DOC NYC 2025

<p>BMX champion and 2018 Youth Olympic medalist I&ntilde;aki Mazza retired from his sport during a period of personal crisis. Years later, he returns to his bike, emboldened by a new quest, and reunites with his partner after their stint at a rehabilitation center in Tierra del Fuego. Mazza sets out on a 3,000-kilometer trek in a cinematic portrait that blends formats, pairing underground BMX footage with beautifully expansive vistas at the end of the world.</p>

<p>Jana spent her childhood between orphanages and streets of Tbilisi. While raising her 14-year-old daughter, Elene, as a single parent without an occupation, she decided to become a surrogate mother. She has to carry someone else&#39;s baby for 9 months in exchange for 14.000 USD, an unimaginable amount of money for Jana, of course, she&#39;s on board! Jana has already given birth to three babies out of two surrogate pregnancies and is pregnant for the third time. Although she is not living in the streets any more, she is still far from reaching her dream which is to have her own place to live in. It is unclear how many babies Jana needs to deliver to fulfil this dream. The amount of money that seems a lot at first, disappears between her pregnancies, then Jana needs to start the process again. As Jana&rsquo;s health deteriorates from pregnancy to pregnancy, she thinks of worst case scenarios. However, lacking other options, Jana sees surrogacy as the only way out of homelessness. Elene&rsquo;s future is a strong motivation for her to carry on through this emotionally and physically hard journey for as long as her health allows. Elene is growing up, so Jana isn&rsquo;t able to hide her pregnancies from her any more. Her relationship with Elene is the most precious thing for Jana and she is afraid to open up to her about surrogacy. She feels that Elene might judge her, because deep in her heart, Jana does judge herself.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Two Japanese indigo dyers embark on a transformative, inner journey: one uncovers the profound meaning within the hues of blue, while the other finds a new way to see through his colorblindness.</p> <p dir="ltr">Driven by the memory of a deep shade of blue he cannot forget, Watanabe dedicates his life to the pursuit of recreating Japan&rsquo;s most perfect shade of indigo. For years he tries to understand the unique alchemy of factors that will bring forth his ideal hue &mdash; but none succeed. Fate introduces him to Kato, a young artisan who is colorblind. Kato too stands at a crossroads&mdash;will he let his condition limit him, or will he use his ability to see color in a way no one else can?&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">As both men embark on their individual, inner journeys &mdash; we witness the deeply personal story of Japan&rsquo;s most famous color, and uncover the emotional and physical transformations that create this shade of blue.</p>

<p>Zere Asylbek was 19 when she released a music video demanding respect for women in the largely conservative Kyrgyzstan. It was intentionally provocative, and Asylbek achieved what she set out to do: jolting the society into paying attention to the evils of the country&rsquo;s deeply patriarchal and misogynist culture. Six years on, the death threats keep coming as Asylbek&rsquo;s ever-steely resolve to usher in change only grows stronger.</p>

<p>Estranged from her imprisoned father, John MacKenzie, Danielle learns how he profoundly shaped the lives of countless fellow inmates following his death.</p>

<p>Shedding light on the familial burden of the migrant crisis, A Place of Absence charts the physical and emotional journey of Central American mothers on a bus caravan as they desperately search for their disappeared children, clinging to hope against overwhelming odds. Interwoven with the filmmaker&rsquo;s story of her beloved uncle&rsquo;s disappearance, this film offers a poignant look at migration, loss, and the enduring bonds of family.</p>

<p>Filmmaker Nadia Louis-Desmarchais tries to untangle the complex knot of race and identity that lies at the center of her life. As the daughter of a Haitian mother, adopted by a white family in Quebec, she uses her camera to illustrate an identity that is as intricate and beautiful as she is. Within a world that divides people into Black and white, Louis-Desmarchais discovers a spectrum to which she can belong.</p>

<p>A warm, humorous, and tender look at the daily happenings in a downtown Toronto park&mdash;reflecting on belonging, memory, and the beautiful theater of everyday life.</p>

<p>Aliah and Kehau take on the male-dominated practice of building Hawaiian hale, traditional thatched structures&mdash;a personal and political effort as they reclaim cultural traditions nearly lost to colonial erasure.</p>

<p>Alice, a trans woman, finds solace in surfing the waters of Macei&oacute;, Brazil. After losing her father, spurred on by the very real fear of discrimination and violence, she distances herself from the sport that helped her feel closer to him until she finds her community and, ultimately, her peace, a sense of freedom&mdash;and the joy of surfing once again.</p>

<p>A photographic exploration of Queens&rsquo; unconventional architecture reveals the borough&rsquo;s beauty through the eyes of an architect while uncovering the deeper history behind its strange and spectacular designs.</p>

<p>Sudanese musician and ethnomusicologist Alsarah leads Alsarah and the Nubatones, a band of immigrants exploring migration&rsquo;s impact on culture through music&mdash;an essential venture amid displacement and an enduring conflict.</p>

<p>Adapted from a 1968 essay by the socialist and political activist David E. McReynolds, the short archival film takes the images and sounds of the American war in Vietnam to reflect on the feedback loop between militarism abroad and at home &mdash; and the people who resisted it.</p>

<p>Deming Chen&rsquo;s Always follows eight-year-old poet Youbin Gong over five years in a mountainous Hunan province village. Living with his disabled father and grandparents while his mother is mysteriously absent, Gong represents China&rsquo;s &ldquo;left-behind children&rdquo;&mdash;a reality Chen knows intimately, having been raised by grandparents himself. Rigorous, long takes and intimate black-and-white compositions are punctuated by poems of piercing beauty, observing the inner worlds of a childhood transitioning into adolescence.</p>

<p>After killing her abusive husband in self-defense, Tracy McCarter must fight for her freedom against a justice system that fails to protect victims of domestic violence.</p>

<p>New York&ndash;based artist Ani Liu creates provocative artifacts at the intersection of art, science, and technology. From neuroscience to motherhood, her practice challenges understandings of bodies and gender.</p>

<p>Decades after leaving Appalachia, a daughter returns to eastern Kentucky to excavate her father&rsquo;s remarkable filmmaking legacy &ndash; as the founder of Appalshop &ndash; and reflects on the pull home still has on her.</p>

<p>Chef Victor Aguilera cycles across San Francisco, weaving through memories of his immigration and dreams of sharing traditional Venezuelan cuisine.</p>

<p>In the heart of a rural Amish and Mennonite enclave, a dramatic chain of events unfolds as several trusted midwives are arrested&mdash;one after the other. These shocking arrests leave their community stranded in a healthcare desert, and reignite a centuries-old battle between time-honored tradition and industrialized medicine. Set against the backdrop of the US&rsquo; severe maternal mortality crisis and the erosion of women&#39;s reproductive rights, this David and Goliath story follows a group of renegade Amish and Mennonite women as they break with tradition, and become unlikely activists fighting for change. With rare intimate access, &quot;Arrest the Midwife&quot; tells a powerful story of collective action.</p>

