SHIFTING BASELINES

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE In an imagined future where humans no longer exist, an AI system reflects on dance as the essence of consciousness, spontaneity, and identity. Philosophers, historians, artists, and Nobel laureates trace dance across ritual, flamenco, butoh, rave culture, and historical dance epidemics. Eclectic archives, experimental interludes, and candid testimonies weave a vibrant essay on movement as joy, ritual, and survival. At once speculative sci-fi and grounded documentary, the film creates a dazzling meditation on humanity’s eternal urge to dance. - Ruth Somalo

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.

Accessibility alert for November 13 screening of Omega Wants to Dance: We have been recently informed by Village East Cinemas that the room where this screening takes place is currently only accessible via a short flight of eight stairs. We apologize for the inconvenience. However, the film is available to view at home as part of DOC NYC’s online festival. Please reach out to ticketing@docnyc.net with any questions.

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Beautifully composed and subtly unsettling, Unanimal interrogates the entangled, often contradictory relationship between humans and animals. Narrated with calm detachment by Isabella Rossellini, the essay film offers a critical yet poetic historical lens on the evolution of our cohabitation with nonhuman life. It creates space for viewers to question the ways we project meaning onto animals, and how our frameworks of science, entertainment, and affection shape their lives—and ours. - Ruth Somalo

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with directors Tuva Bjork and Sally Jacobson.

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 An ode to the enduring love and raw humor between a sharp-tongued, famous Korean cook and her devoted youngest son. Told from his autobiographical perspective, the film moves fluidly across time, weaving memories, caregiving rituals, funeral rites, and art into a lyrical meditation on grief. With tenderness and wit, it reveals how loss transforms into creativity and how intergenerational bonds persist beyond death. - Ruth Somalo

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Seung-pyo Hong and producer Jun Lim.

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.

Accessibility alert for November 20 screening of The Foul-Mouthed Granny: We have been recently informed by Village East Cinemas that the room where this screening takes place is currently only accessible via a short flight of eight stairs. We apologize for the inconvenience. However, the film is available to view at home as part of DOC NYC’s online festival. Please reach out to ticketing@docnyc.net with any questions.

US PREMIERE With words like “acorn” and “otter” vanishing from a dictionary, Lost for Words begins a lyrical meditation on language, care, and the more-than-human world. Through poetry and acts of conservation like rewilding and path-building, the film asks how naming fosters knowing, caring, and change. With painterly cinematography and evocative soundscapes, this essayistic work frames the biodiversity crisis as a failure of imagination, offering not despair but tenderness, hope, and a radical call to care. - Ruth Somalo

The first screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Hannah Papacek Harper.

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.

Accessibility alert for November 19 screening of Lost for Words: We have been recently informed by Village East Cinemas that the room where this screening takes place is currently only accessible via a short flight of eight stairs. We apologize for the inconvenience. However, the film is available to view at home as part of DOC NYC’s online festival. Please reach out to ticketing@docnyc.net with any questions.