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 […]
US PREMIERE Filmmaker Gian Cassini investigates the legacy of his father, El Jimmy, who was a hitman in Tijuana. After El Jimmy is murdered, Cassini tracks down scattered members of his family, including his grandfather, who has murky links to Castro’s revolutionaries and the CIA. Cassini also seeks out El Jimmy’s last girlfriend, who may […]
US PREMIERE Tobi is a 16-year- old Hungarian teen who recently came out as a transgender man to their supportive family. As they start to look beyond the gender binary, Tobi’s mother Éva struggles to comprehend new LGBTQIA+ identities. What matters most is how the family grows from their awkward missteps through caring communication. Alexa […]
NORTH AMERICAN PERMIERE Children of dead ISIS members have been left to wallow in abject neglect in refugee camps, in penance for their parents’ “sins.” Protagonist Patricio Galvez sets out to free his own grandchildren from Syria’s hellish al-Hol camp, putting up a lonely and heart-rending fight against a wall of bureaucracy and the grief […]
NYC PREMIERE A cinéma vérité glimpse into the lives of an eccentric New York family, Charm Circle follows filmmaker Nira Burstein as she attempts to bridge the fractured relationships between herself, her two sisters, and her parents. Emotional and accomplished, especially in the way it weaves together decades-old home videos and contemporary footage, the film […]
US PREMIERE A strict and radical Islamist preacher tries to indoctrinate his sons—with mixed results—in this cinematic and immersive portrait of rural life in Bosnia. The three young brothers are left on their own to work as shepherds when their father is sent to prison for terrorist connections. In his absence, the young men take […]
WORLD PREMIERE Amid the opioid crisis in their small New Hampshire town, Lydia O’Leary and her family open their home to those recovering from addiction. As Lydia’s altruism grows, her children assess their unconventional home life while yearning for a normal adolescence. Emboldened by the camera, the children open up about hardships, including negotiating physical […]
US PREMIERE After losing their daughters (each named “Rain”) in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, two families set out to “replace” their children and rebuild their lives. Impressive in its scope and access to daily domestic life in China, award-winning documentarian Jian Fan’s film follows the families over ten years, giving a fly-on-the-wall view into the anguish, […]
WORLD PREMIERE Adrienne Shelly starred in over twenty films including Hal Hartley’s indie classics The Unbelievable Truth and Trust. She also wrote and directed several shorts and feature films including the critically acclaimed Waitress. A devoted young mother, her life was right on track until her husband Andy Ostroy found her murdered. With Adrienne, Andy […]
Filmmaker Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson, DOC NYC 2016) creates an inventive and emotional portrait of her widowed father, Dick, an 86-year-old psychiatrist. When he shows early signs of losing memory, Kirsten enlists him in a playful project to confront his mortality with a sense of humor. They stage fictional scenarios with a macabre sense of humor […]