<p>Purchasing a house together in 1950s NYC, three female artists defied societal norms and prioritized their art over traditional roles as wives and mothers. Through interviews with the women, now in their 70s and 80s, as well as their grown children, the film explores the emotional complexities of being an artist and a parent. A heartfelt celebration of independence, creativity, and the enduring strength of women artists.</p>

<p>&ldquo;The personal is political&rdquo; is an essential tenet of feminism, but advice columnist E. Jean Carroll didn&rsquo;t set out to become a feminist icon. After going public with rape accusations against Donald Trump, her steely courage and conviction became a beacon of hope in post-#MeToo America. In Ask E. Jean, director Ivy Meeropol offers a riveting, deeply personal exploration of Carroll&rsquo;s rape and defamation cases, deftly weaving righteous outrage with the fizzy humor of her &rsquo;90s Ask E. Jean advice show. Carroll&rsquo;s quick wit and level-headed takes on love crackle &ndash; until Trump&rsquo;s attack in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room forces her to confront the collision of her public voice and private trauma. Through years of trial drama &mdash; and Trump&rsquo;s grotesque &ldquo;she&rsquo;s not my type&rdquo; defense &mdash; Carroll emerges victorious, the only woman to have beaten him in court, twice. Ask E. Jean is a galvanizing, vivid portrait of a singular woman and a bold meditation on speaking truth to power. &ndash; Jessica Edwards</p>

<p>In the wake of a dream, Jo&atilde;o Vieira Torres sets off to find the children that his grandmother Aurora, a midwife, helped deliver. Through encounters with the living and the dead, he uncovers tragic destinies which reflect a structural history of violence against women. A curse dispelled by the means of cinema, resulting in a film of exceptionally rare beauty.</p>

<p>Raw emotion, passionate loyalty, and defiant tribalism of Colombia&rsquo;s most devoted soccer fans, captured on grainy and gorgeous 16mm film.</p>

<p>The vibrant world of female graffiti artists in NYC, where bold women have used their art to reclaim public spaces, assert their voices, and defy a male-dominated subculture.</p>

<p>NYC experimental documentary filmmaker Benita Raphan died by suicide during the loneliness of the COVID-19 shutdowns. DOC NYC 2024 Lifetime Achievement filmmaker Alan Berliner, who was her friend and creative advisor, creates a kind of posthumous collaboration with Benita on her final project, using as many of her images, sounds, and words as possible. BENITA is a deep dive into the many complexities of artists&rsquo; lives, from the whimsical to core existential questions, and lessons we can learn about the intersection of mental health and creativity.</p>

<p>The men behind the prison walls of Sing Sing Correctional Facility find a much-needed outlet in Beyond the Block, a TED-style public speaking symposium. Conceived and developed by an incarcerated planning committee, the event allows participants to explore their humanity in otherwise adverse circumstances. Beyond follows the presenters, from auditions to triumphant moments on stage, as they express their truths in front of an audience of policy-makers, prison officials, and loved ones.</p>

<p>A filmmaker investigates a surreal childhood memory&mdash;involving a gym teacher and a large plastic fish&mdash;to discover a hidden ally in her growing awareness as a queer woman.</p>

<p>Photographer Kwame Brathwaite, who used his art as activism, captured the joy of Black American life, documenting jazz musicians, celebrities, everyday Harlem scenes, and more&mdash;while popularizing the phrase &ldquo;Black is Beautiful,&rdquo; amplifying the movement that redefined Black pride. Through interviews with his family and celebrities like Jesse Williams, Gabrielle Union, and Alicia Keys, the film honors this unsung, prolific artist&rsquo;s profound contribution to photography and culture.</p>

<p>Sharing a common sperm donor but not a common history, a group of dozens of siblings create a unique annual reunion to explore the dynamics of non-family blood relations.</p>

<p>A quietly moving portrait of a compassionate doctor fighting to reduce diabetes-related amputations in the Mississippi Delta, revealing systemic injustice and community resilience.</p>

<p>An Irish artist, confronting her body image struggles, sets out to paint 100 portraits of breasts, using her art to reframe narratives around women&rsquo;s bodies in a historically conservative country.</p>

<p>Renowned director and choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou and his team are preparing Transverse Orientation. Inspired by the myth of the Minotaur, the performance uses light as a guide, transcending linear narrative structures and questioning hierarchies, identity and communication. Since its premiere in 2021, the production has travelled across three continents, twenty countries and thirty-one cities. The film focuses on a central question, &ldquo;Why do we do what we do?&rdquo;, highlighting art as an act of resistance against the fleeting nature of life and as a means of giving it meaning.</p>

<p>Queer Turkish elder Burcu &Ouml;zdemir&rsquo;s radiant spirit transforms a vintage shop in Vancouver into a sanctuary of belonging, creativity, and quiet resistance for generations of 2SLGBTQIA+ people.</p>

<p>Salsa pioneer Miguelito Amadeo keeps the spirit of music and community alive in his Bronx record shop, even in the face of an uncertain future.</p>

<p>Frances Hubbard Flaherty was the person who made all her husbands&rsquo; major films, from Nanook of the North to Louisiana Story, happen. Their three daughters, Barbara, Franny and Monica, as well as Robert&rsquo;s brother David and others, all played crucial parts in ensuring that his films were completed. Sami van Ingen, a great-grandson of Flaherty, uses previously unseen archival material to share his own family stories. This deeply researched and emotional film, reminiscent of a 19th century family novel, opens up the historical landscape of people sidelined by history.</p>

<p>Yulieth, a rebellious girl in a Colombian fishing village, navigates adolescence, identity, and machismo in a beautiful yet harsh coastal community.</p>

<p>Vietnamese-American poet Cindy Tran creates works that bridge personal memories and shared experiences, reflecting on childhood, parental expectations, and societal stigmas around Asian-American identity.</p>

<p>An award-winning history professor leads a transformative course with a unique group of students: half incarcerated, half free, exploring The History of Crime and Punishment in the United States. Through themes like masculinity, prison abolition, and mercy, the class challenges the invisibility of incarcerated people and reveals the far-reaching consequences of mass imprisonment. The course emphasizes the vital role of programs that bring together the incarcerated and free, fostering mutual understanding and connection.</p>

<p>Nestled at nearly 9,000 feet, Creede is a remote mining town revitalized by its repertory theater since 1966. Creede U.S.A. intertwines the lives of conservative locals and progressive theater artists&mdash;actors, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ individuals&mdash;highlighting heated debates over topics like guns in classrooms and gender pronouns. Despite stark divisions, the community grapples with coexistence, using artistic engagement and dialogue as a bridge for empathy during an era of national polarization</p>

<p>In China, a high school teacher has introduced a death education class for young students. On the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day, they bury unnamed ashes at a public cemetery where they contemplate and contextualize the meaning of death.</p>

