Runner Up: Audience Award DOC NYC 2020 NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE | In 1970, off the coast of Cape Cod, Lithuanian sailor Simas Kudirka jumped from his Soviet ship onto a US Coast Guard vessel seeking asylum. Denied refuge by the American crew, Simas was sentenced to a Soviet labor camp for treason, sparking an international cause […]
US PREMIERE | Ukraine has been at war with Russia since 2014. In response, its ultranationalists have organized paramilitary summer camps to prepare children to one day take up arms to defend their homeland. This film follows two campers over a session as uber-patriotic teen Jasmin revels in the military-style maneuvers and gun training, while younger […]
In Istanbul, stray dogs are an everyday part of the fabric of the community, belonging to no one and everyone at the same time. Among them are the expressive, independent Zeytin; the friendly Nazar; and the shy puppy, Kartal. But the Turkish city is home to human strays as well, as Zeytin and her friends […]
US PREMIERE | Just outside of Beijing, the city of Langfang is on the front lines of China’s fight against air pollution. The local environmental protection bureau and its intrepid deputy chief—affectionately called “Uncle Smog Buster” by local school kids—are tasked with navigating Beijing’s strict national policy and the interests of local politicians and businesses. In […]
WORLD PREMIERE | What do humans need to be happy, healthy, and sane? A crew of six non-astronauts from all over the world, chosen for their ability to survive isolation, embark on a one-year mission in the Mars simulation station in Hawai’i in order to provide much-needed research for the future of space exploration. Survive, […]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE | An epic self-portrait of Ulrike Ottinger, one of Germany’s most prominent contemporary avant-garde artists, known for her paintings, photographs, and, above all, her films. An impressive and extensive archive of sensorial memories, historical photographs, and documentary footage traces the early influences of Ottinger’s life in Paris in the 1960s. This was […]
At the edge of Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo is the small floating village of Congo Mirador. Now sinking into sediment, this once-prosperous fishing community is unraveling after years of criminal pollution and government neglect. Focusing on two fierce, independent women who epitomize opposing sides of this vulnerable community, Anabel Rodríguez Ríos’s film is a stunning microcosm […]
For decades, the life of American jazz musician Billy Tipton was framed as the sensationalistic story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. Now that history gets re-interrogated by trans artists as they try to reimagine Tipton’s life through acts of performance, reclaiming him as a trans icon. […]
WORLD PREMIERE | At the height of the Cold War, the CIA is tasked with an audacious covert mission: recovering a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine from the bottom of the ocean. The mission hangs in the balance as the agency and its activities are caught in a power play between the press and the White […]
Just 70 miles north of the Mexican-US border is a land haunted by ghosts. Brooks County, Texas is a barren landscape designed as a deterrent to illegal crossings, but people continue to attempt to cross, and many die trying. The municipality lacks the resources to properly deal with this sad reality, and the numbers keep […]