US PREMIERE | A fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary showcasing the production of a narrative film set in the Amazonian forest of Venezuela. With acute lensing and formidable direction, filmmaker Mo Scarpelli returns to DOC NYC with a layered and complex portrait of her life partner Jorge Thielen Armand as he directs a film about the unconventional life of his […]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE | As the lead singer and songwriter of The Pogues, Shane MacGowan fused punk rock with Irish folk music to create timeless songs such as “Streams of Whiskey” and “Fairytale of New York,” while championing an unabashedly Irish identity. Filmmaker Julien Temple, who began his career making films with the Sex Pistols, is a perfect […]
Powered by thrilling sequences of big-wave surfing, this energetic film profiles Joana Andrade, a fiery athlete constantly breaking barriers as an extreme competitor. When additional skills are needed to dominate giant waves and overcome personal fears, Joana seeks out a celebrated freediver to help her survive the churning waters of Nazaré, Portugal. Smoothly transitioning from […]
An unconventional dance documentary featuring the brazen and entirely nude choreography of Thierry Smits’s new dance, Anima Ardens. Aleksandr M. Vinogradov’s film follows 11 men who audition, rehearse, and perform this challenging piece exploring masculinity, power, and voyeurism. With charged performances, and so much skin on display, the proceedings could easily veer into eroticism; instead, […]
In February 2017, Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of the late North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il, and half-brother to the current Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, died after being exposed to a lethal nerve agent in a Malaysian airport. His assassins were caught on security cameras: two young women, one from Indonesia, the other from Vietnam, […]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE | After Polaroid acknowledges the ascendancy of digital and announces it would shut down its last factory in 2008, eccentric Austrian scientist Dr. Florian Kaps becomes a man with a mission: to replicate the company’s famously complicated formula and revive interest in instant photography. But passion alone can’t make up for a lack of […]
2020 SHORT LIST: CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD Filmed in Wuhan, China by an independent crew, 76 Days covers the length of the city’s lockdown for COVID-19. The film’s suspenseful pacing and otherworldly imagery make it feel like a science-fiction thriller. The heroes are the front-line hospital workers who still manage to find humanity and humor even while […]
Through his pioneering band, Mothers of Invention, as well as his solo work, Frank Zappa embraced a variety of genres, from rock and jazz to experimental and classical music, ultimately producing more than 60 albums in a career spanning four decades. An outspoken critic of the status quo and staunch defender of free expression, he […]
WORLD PREMIERE | What can history tell us about the present? Filmmakers Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker (Karl Marx City) search for answers, taking inspiration from Sebastian Haffner’s 1978 German best-selling book The Meaning of Hitler. Shot in nine countries, the film explores what Hitler means in the current waves of white supremacy, antisemitism, and the weaponization […]
US PREMIERE | Indian singer Sona Mohapatra uses her powerful voice not only to entertain, but to speak out against Indian music industry practices that refuse to give female performers a fair shake. Director Deepti Gupta follows the unapologetically outspoken artist for three years of concerts, controversies, and conflicts with religious fundamentalists, social media trolls, and […]