<p>Brianna Alers began boxing at age 11 to overcome schoolyard bullying. Seven years later, she&rsquo;s still training&mdash;now with her sights set on the US Junior Olympics.</p>

<p>An elite group of athletes gathers under one of the world&rsquo;s tallest permanent diving platforms. Guided by the gentle rhythms of training, the hum of the pool deck and a breathtaking sense for cinematography, Divers observes their training process, from careful preparation to the restless anticipation that builds before ascending the 27-meter tower.</p>

<p>Formerly incarcerated individuals in Philadelphia forge life-changing bonds over pizza, rebuilding their lives and supporting families with hope and resilience. A warm and authentic affirmation of possibility and new beginnings.</p>

<p>Renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel partners with Coro de Manos Blancas, a choir of deaf performers in Venezuela, to stage Beethoven&rsquo;s opera Fidelio. As the choir prepares for their innovative performance, the film follows them through auditions, rehearsals, and personal stories of resilience in the face of anti-deaf discrimination. With music expressed through sign language, this film delivers a moving portrait of an often-overlooked community, celebrating the transformative power of art and self-expression.</p>

<p>Delicate observation and testimony from Tilda Swinton and fashion historian Olivier Saillard capture the revival of costumes from Pier Paolo Pasolini&rsquo;s movies as reflections on cinema, memory, and art history.</p>

<p>A filmmaker documents his early-onset Parkinson&rsquo;s diagnosis using image, memory, and texture to navigate illness, identity, and acceptance.</p>

<p>With any and all things crypto being pushed by celebrities, influencers, and politicians alike, actor-turned-author and director Ben McKenzie decides to investigate. Leveraging his celebrity status to gain access to eager prospectors, McKenzie finds himself unraveling the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrency. This skeptical but evenhanded take on the present and future of what we consider money gives a firsthand account of the chaotic financial frontier of our time.</p>

<p>Two women, released after decades in prison, fight to rebuild their lives, restore their humanity, and reclaim their place in a world that left them behind.</p>

<p>Amid Gaza&rsquo;s devastation, an intimate portrait follows a man and his cat, offering a quiet, human glimpse into survival, companionship, and the personal cost of collective violence.</p>

<p>For years, the great dancer Farruquito and his family&mdash;grandfather, uncle, mother, brothers, and children&mdash;have elevated the art of flamenco with staggering operatic passion. Santi Aguado and Reuben Atlas engagingly portray the arc of blood ties, loves, and tragedies that have shaped decades of international triumphs&mdash;including a special affinity for NYC, where Farruquito made his professional debut at the age of 6. Welcome home, Farruquito!</p>

<p>In &quot;Flophouse America,&quot; 12-year-old Mikal navigates a life of hardship as he grows up in a cheap American hotel, or &quot;flophouse&quot;, where his parents struggle with alcohol abuse and poverty. Despite their love for him, their chaotic existence threatens to pull him down. Set against the backdrop of radical economic inequality in the U.S., the film captures Mikal&rsquo;s resilience as he finds glimmers of hope amid an unexpected tragedy. The documentary follows three years of Mikal&rsquo;s life, chronicling his fight for a better future. Director Monica Str&oslash;mdahl, a photographer by profession, spent 15 years documenting marginalized communities in the U.S. before meeting Mikal and his family. She put down her camera and picked up a film camera, capturing their journey in intimate and unflinching detail.</p>

<p>In a remote Tibetan monastery, a young monk&rsquo;s love for basketball and Michael Jordan sparks viral fame and quiet rebellion as he questions the weight of tradition and expectation.</p>

<p>A chronicle of a woman&rsquo;s courageous fight for survival, whose 1975 acquittal challenged injustice and inspired a nation to confront sexual violence and racism.</p>

<p>Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement, has been in prison for 50 years following a contentious conviction. A new generation of Native activists is committed to winning his freedom before he dies.</p>

<p>A scrappy team of pioneering, rodeo-riding cowboys at Morehouse College strives to become polo stars as they launch the first-ever HBCU polo team.</p>

<p>DOC NYC alumnus Chuck Smith revels in 1960s sounds and the spirit of counterculture with this politically pointed look back at the volatile energy of protest and creation behind the avant-garde NYC band The Fugs (say it out loud!). Even as band members Ed Sanders, Ken Weaver, and Tuli Kupferberg found that fighting the good fight eventually proved unsustainable, today they are&mdash;along with present-day commentators like Penny Arcade, Jeffrey Lewis, Lenny Kaye, and Aline and R. Crumb&mdash;just as individualistic and feisty.</p>

<p>After a Ukrainian immigrant&rsquo;s late-in-life artistic career flourishes in 1970s South Beach, Miami, a young friend battles to preserve his work, culminating in significant posthumous acclaim.</p>

<p>A heartfelt and hopeful exploration of aging with dignity through graceful testimonials. Incisive intimacy shows the joy and strength found in embracing life&rsquo;s later chapters.</p>

<p>An elegiac documentary following virtuosic clarinettist and composer Kinan Azmeh, a Damascus-born musician living in exile, as he attempts to find meaning and purpose after the outbreak of war in Syria. A profound exploration of the role art can play in forging identity and community.</p>

<p>Musician, banjo-maker, and founder of the Black Banjo Reclamation Project Hannah Mayree organizes workshops and performances celebrating the banjo&rsquo;s Black history.</p>

<p>Filmmaker Penny Lane brings her inimitably quirky outlook to the art and business of children&rsquo;s music, an industry generally skipped over by those above the age of 10. Way beyond the grating basicness of &ldquo;Baby Shark,&rdquo; Lane profiles performers invested in creating the tastes of kids&mdash;artists wanting to shape what children will understand to care about. Among the standouts is former grunge rocker Chris Ballew, who notes amusingly that kids are like the &ldquo;greatest drunk people ever&rdquo; for their wild abandon at his concerts.</p>

<p>NBCUniversal, Universal Television Alternative Studio, and Monkeypaw Productions co-present the World Premiere screening of Peacock&rsquo;s new three-part documentary High Horse: The Black Cowboy. Ride into the world of the Black Cowboy legacy &mdash; a cultural reckoning showcasing their image, their culture, and their deep ties to the land.</p>

<p>A chronicle of the power and complexity of the relationship between Corinne and Tiana, two Queer Black womxn who experience cycles of life&rsquo;s joys and pains together in the home they share.</p>

<p>A powerful program of five documentary shorts exploring urgent social issues shaping America today. From legal justice and life after incarceration to progressive education and compassionate healthcare, these stories of grassroot activism showcase individuals and communities working to create meaningful change. Uplifting and inspiring, the program celebrates resilience, empathy, and the transformative power of advocacy&mdash;showing how courage and collective action can light the path toward a more just and compassionate society.</p>

