victoria Linares journeys down a path of kindred self-discovery. Through reconstructions of Torres’ intimate memories living under the authoritarian regime of Trujillo in 1950s Dominican Republic, Linares creates a world between fiction and fact, casting her family in these reenactments […]
US PREMIERE As a suicidal 16-year-old Marusya Syroechkovskaya falls in love with a humorous grunge kid named Kimi. Fueled by drugs and music, the inseparable couple films the euphoria, anxiety and misery of their precarious existence under the shadow of their oppressive government. Captured over 12 years, this raw, exuberant, and moving love story, provides […]
WORLD PREMIERE In the dangerously overcrowded California State prison system, 50 men serving life sentences are given the opportunity to become substance abuse counselors. As the first-ever participants in the Offender Mentor Program, the group reckons with their own demons as they excavate the deep trauma of their fellow inmates. An intimate study on the […]
US PREMIERE Vancouver, Canada is ground zero of the opioid crisis in Canada with fentanyl overdose deaths at an all-time high. To save lives and support their marginalized community, a group of current and former drug users volunteer at the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS), a safe injection site. Through intimate observation, Colin Askey’s debut feature […]
WORLD PREMIERE Never heard of American singer-songwriter Judee Sill? Discovered by David Geffen in the early 1970s, Sill combined the electricity (and self-destructiveness) of Janis Joplin, soulful poetry of Leonard Cohen, and a complete lack of public recognition for her innovative, brilliant work before her premature death at the age of 35. LOST ANGEL thrillingly […]
NYC PREMIERE Filmmaker Jon Alpert, a recipient of DOC NYC’s Lifetime Achievement Award, spent nearly 40 years in Newark, NJ chronicling the lives of Rob, Freddie, and Deliris, all caught in vicious cycles of drug addiction and street crime. This longitudinal study helps us understand the shortcomings of criminal justice, healthcare, and welfare. As New […]
WORLD PREMIERE With rare access, this film takes us through the final years in the life of Earl “DMX” Simmons. Documenting his many sides— from the charismatic performer on Simmons’s “It’s Dark as Hell and Hot” tour and raucous bad-boy behavior, to the doting father who takes time to reach out to young men in […]