November 16, 2013

Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Karen Backstein “The Way We Were.” “Nobody Does it Better.” “What I Did for Love.” Marvin Hamlisch wrote some of the most popular songs in American music. At the age of 29, he won three Oscars. He received the Pulitzer Prize as part of the team that […]

November 16, 2013

American Commune: An Experiment in Utopian Living

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Jess Gonzalez Many people have unusual anecdotes about their childhoods, but few can say they grew up in a hippy commune. This is both the privilege and burden of Rena Mundo Croshere and Nadine Mundo, sisters and co-directors of AMERICAN COMMUNE. The film, which played for a […]

November 16, 2013

The Square: The Battle for Freedom on Cairo’s Streets

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Krystal Grow Tahrir Square has been the epicenter of a political movement that has seen the downfall of two dictators and the rise of a protest culture in Egypt that refuses to be repressed. After 30 years of crushing authoritarian rule, the young people of Cairo took […]

November 16, 2013

The Harlem Street Singer: Taking it from the Church to the Block

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Jess Gonzalez There’s folk, there’s blues, there’s gospel—and then there’s Reverend Gary Davis. While you may not have ever heard of him, the roots of his influence run wide and deep in the soil of the blues and folk music we know today. That is the story […]

November 16, 2013

I Learn America: Teen Immigrants Navigate a Brooklyn Public High School

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Maggie Glass The high school students at the International High School at Lafayette in Brooklyn are teenagers like many others. They struggle with homework and sports, first loves and gender identity. But as recent arrivals to the United States, their lives are layered with challenges unique to […]

November 16, 2013

Finding Vivian Maier: An Undiscovered Photography Master

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Krystal Grow Erratic, obsessive and intensely private, Vivian Maier could have been one of the most famous photographers of her time. For that to have happened, she would have had to display even a tiny sample of her prolific body of work, which remained virtually untouched until […]

November 16, 2013

Stories We Tell: One Family’s Competing Narratives of Truth

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Karen Backstein What is truth? How can we know what really happened in the past? And who has the right to tell the story of our lives? In her first documentary, Sarah Polley, whose fictional narrative film AWAY FROM HER dealt with Alzheimer’s, returns to the question […]

November 16, 2013

Mission Congo: Outlining the Charges Against Operation Blessing

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Minnie Li Pat Robertson, the televangelist for the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN), set up the charitable Operation Blessing to assist the Rwanda refugee relief in 1994. While he claimed that money raised through his show “The 700 Club” would be used for relief in Rwanda, reporter Bill […]

November 16, 2013

Breastmilk: Illuminating the Hurdles to Breastfeeding

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Maggie Glass In the modern age, women from all different backgrounds and walks of life may find themselves asking the same thing: how should I feed my baby? In her latest film BREASTMILK, director Dana Ben-Ari captures the intimate and often contentious subject of breastfeeding by following […]

November 16, 2013

Death Metal Angola: Building a Scene in Response to War

“I’ve told this story probably 30 to 40 times, so apologies if you’ve heard it before,” DEATH METAL ANGOLA director Jeremy Xido told the audience at Saturday night’s DOC NYC screening of his film. “But it’s a good one.” He’s right. A few years ago Xido was working on a film about Chinese laborers rebuilding […]