<p>Through powerful and poetic storytelling, I Dreamed His Name follows director &Aacute;ngela Carabal&iacute; and her sister Juliana as they traverse Colombia&rsquo;s Indigenous farmlands to investigate the disappearance of their father. Thirty years ago, the Afro-Latino farmer became a victim of the violence enveloping the country during a period of civil unrest. Now, as &Aacute;ngela and Juliana probe their missing parent&rsquo;s story, they encounter others who lost family members in similar circumstances. Gorgeous and intimate cinematography further illuminates the tenderness in each frame of &Aacute;ngela Carabal&iacute;&lsquo;s moving documentary debut, a chronicle not only of loss but also of the love the sisters have for their family and for one another. &mdash;Kristal Sotomayor</p>

<p>For the last eight years, James has been looking after his mother, whose dementia makes her care increasingly challenging. As mother and son go through their routine, recorded voicemails provide a glimpse into the progression of the disease, underscoring the frustration, isolation and burnout that comes with intensive caregiving for loved ones. Mariam Zaidi.</p>

<p>A son fights corrupt officials while his mother tends their poppy farm in India. As authorities strike back at their lower-caste family, they must choose between keeping food on the table and standing up for what&#39;s right.</p>

<p>The Sunset Marquis is the legendary go-to for rock &rsquo;n&rsquo; roll royalty to cool their heels in Los Angeles, especially in the sex, drugs, and bad behavior heyday of the 1970s and &rsquo;80s. Pure gold is mined out of recollections from Ringo Starr, Slash, Cyndi Lauper, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Crow, Dave Grohl, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bob Thornton, and many more. Simmering beneath the surface lies a familial drama between founder George Rosenthal and son Mark, each with differing visions of the iconic cultural landmark.</p>

<p>A Polynesian community struggles to survive rising sea levels while Europeans casually observe the plight from their living rooms. An exploration of growing desensitization and helplessness around the climate crisis.</p>

<p>I received a land in Pankissi, Georgia, a valley at the foot of the Caucasus, right by the Chechnyan border, where I was born. In exile, I am thinking of building a house in this remote place, inhabited by descendants of my Chechen clan. But how could I possibly live in such a place?</p>

<p>A young mother sets her fears aside to move her family to a former resort town adjacent to an old nuclear facility.</p>

<p>At a vast apartment complex near the Rh&ocirc;ne River in Switzerland, residents and nearby forest birds influence and inspire each other, revealing a complex and unique bond with nature.</p>

<p>&ldquo;There is a saying, &lsquo;God willing,&rsquo; but on the island you say &lsquo;Island willing,&rsquo; as if the island was an entity...&rdquo; Si la isla quiere (Island Willing) is a portrait of Chile&rsquo;s Robinson Crusoe Island. Home to more endemic species per square kilometer than the Gal&aacute;pagos, the community defends its culture of stewardship against outside pressures &ndash; with the Island emerging as both setting and protagonist.</p>

<p>Three middle-aged women find purpose, confidence, and community on the basketball court, proving age can be an asset and the game a path to self-acceptance.</p>

<p>While preparing to play Hamlet in an intense NYC production, actor Oscar Isaac learns that his mother has fallen ill with an aggressive cancer&mdash;at the same time he and partner, filmmaker Elvira Lind, are imminently expecting their firstborn. As Elvira&rsquo;s camera quietly captures Oscar at rehearsal, at home, and with extended family, her observations become a meditation on love, grief, and the porous boundary between performance and private life&mdash;as Oscar shapes his very personal take on the legendary Prince of Denmark.</p>

<p>With the rise of pickleball as the trendiest sport on the block, committed members of Venice Beach&rsquo;s long-standing paddle tennis community fight to maintain their status. When the pickleballers threaten to push them off the beach, Scott Freedman, the self-proclaimed Paddle Tennis GOAT, makes a gambit to save the game he loves by hosting a tournament with an enticing grand prize.</p>

<p>In rural Vermont, soccer brings together immigrant dairy farmworkers, who forge a community and unite to advocate for better working conditions.</p>

<p>LA ORQUESTA follows Juana, a determined teacher and activist, and her orchestra through one school year. Using cin&eacute;ma v&eacute;rit&eacute;, intimate interviews, and personal archival footage, the film tells the story of a community coming together to offer children opportunities that should be available to all, even as they face health, financial challenges, and growing hostility toward immigrants. LA ORQUESTA offers a fresh perspective on the immigrant experience, one that celebrates art, beauty, and the transformative power of music.</p>

<p>Trumpeter, composer, educator, and storyteller Lani B. Supreme (Jelani Akil Bauman) carries forward a musical legacy that began with his great-great-grandfather before emancipation. Driven by his family&rsquo;s craft, Bauman&rsquo;s music celebrates Black creative expression.</p>

<p>Amidst the brutalist architecture of Tbilisi, a toll elevator and a surreal environment shape the daily life of Mzia&mdash;a former sniper who now oversees the only lift of its kind in the world.</p>

<p>A loss adjuster attempts to escape the catastrophic and corrupt scenarios he confronts daily by acting in a play. This ends up taking a higher toll on him than his own work, forcing him to embark on a journey of self-discovery as he reflects on the parallels between real tragedy and staged drama.</p>

<p>LOST FOR WORDS is inspired by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane&#39;s The Lost Words book, created in response to 50 nature words being taken out of the Oxford Youth Dictionary in 2007, such as raven, magpie, otter, adder, acorn... This best seller has had a vast and unexpected impact and was distributed to schools across the UK, adapted for the theatre and even recomposed into music. It is a growing phenomenon that continues to expand worldwide by raising one main question that we, too, reflect on in our documentary: How can we preserve what we can no longer name? This choral documentary gives a voice to children, scientists, artists, the elderly... leading us through the seasons and also letting nature speak for itself as we are brought to question our anthropocentric perspective.</p>

<p>The dynamic co-founders of Black Voters Matter, Cliff Albright, April England Albright, and LaTosha Brown, travel across the country in their beloved &ldquo;Blackest bus in America&rdquo; to mobilize Black communities ahead of the 2020 election. Undeterred by COVID-19 and voter suppression tactics, they empower grassroots activists with passion, courage, and heart. Punctuated by heart-wrenching incidents of racially-based violence, this energetic and inspiring documentary celebrates the power of community, culture, and relentless determination in the fight for democracy.</p>

<p>As climate change erases the Louisiana coast, the last two teenagers on Isle de Jean Charles fight to stay on an island that&#39;s been their family home for generations.</p>

<p>The filmmakers followed students from a school in each of Bensonhurst, Tribeca, and Washington Heights as they learned about ambition, discipline, respect, and perspective&mdash;all to the beats of merengue, rumba, tango, and other rhythms. The film exists as a snapshot of a tolerant and respectful time, with expressions of such values seemingly in much shorter supply today. Some of the students featured in the film, now in their 30s, are expected to attend alongside some of their former teachers.</p>

<p>A gruff London car mechanic discovers the hauntingly beautiful theremin, leading him on an unexpected journey to find his musical passion and proving it&rsquo;s never too late to change lanes.</p>

