DOC NYC, the festival for documentaries, presents the winter edition of its ongoing in-person screening series, DOC NYC Selects, an extension of its annual fall event. The Winter 2026 edition of DOC NYC Selects will open Feb. 3 at New York’s IFC Center, with David Alvarado’s thrilling film about the life and work of legendary American Chicano artist Luis Valdez, and to be joined by the acclaimed star of one of his greatest creations, La Bamba – Lou Diamond Phillips. Conversations will be held after all screenings in the DOC NYC Selects winter edition.
Ticket Information
DOC NYC Selects: Winter 2026 events are on sale now. Single screening tickets are $18 ($15 for seniors and $12 for IFC Center members) each. For questions about accessibility at the screening, please email accessibility@docnyc.net.
DOC NYC Selects: Winter 2026 – Program Details and Schedule
DOC NYC SELECTS LINEUP
Tuesday, February 3 at IFC Center
Director: David Alvarado
NYC PREMIERE Against political resistance and industry skepticism, Luis Valdez pushes Chicano storytelling from the fields to the film screen with Zoot Suit and La Bamba, creating iconic works that challenge, celebrate, and expand America’s story.
The screening was followed by an on-stage conversation with director David Alvarado, producer Lauren DeFilippo, and film subject Lou Diamond Phillips.
UNLESS SOMETHING GOES TERRIBLY WRONG
Tuesday, February 10 at IFC Center
NYC PREMIERE Winner of the Audience award at the 2025 Camden Film Festival, Unless Something Goes Terribly Wrong is a buddy comedy about American safeguards and the thankless pursuit of making a better world. As often decades-old policies and procedures face dismantling, it’s worth asking – what (or who) keeps us safe? Filmmakers Kaitlyn Schwalje and Alex Wolf Lewis take us inside one wastewater facility and the funny, close-knit, and inventive individuals working to keep it all running.
The screening will be followed by an on-stage conversation with co-director and cinematographer Alex Wolf Lewis and producer Justin Levy.
Directors: Kaitlyn Schwalje, Alex Wolf Lewis
Producers: Rebecca Stern, Justin Levy, Alex Wolf Lewis, Kaitlyn Schwalje
Tuesday, February 17 at IFC Center
This year marks the 40th anniversary of David Lynch’s seminal masterpiece, Blue Velvet. In celebration, DOC NYC presents a retrospective screening of German filmmaker Peter Braatz’s making-of documentary, Blue Velvet Revisited, which DOC NYC first presented at our 2017 festival.
In Blue Velvet Revisited, Braatz recounts how Lynch invited him, as a very young filmmaker, to Wilmington, North Carolina, to document the filming of Blue Velvet with Super 8, photography and audio recordings, with the full participation of Lynch and actors Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern and Jack Nance.
In the spirit of Lynch’s uninhibited work, Braatz created a wildly unconventional, yet still accessible, meditation on the cult classic film featuring a delicious soundtrack by Tuxedomoon and Cult With No Name. This treasure trove of never-before-seen material is a must-see for anyone who believes in the intertwining of cinema and dreams.
Director: Peter Braatz
Producers: Peter Braatz, Ida Weiss
The screening will be followed by an on-stage conversation with filmmaker Peter Braatz.
Date: February 24
Time: 7:00pm ET
Venue: IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave, NYC
TRT: 32 minutes
WORLD PREMIERE In the lead-up to Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City, many of the city’s Jewish population found themselves at odds over the candidate’s positions on Palestine and Israel. By inviting viewers into the homes of New Yorkers on both sides of the campaign, DOC NYC alumna Alison Klayman (Jagged; Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry) reveals a fierce battle among American Jews over identity, history, and responsibility. SCENES FROM THE DIVIDE explores a community in generational upheaval.
The screening will be followed by an on-stage Q&A with director Alison Klayman and executive producers Arielle Angel and Daniel May.
Director: Alison Klayman
Producers: Alison Klayman, Courtney Powell
Monday, March 2, 2026
Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Producer: Emilie Lesclaux
From the acclaimed director of the Oscar-nominated THE SECRET AGENT, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s PICTURES OF GHOSTS—the inspiration for his 1970s-set Wagner Moura thriller—is a richly textured journey through time, architecture, cinema, and his native city of Recife, Brazil. Moving through the city’s grand movie theaters, once vital spaces of collective imagination and social life, the film traces a century of dreams, ruptures, and transformations. Blending archival material, film excerpts, moments of mystery, and personal memory, PICTURES OF GHOSTS unfolds as both an intimate portrait of a city and a meditation on how cinema shapes places, history, and the way we remember.
The screening will be followed by an onstage Q&A with director Kleber Mendonça Filho and Emilie Lesclaux.
Tuesday, March 3 at IFC Center
NYC PREMIERE A LIFE ILLUMINATED follows trailblazing marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder – one of the first women in her field and one of the first humans to explore the ocean’s twilight zone – as she descends 3,300 feet into the ocean’s darkest depths. From capturing the first-ever footage of the elusive giant squid to unveiling the glowing mysteries of deep-sea bioluminescence, Edie embarks on her most daring quest yet: to document a bioluminescent phenomenon that could forever change how we understand life on Earth.
Director: Tasha Van Zandt
Producers: Tasha Van Zandt, Sebastian Zeck, Jessica Harrop, Kathryn Everett
The screening will be followed by an on-stage conversation with director/producer Tasha Van Zandt and producer Sebastian Zeck.