NYC PREMIERE Surrounding Ghana’s Lake Volta — the largest man-made lake on Earth — is an active child-slavery industry. Sold by desperate families and abused by fishing masters, some 20,000 children work in perilous conditions. Activists like Stephen Kwame Addo, who escaped from such a fate himself, work to rescue as many children as possible and rehabilitate […]
NYC PREMIERE An experiment in virtual education, the School in the Cloud learning lab is a high-tech, self-directed education center built in an Indian village accessible only by boat and rickshaw. The brainchild of 2013 TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra, the lab connects children in remote areas who have never encountered the Internet before with […]
WORLD PREMIERE Born to a family of celebrated fashion photographers, and with a terminal disease that gave him a fearless approach to life and art, Davide Sorrenti took 1990s New York City by storm. Possessed of natural talent and tuned in to youth culture, he landed magazine spreads in Interview while still a teen. As […]
NYC PREMIERE A short documentary following Tim, an Asian-American 18-year-old, who has 3 million followers on Instagram and spends most of his time online. Although Tim usually shares funny memes on his massively popular page, he occasionally posts about mental health. As the film explores his reason for these posts, we discover that he has […]
Sundance Directing Award winner Sandi Tan weaves a tale of youthful talent, guerilla filmmaking and a decades-long mystery solved. Tan was obsessed with indie film as a teenager growing up in Singapore. Under the tutelage of a mysterious older mentor, Georges, she filmed her original script, Shirkers, during a summer break, only to have Georges […]
This program presents two films appearing in our Short List: Shorts section recognizing some of the top documentary shorts films of the year. SIDELINED DIR: Galen Summer In 1978, inspired by the popularity of NFL cheerleaders, Playboy organized a pictorial feature approved by team management happy for the media exposure. But when the resulting pictures […]
This program presents two films appearing in our Short List: Shorts section recognizing some of the top documentary shorts films of the year. TAKE BACK THE HARBOR DIRS: Kristi Jacobson, Roger Ross Williams On Governor’s Island, an ambitious program works to restore once-bountiful oysters and the environmental benefits they bring to New York Harbor. Take […]
WORLD PREMIERE Based on Amanda Ripley’s bestselling book, The Smartest Kids in the World follows four American teenagers who go abroad to study in the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, and South Korea – nations that dramatically outperform the US in education. Filmmaker Tracy Droz Tragos was previously on the DOC NYC Short List with her film […]
High school student and poet, Chasity Hunter, experienced intense flooding in her New Orleans neighborhood during both Hurricane Katrina and recent summer rainstorms. Inspired to find out how safe her city really is, she investigates her city’s infrastructure and questions water experts, finding her own voice along the way.
On Governor’s Island, an ambitious program works to restore once-bountiful oysters and the environmental benefits they bring to New York Harbor. Take Back the Harbor highlights students at a remarkable public high school where environmental stewardship is part of the curriculum. Courtesy of Discovery/Motto Pictures.