<p>In 1975, television star David Carradine came up with a novel way to forge a relationship with his estranged daughter Calista: he would make a movie with her. &quot;Mata Hari&quot; tells the story of David and Calista&#39;s relationship through the lens of their unfinished, years-long film project, an epic telling of the life of the Dutch courtesan and spy, Mata Hari.</p>

<p>Haunted by his father&rsquo;s unresolved death during the 1983 Matabeleland massacres, a Zimbabwean immigrant in Botswana believes his family is cursed. Burdened by generational trauma and historical violence, the man struggles to build a future, despite having love in his life. While trying to properly bury his father, he must confront his long-avoided pain. This powerful exploration of grief and memory is an intimate portrait of one man&rsquo;s journey toward healing and spiritual reconciliation.</p>

<p>Nigerian-born British image-maker Misan Harriman has garnered accolades for his powerful photographs of grassroots protests against climate change inaction, Gaza atrocities, George Floyd&rsquo;s murder, and more. Yet even as his images provoke palpable reactions, as a self-described person of privilege, Harriman shares his doubts about his work&rsquo;s effectiveness in discussion with such human rights leaders as Rep. Ilhan Omar and Martin Luther King III. Urgent and compelling, Harriman&rsquo;s compassion and questioning are needed more than ever.</p>

<p>Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband&rsquo;s affair. MISTRESS DISPELLER follows this process from all corners of a love triangle in an intimate meditation on love and family.<br /> <br /> In China, rampant adultery has given rise to a new industry devoted to helping couples stay married in the face of infidelity. Wang Zhenxi is part of this growing profession, a &ldquo;mistress dispeller&rdquo; who is hired to maintain the bounds of marriage &mdash; and break up affairs &mdash; by any means necessary. MISTRESS DISPELLER follows a real, unfolding case of infidelity as Teacher Wang attempts to bring a couple back from the edge of crisis, offering strikingly intimate access to private lives usually hidden behind closed doors. Their story shifts our sympathies between husband, wife and mistress to explore the ways emotion, pragmatism, and cultural norms collide to shape romantic relationships in contemporary China.</p>

<p>In this poignant reflection of boyhood, the diverging paths of two young friends offer a realistic testament to how economic and social circumstances can shape a life.</p>

<p>Fragmented images of love, activism, and ancestral resilience intertwine with poignant voice messages between the filmmaker and his lover in Brazil, forming a lyrical reflection on memory and survival.</p>

<p>In 1968, Argentine artist Leandro Katz attends a performance by the Theatre of the Ridiculous in a New York pornographic cinema. The actors, in drag, recite texts that weave high literature with queer slang, undress, and perform with exuberance. Katz becomes part of the ensemble, assisting in lighting, photography, experimental film works through 1976. Eventually he parts ways as his artistic path diverges. In the present day, living in Buenos Aires, Katz revisits his archives&mdash;photos, negatives, slides, works, and an unfinished film believed lost. As testimony and memory unfold, the past&#39;s specters seep into the present.</p>

<p>Jo, a trans man, meets Allie, a trans woman&mdash;and sparks fly. As the relationship of these two New Yorkers evolves through busy careers, raising children, and their ongoing gender transitions, the couple makes plans to get married&mdash;&ldquo;the most traditional progressive wedding&rdquo; ever, proclaims their presiding minister. Having come so far as individuals, finding love to create a new foundation of family is a national testimonial in a time of rising transphobia.</p>

<p>Director Isa Willinger asks herself whether women&rsquo;s filmmaking is characterized by a particular harshness. Inspired by Ukrainian director Kira Muratova, No Mercy interrogates power, violence, and representation as it blends history, criticism, and manifesto. With contributions from C&eacute;line Sciamma, Virginie Despentes, Nina Menkes, Catherine Breillat, Apolline Traor&eacute;, Joey Soloway, and more, the film is unapologetic, unflinching, and, fittingly, without mercy.</p>

<p>A hybrid documentary short examining a little-known story of the Holocaust by bullets&mdash;the murder of Lithuanian Jews by Nazis and their local collaborators in the forests surrounding hundreds of shtetls. Based on survivor testimony, the film follows a young woman who must choose between staying with her family or saving herself.Aa</p>

<p>Nuns vs. The Vatican exposes a scandal that&rsquo;s growing in momentum inside the Catholic Church, from Emmy-winning director Lorena Luciano and executive producer Mariska Hargitay (Law &amp; Order: SVU).</p>

<p>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&rsquo;s eternal urge to dance.</p>

<p>A jiu-jitsu fighter and coach with one hand strives to harbor his dream of having his own school in the face of significant challenges.</p>

<p>Best friends Mike and Emlyn journey through South Wales, documenting UFO sightings and extraordinary encounters with the unexplainable for their podcast.</p>

<p>Our Land seamlessly juxtaposes the two sides of the debate around our access to nature, giving voice to the different perspectives: those fighting for greater access to the countryside and the landowners who claim to be stewards of the land. Blending history with an eye on the future, Our Land charts the conflict, exploring the complex issues of access, custodianship and conservation. Articulately presenting arguments from both sides, the film challenges age-old beliefs around property that have shaped our relationship with the land for over a thousand years. And as the battle for nature continues the film asks the vital question, who truly has the right to roam?</p>

<p>A groundbreaking comedy troupe takes the stage in Palestine, where laughter embodies survival and defiance. Following six comedians from Jenin, Hebron, Ramallah, the Golan Heights, and beyond, the film captures intimate family moments, raw rehearsals, and daring performances amid the suffocating grip of occupation and escalating violence. Especially amid unprecedented attempts to erase Palestinian culture, comedy is not just art, but an act of political resistance and a way to insist on Palestinian humanity.</p>

<p>Abstract artist Francine Tint reflects on her successful art career, which defied the expectations imposed by the male-dominated industry of the &rsquo;70s and &rsquo;80s.</p>

<p>Milan&eacute;s, co-founder of the Nueva Trova movement with Silvio Rodr&iacute;guez, was a major voice in Cuba&#39;s revolutionary cultural movement. This film, directed by his adopted son Fabien Pisani, combines interviews with musical luminaries such as Serrat, Chico Buarque, Harry Belafonte and Fito P&aacute;ez, alongside intimate moments of Milan&eacute;s in his final years, looking frail and reflecting on the fading Cuban Utopia. It&rsquo;s a striking cinematic portrait of the artist. As memories of the past surface, so does the broad disillusionment of the singer and his peers, a generation of artists who were once devoted to the Revolution but who now question its legacy.</p>

<p>Struggling with depression and social anxiety, Paul has found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes. By sharing his gently eccentric routines on social media, he combats loneliness and takes it one day at a time.</p>

