MAI AMERICAN

MAI AMERICAN

U.S. COMPETITION co-presented by INDIEWIRE
94 min
BUY TICKET

WORLD PREMIERE A Vietnamese woman arrives as a refugee and eventually becomes an “American.” What does belonging look like when your body continues to be a reminder of an unforgettable past? How do you move into a nurturing future? When a queer filmmaker asks these questions of his mother, creating art together makes seeking answers much less painful. Through memoirs, paintings, and conversations, what emerges is a beautifully vulnerable film about hurt and healing through love and acceptance. – Bedatri D. Choudhury

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with director/protagonist Kevin Truong.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

Director: Kevin Truong
Producer: Kevin Truong
Executive Producer: Nicole Tsien
Cinematographer: Kevin Truong
Editor: Kevin Truong, Christina Sun Kim
Composer: Juan Andrés Vergara
Language: English, Vietnamese
Year: 2026
Asian/Asian American
Family
Immigration
LGBTQIA+
Programmer: Bedatri D. Choudhury
Race
Social Issues
World Premiere

Event details

In-Person Date

Friday, November 13, 2026 6:15 PM

Venue

Village East by Angelika

Buy Tickets

In-Person Date

Tuesday, November 17, 2026 3:30 PM

Venue

Village East by Angelika

Buy Tickets

Online Dates

Saturday, November 14 - Sunday, November 29, 2026

Venue

Online Screening

Buy Tickets

Explore More

WORLD PREMIERE Decades after her death, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has become a feminist icon, queer touchstone, political symbol, and ubiquitous commodity. The perspectives of scholars, artists, artisans, collectors, and devoted fans explore how Kahlo’s image has been claimed, reproduced, marketed, and reimagined while her paintings continue to inspire deeply. Vibrant and insightful, the film looks beyond Fridamania to ask what happens when a radical artist becomes both a universal role model and a global brand. - Ruth Somalo

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Trisha Ziff.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.
WORLD PREMIERE Partners in love and art for more than 60 years, experimental filmmakers Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler have devoted their lives to exploring how light and image can touch an audience’s heart. Illuminations follows the duo capturing images with their Bolex and creating films by hand, revealing the luminous, ethereal beauty of their work and the poetry of filmmaking. A tender tribute to analog craft, artistic devotion, and cinema’s power to expand consciousness. - Karen McMullen

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with co-directors Patrick Shen and Brandon Vedder and protagonists Jerome Hiler and Nathaniel Dorsky.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Orphaned by a drone strike that killed his father, 12-year-old Mohabat navigates a world under the tightening rule of the Taliban. When one of his two brothers flees to Europe, Mohabat’s future hangs in the balance. A striking visual experience complete with masterful cinematography, director James Longley’s film trains a keen eye on a boy becoming a man amid extraordinary circumstances. - Brandon Harrison

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with director/producer James Longley.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

WORLD PREMIERE Fire Capt. Rob Christensen has spent decades saving lives, fighting blazes, and losing colleagues as he valiantly serves his Idaho community. Under immense mental strain, he undergoes experimental ketamine-assisted therapy to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder, assuage his spirit, and connect with his teenage daughter. A cinematic portrait of a man seeking to live with his trauma, Under Fire is disarmingly vulnerable as it takes audiences inside sessions with Christensen, at the frontier of psychedelic therapy. - Brandon Harrison

The first and second screening will be followed by a Q&A with director/producer/cinematographer Brandon Kapelow, producer Laurel Thomson, and protagonists Rob Christensen, Dr. Michael Ryoshin Sapiro, and Keylie Christensen.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

WORLD PREMIERE If you’re going to stage a revolution, you’re going to need journalists and filmmakers to tell that story well. That’s what a group of fiery activists thought when they came together to form the Newsreel in the 1960s. Recognizing that mainstream media could never be the mouthpiece of seismic change, these filmmakers took to the streets to document their times and create a subaltern archive that comes alive in this exceptional film. - Bedatri D. Choudhury



The Newsreel: Characterization of Subversive Organization is one of 10 nominated films in DOC NYC’s inaugural Archival Storytelling Competition, developed in collaboration with Archival Producers Alliance and co-presented by Footage.Net, Fox Archives, and Global ImageWorks. To see the list of other nominated films, click here.

The first and second screening will be followed by a Q&A with co-director James June Schneider and protagonists/Newsreel members.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

WORLD PREMIERE When Cuban artists organize an independent biennial outside state institutions, their creative ambitions collide with censorship, surveillance, and repression. Making and exhibiting art becomes inseparable from political resistance, revealing a form of organized dissent rarely seen in Cuba’s recent history. Rich in historical context and personal testimony, Hugo Perez’s film offers a compelling account of artists refusing silence and the extraordinary stakes of creating freely when artistic independence itself is perceived as a threat. - Ruth Somalo

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with writer/director Hugo Perez and protagonist/artist/activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

WORLD PREMIERE A love letter to the inhabitants and vast landscapes of Montana, Wyatt Maw’s debut feature may be the closest thing to “a rest from the storms of life,” which is how one protagonist describes her hometown. Lyrical and pastoral, Ashland has a deeply authentic soul, as Maw follows several sets of Montanans over eight years. The expressionistic film’s editing isn't literal or linear, providing a sensory, immersive impression of a world that you don't want to leave. - Jaie Laplante

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with director/producer/cinematographer Wyatt Maw.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.