NYC PREMIERE In this visceral film, two Palestinian youths strive for freedom and self-worth in a community consumed with violence. Sami, a parkour coach, leads leaping young men across the stunning cityscape of Jerusalem. Mohammad teaches a new way of seeing to dozens of youthful photographers who dream of a world without walls. Using these creative […]
2019 AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER US PREMIERE In 2018, Armenia experienced a peaceful revolution that’s inspiring to anyone challenging power. Nikol Pashinyan—a former journalist and political prisoner turned Member of Parliament—begins a march by himself to protest Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan trying to extend the reach of his power. The film observes how Pashinyan’s campaign slowly grows […]
WORLD PREMIERE In the 1980s, an Army wife-turned-glamorous party girl named Tish ruled New York City’s downtown nightlife, often out on the scene with the likes of Michael Musto. Just a few years later, after more than a decade as a woman, Tish transitioned back to being Brian. Now, in his sixties, Brian reflects on the […]
NYC PREMIERE Dujuan Hoosan, a 10-year-old Australian boy, lives in two worlds. During the day he must speak English at school and conform to the modern world. Elsewhere, he is a vital member of the Arrernte tribe as a respected healer and advocate for Aboriginal rights. The confluence of these two realities overwhelms Dujuan, leading […]
When the passenger ferry MV Sewol sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities. Courtesy of Field of Vision.
Director Rachel Lears won the 2014 DOC NYC Audience Award for The Hand That Feeds. Now Lears captures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as she conducts a surprise campaign for Congress while still working as a bartender. Lears also follows three other first-time female candidates, revealing that AOC’s effort wasn’t a fluke but part of a fervent grassroots […]
In the war-torn city of Kabul, a class of young girls from disadvantaged neighborhoods learns to read, write—and skateboard—in director Carol Dysinger’s love letter to a place she has filmed in for the last fifteen years. Courtesy of Lifetime Films/A&E IndieFilms.
WORLD PREMIERE Despite restrictions beginning under the regime of Fidel Castro, heavy metal band Zeus became icons of the Cuban music scene. Over the decades, the band and their front man, Diony Arce, have challenged the status quo under threat of government suppression. As the bandmates approach their 30th anniversary together in a shifting political […]
Kamal Hussein is a Rohingya refugee who has dedicated his life to reuniting children who have been separated from their parents during the campaign of ethnic cleansing and violence perpetrated by the Myanmar military, which has driven more than 700,000 Rohingya from their homes. Courtesy of National Geographic Documentary Films.
NYC PREMIERE The film opens with a desperate man in Tehran telling the camera, “I’m not sure if, tomorrow, I’ll be dead or alive.” This is Sahand, who has been in a long-term adulterous relationship with Leila, despite Iran’s threat of the death penalty for infidelity. Now, the couple is fleeing the country with Mani, […]