<p>Physicist David Keith, a leading and controversial figure in solar geoengineering, seeks to test his planetary-cooling technology after decades of research and theorization. His journey unfolds amid fierce debates over the ethical, political, and environmental implications of reflecting sunlight to slow global warming. Activists warn that the technology could delay fossil fuel reductions or be misused geopolitically. The documentary offers a gripping, real-time look at science shaped by public discourse, ethics, and institutional power.</p>

<p>A vibrant portrait of Marilyn Minter, the trailblazing feminist whose glamorous, provocative, and unapologetically sexual work has redefined contemporary art&rsquo;s boundaries for nearly five decades. Moving between biography, studio practice, and cultural history, the film traces her rise in New York&rsquo;s art world, the controversies she sparked within feminist discourse, and the enduring influence of her lush, subversive images. Fast-paced, stylish, and full of celebrity cameos, it celebrates an artist who insists on pleasure as power.</p>

<p>As the clock counts down to the 2023 Women&rsquo;s World Cup, the Reggae Girlz, the Jamaican soccer team, face uphill battles for recognition, respect, and resources. Suffering from financial struggles and institutional neglect, the team boldly confronts the soccer federation, finding surprising allies at home and abroad. With stunning Jamaican landscapes and a vibrant reggae soundtrack, this uplifting underdog story is a joyful celebration of perseverance, pride, and the power of women in sport.</p>

<p>Acclaimed documentarian Al Maysles reflects on filming the Beatles during their first visit to the United States.</p>

<p>Against the backdrop of Holi festivities, an intimate portrait of Mohini, a transgender woman whose life reveals the tension between reverence and rejection in small-town India.</p>

<p>A small yet determined group of Alabama grandmothers organizes a grassroots movement to challenge the state&rsquo;s largest power company&rsquo;s environmental abuses.</p>

<p>The sight of rogue Santas gallivanting through the streets has become an NYC winter staple. While the revelry can feel like just a drunken lark, the origins of the festivities lie in something far more absurd. Born in the Bay Area from the same minds as Burning Man, Santacon grew from zany capitalist commentary to a seasonal sensation. Featuring interviews with its creators, these Santa shenanigans give an irreverent twist to the Christmas season.</p>

<p>Facing gentrification in LA&rsquo;s oldest neighborhood, the immigrant and Indigenous community of Lincoln Heights must unite to save Flat Top, a sacred piece of undeveloped land, from a corporate takeover.</p>

<p>Shelly, a brash, no-nonsense carpenter, is on a mission to empower Black women to reclaim their futures, one home at a time. Through her innovative program, participants learn construction skills and financial literacy to renovate and purchase abandoned row houses in Baltimore. As dilapidated quarters become dream homes, the women&rsquo;s personal journeys and stories of determination and community offer a powerful blueprint for breaking cycles of poverty and revitalizing neighborhoods from within.</p>

<p>In 2003, eight Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment inside the Providence Place Mall and lived in it for four years, filming everything along the way. They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall&rsquo;s electricity, and even constructed a wall, smuggling in over 2 tons of cinderblock. Far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for its inhabitants &ndash; a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a clubhouse to coordinate artistic charity, and finally, a 750 square foot &quot;F you&quot; to The Man. From Jeremy Workman, whose &quot;Lily Topples The World&quot; won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW 2021 and from Executive Producer Jesse Eisenberg.</p>

<p>The community and friendship of Black British teen roller skaters speak to joy, freedom, and the quiet ache of growing up too soon.</p>

<p>Boca Chica, Texas. Hemmed in by the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande, the village is defined by the rhythmic sound of the waves. But this wild country is in the midst of irreversible change. For the swamps have been drained, the beaches closed and the homes bought out: the shadow looming over the beach is that of a 50-story rocket, being readied for launch into space.</p>

<p>Bodybuilder. Athlete. Gladiator. Shelley Beattie was a proud deaf woman and a graceful powerhouse whose impressive physique often obscured her human struggles. Reaching the height of her fame on American Gladiators as Siren, Beattie&rsquo;s professional success masked her mental health battles from her family, friends, and partners. Director Irene Taylor joins forces with Hollywood veteran Marlee Matlin to guide the viewer through an exploration of Beattie&rsquo;s life in this touching biography.</p>

<p>Detroit has often been framed in a negative light, saddled with proclamations of crime and urban decay, but that isn&rsquo;t the city that filmmaker Jeremy Xido calls home. After his family moved to the city during his youth, an African American family &ldquo;adopted&rdquo; Xido and his parents as part of their clan. In this emotionally rich personal tale, Xido reconnects with an estranged &ldquo;cousin&rdquo; as he reckons with the social forces that pulled them apart.</p>

<p>Oglala Lakota artist, musician, and composer Mato Wayuhi, known for his work on Reservation Dogs, references ancestral knowledge to inform his present artistic processes and visions for the future.</p>

<p>With shrinking newsrooms, media monopolization, weaponized social media, and a president deliberately eroding public trust in truth and reality, STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE! offers an intimate counterpoint, showing how independent media is essential to a functioning democracy. Set against some of the most consequential stories of our time&mdash;from the war in Gaza to the global climate catastrophe&mdash;the film follows the intrepid independent journalist Amy Goodman over 30 years. As she becomes a leader in the movement for independent media that amplifies voices excluded from the mainstream, she faces off against forces trying to silence her.</p>

<p>Sonia Manzano, best known as &ldquo;Maria&rdquo; on Sesame Street, shares her inspiring journey from childhood in the Bronx to becoming a trailblazing television icon. Through her own words, and with appearances by Stephen Schwartz, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and more, STREET SMART celebrates Manzano&rsquo;s groundbreaking work as an actress and Emmy-winning writer while exploring life after Sesame Street. This uplifting portrait honors a beloved Latina role model who made an impressive and indelible mark on children&rsquo;s television.</p>

<p>The love story of Gloria Clayborne and renowned jazz pianist Junior Mance, whose charmed career spans seventy years. Junior has played with Dizzy, Dinah, Cannonball&ndash;&ndash;all the greats. But it&rsquo;s not until 1996, that he meets his great love: Gloria Clayborne. They quickly marry, she becomes his manager, and they travel the world together, with music at the center of their relationship.</p>

<p>The danger and the tedium of a young Venezuelan migrant&rsquo;s constant movement to avoid detection. An empathetic, restrained, and breathtaking exploration of statelessness, from physical tolls to uncertain futures.</p>

<p>With the city&rsquo;s finances in free fall, and with no support from the state or national government, activist squatters organize and create a vibrant community in 1980s NYC.</p>

<p>Three Black women, including Great Britain&rsquo;s first Black female Olympian, explore their healing and historical relationship to the water through swimming.</p>

<p>The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing celebrates the life of the dynamic author, editor, and activist. From her Harlem roots to her role as a self-described &ldquo;culture worker,&rdquo; Toni&rsquo;s wit and fierce commitment to change come alive through rare footage and the voices of those who knew her best, including Toni Morrison and filmmaker Haile Gerima. Set to a cool jazz score, this stylish documentary honors an unsung icon whose legacy still resonates today.</p>

<p>Teaching America chronicles the community of students and teachers who championed the inaugural Advanced Placement African-American Studies classes in Arkansas, when the state threatened to shut down the classes entirely. Anurima Bhargava&rsquo;s film aptly captures a story of wisdom, deep curiosity and an unflinching desire to learn that extends across boundaries and generations, at a time of deliberate erasure of African-American history, culture, literature, and testimony.</p>

<p>Told through striking animation, one woman&rsquo;s powerful account of surviving a fire in Tehran&rsquo;s Evin prison captures resistance; an urgent, creative act rooted in the Iranian Woman! Life! Freedom! movement.</p>

<p>With the support of her fellow thespians, an actress navigates the mental and physical challenges of performing after enduring a traumatic event.</p>

<p>Sandra Oh, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Kumail Nanjiani, Amanda Nguyen, Connie Chung, and beyond: their worlds may be disparate, but they&rsquo;ve all, in their unique ways, navigated what it means to be Asian in relation to their American identities. While their success has been fraught with racism, they share their stories of losses and wins&mdash;to record and bear witness to the struggles, but also to inspire those who come after them.</p>

<p>Set in Mexico&rsquo;s heartland, this urgent investigative documentary follows a group of women who uncover radioactive contamination in their water after three young girls die of leukemia. These mothers-turned-activists link the crisis to the corporate extraction of ancient rocks. Facing government denial and community resistance, they fight for accountability. Blending expert insight with local history and mythology, The Age of Water exposes a growing global issue, making clear that water contamination knows no borders.</p>

<p>Adventurers Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones set out to become the first balloonists to circumnavigate the globe in this white-knuckle, suspenseful documentary.</p>

<p>In the high-pressure world of international cheesemongering, Adam Moskowitz aims to send the first American to claim the top prize at the Mondial du Fromage competition in France. While the European model for this &ldquo;sommelier of cheese&rdquo; profession eclipses its stateside counterpart in societal support, Moskowitz&mdash;and his alter-ego, Mr. Moo&mdash;believe scrappy American ingenuity can take the wheel. Sara Joe Wolansky&rsquo;s supremely witty and entertaining directorial debut is an instant artisanal classic.</p>

<p>On an idyllic farm in rural Georgia, beekeeping parents tenderly share their knowledge of life, love, and nature with their young sons while restoring their homestead.</p>

<p>A whimsical, personal look-back at the life choices of an eighth-generation nutcracker workshop owner, a descendant of the original inventor.</p>

<p>Two elderly women in a senior care community forge a profound bond of care and companionship, creating a quiet resistance to the loneliness of aging.</p>

<p>In a country where eligible men greatly outnumber women, three serial bachelors join an intensive seven-day dating camp led by one of China&rsquo;s most sought-after dating coaches, in what may be their last-ditch effort to find love.</p>

<p>In this love letter to cinema, we witness Ghanaian cameraman Chris Hesse, now in his 90s, pass on his legacy to the younger filmmaker Anita Afonu, captured by two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot.</p>

<p>Three pigeon racers, known as fanciers, reflect on their lives, their love of the sport, their pigeons, and the future of the hobby.</p>

<p>The Fault Line is a hybrid short documentary exploring the fracture between a queer daughter and her mother, featuring the filmmaker&rsquo;s own personal archive. Through directing an actor to play her mother and fill in the widening gaps over time, O&rsquo;Connor now attempts to sculpt her mother.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>On the margins of Latin America&rsquo;s largest city, Guarani Mbya elder Maria reclaims a devastated landscape and turns it into a flourishing garden. Through reforestation, medicinal rituals, and fierce advocacy for land rights, she becomes both a guardian of the Atlantic Forest and a vessel of her community&rsquo;s wisdom. With lyrical intimacy, the film immerses us in Maria&rsquo;s world, where resistance, ecology, and spirituality offer a blueprint for survival and renewal.</p>

<p>As a young boy, Shantha Murthy ran away from home to escape the extreme poverty of his Indian village. He travelled the country in search of work, holding onto the belief that one day his life would change. It did, following a serendipitous encounter with a Texan couple. He travelled to the US, but his American Dream was not to be fulfilled. Karla Murthy&rsquo;s film weaves together home videos and phone conversations recorded during her father&rsquo;s stint as a gas station attendant, while also reflecting on her own identity as a first-generation American. What emerges is an intimate love letter &ndash; a meditation on a complicated father-daughter relationship and a poignant tribute to the immigrant working class.</p>

<p>Civil rights lawyer Armen Merjian takes on NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani over housing rights for people living with HIV.</p>

<p>New York&rsquo;s Hudson River stars in Jon Bowermaster&rsquo;s environmental documentary about America&rsquo;s &ldquo;first river.&rdquo; The Keeper follows patrol boat captain John Lipscomb who has been the eyes and ears of the environmental watchdog group Riverkeeper. Lipscomb&rsquo;s job entails reporting environmental issues, both natural and, historically, mostly manmade ones. We learn that while the River might look more beautiful and cleaner than it has in many decades, the news isn&rsquo;t all that great. Polluters like General Electric have terrible track records abusing the waters, and still standing dams disrupt the migration patterns of fish.</p>

<p>In the tradition of the Tibetan religion Bon, a lama&rsquo;s son inherits his title. In Lubra in northern Nepal, where a large population of Bon followers reside, an aging lama awaits his son&rsquo;s return from the US&mdash;and fears the extinction of his culture. In a fast-globalizing world that demands assimilation, a community struggles to hold on to its distinctive customs. Simultaneously, a filmmaker observes the decline of traditions that defined his formative years.</p>

<p>From her now unofficial office in Vienna, Manizha Bakhtari remains Afghanistan&rsquo;s only female ambassador. As she fearlessly defies the Taliban&rsquo;s gender discrimination by enabling the secret education of girls, she becomes one of the most important voices for women in her country.</p>

<p>In the aftermath of Mosul&rsquo;s destruction by ISIS, Bashar Salih and his family sift through the ruins of their ancestral home, salvaging fragments of life, culture, and memory. As they dig through debris, confront looters, and debate selling architectural relics to a passionate collector, the film meditates on the tension between rebuilding and accepting irretrievable loss. A quietly powerful portrait of resilience, it explores the personal and societal cost of war, memory, and cultural survival.</p>

<p>This is the story of one of the largest marches and movements that the world has yet to know about where Rahul Gandhi, India&#39;s opposition leader, walked 4000 kilometers &ndash; from the Southern tip of the country to the North over 141 days. And millions of every day Indians participated.</p>

<p>Blurring performance and reality, an actor posing as an AI-created photographer sharply and self-reflexively exposes fragile truths about identity, labor, and authorship in an increasingly simulated world.</p>

<p>Japanese photographer Akihiko Okamura gathers extraordinary images of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, showing a unique connection with the people and the time.</p>

<p>For the five families that control NYC&rsquo;s Christmas tree trade, the most wonderful time of the year starts months before the first fir tree displays hit busy sidewalks in the five boroughs. There is the competition for sources and locations&mdash;not to mention strategizing to stretch the proceeds of five scant weeks into a living for the rest of the year. Celia Aniskovich&rsquo;s delightful peek behind the curtain of a holiday tradition captures a truly singular cast of characters, among them NYC&rsquo;s seasonal stand workers, who add extra spice to every sale.</p>

<p>In 1960, Bronx couple Dan and Toby Talbot transformed a struggling Upper West Side theater into the influential New Yorker Theater&mdash;launching careers, exposing audiences to international auteurs, and reshaping U.S. film culture. The New Yorker Theater: A Talbot Legacy chronicles their six-decade journey as revolutionary exhibitionists of cinema art</p>

<p>When COVID-19 quarantine restrictions force the 2020 cancellation of Lincoln Center&rsquo;s annual holiday production of The Nutcracker for the first time since 1964, a group of unemployed New York City Ballet dancers find an unexpected haven at a fairy-tale estate in the Hudson Valley. With an original staging for a masked and largely outdoor audience, the dancers channel the spirit of the classic score into a beacon of wonder during a dark time. In documenting, DOC NYC alumna Anne Sundberg grasps the vital core of the production: how to find hope to persevere, then and now.</p>

<p>Family owners of the Petal Pusher flower shop, part of Penn Station&rsquo;s subterranean commerce community since the 1970s, reflect as the store is forced to close due to rising rents.</p>

<p>Following advocates pushing for FDA approval of a pill demonstrated to boost female desire, this engaging documentary explores stark inequalities regarding women&rsquo;s sexual health. The film exposes how medical education and healthcare institutions systematically ignore women&rsquo;s sexual needs while normalizing dozens of drugs for male erectile dysfunction. Witty, urgent, and illuminating, The Pink Pill interrogates the double standards in science, medicine, and society that shape how female desire is understood and often dismissed.</p>

<p>Once torn apart by the US border, a father and son in Guatemala struggle to rebuild their lives and reclaim their dreams.</p>

<p>After their father disappeared on Long Island in the 1960s, Mike Carroll and his siblings grew up believing he had walked out on the family. Mike&rsquo;s lingering suspicions and possibly psychosomatic issues eventually lead to an agonizing discovery. With meticulous editing and a bold, almost subversive use of archival footage, director Patricia E. Gillespie evokes the deep hurt of secrets and how they can gnaw away at us on a subterranean level.</p>

<p>Julian Assange faced a possible 175 years in prison for exposing U.S. war crimes until events took a turn in this landmark case.</p>

<p>In September 2024, spiritual advisor Jeff Hood travels to Oklahoma to fight for the stay of an incarcerated man&rsquo;s execution&mdash;and to provide spiritual guidance if the state carries it out.</p>

<p>The work of photographers during the Vietnam War exposed the horrors committed against the civilian population to a Western audience largely unaware of the scale of the atrocities. The iconic photograph, The Terror of War, also known as Napalm Girl, was shocking in its depiction of the violence experienced by children, prompting global protests and calls to end the war. But a claim by a former Associated Press photo editor raises doubts over the image&rsquo;s origins. Bao Nguyen&rsquo;s film follows a relentless journey to find the truth, locating a photographer known only as &lsquo;the stringer&rsquo; who claims he took the photo, throwing the AP photographer credit into question. In following this investigation Nguyen&rsquo;s film tackles racial injustice and journalistic ethics as it questions why Vietnamese photographers&rsquo; essential contribution to this conflict have been overlooked in history.</p>

<p>Filmmaker Rosella Tursi humorously investigates the family legend of when her grandmother was held hostage by bank robbers.</p>

<p>A provocative examination of celebrity haters, public vitriol, and the toxic price of fame. DOC NYC alumna Rory Kennedy depicts how the tragic accidental death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust in 2021 hatched a distressing cottage industry of career-furthering paparazzi and prosecutors maneuvering for payoffs and power. Talented and adored, yet also flawed and prone to explosions of anger, NYC-based Hollywood star Alec Baldwin becomes a lightning rod of envy and online hate as he fights to protect himself and his family from our culture&rsquo;s revolting empathy gaps. Rory Kennedy&rsquo;s sober assessment never lets you forget the Hutchins family&rsquo;s tragedy while walking us through a riveting final act detailing the shocking revelations of Baldwin&rsquo;s trial in New Mexico.</p>

<p>Guided by professional hunter Marc Warnke and survival expert Callie Russell, struggling tech entrepreneur Mansal Denton sets out on an eight-day remote wilderness expedition in search of elk, along with answers to some of life&rsquo;s biggest questions. Shot on gorgeous 16mm, this introspective film follows our complex trio as the trials of the journey surface their foremost wounds, forcing them to grapple with the profound mysteries of mortality.</p>

<p>Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura &ldquo;the godfather of Asian American media,&rdquo; but filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura calls him Dad. Robert&rsquo;s diagnosis of Parkinson&rsquo;s disease leads to an exploration of art, activism, grief, and fatherhood.</p>

<p>Four young women in Syracuse reflect on their lives, love, and community, using dance and conversation to explore everything from youthful regrets to raising a daughter.</p>

<p>In today&rsquo;s America, children are taught how to prepare for school shootings through elaborate drills. Yet what are intended as self-defense mechanisms are themselves deeply traumatic for students, parents, educators, and entire communities. As children continue to be gunned down in the country, this smart and heartbreaking film takes an acerbic and caustic tone, perhaps aptly fitting the mood of civilians disgusted with politicians who do nothing to change the country&rsquo;s gun laws.</p>

<p>Delving into the past and not shying away from the dug-up pain, a young filmmaker speaks to her Mexican mother and Palestinian father about their trying journeys into the United States. In a society with rhetoric increasingly vilifying Mexicans and Palestinians, the filmmaker picks up her camera in a bid to address the grief at the center of the generational trauma that has underscored her relationship with her family. A meditation of loss and grief relieved, ultimately, through reconciliation.</p>

<p>Venus fly trap poachers face felony charges for trying to make a living, while huge real-estate developers go unpunished.</p>

<p>Mich&egrave;le Stephenson&rsquo;s moving documentary centres on the 1969 student protests against racism at Montreal&rsquo;s Concordia University and their contribution to the story of Black liberation.</p>

<p>A couple revisits Super 8 footage of a formative road trip, exploring the beauty, fear, and vulnerability of falling in love amid Western Canada&rsquo;s vast landscapes.</p>

<p>Unanimal is an imaginative and philosophical documentary exploring the complex relationship between humans and animals in the Anthropocene era. Narrated by Isabella Rossellini, directors Sally Jacobson and Tuva Bj&ouml;rk employ a blend of humor and depth to challenge humanity&#39;s perception of its dominance over other species. The film invites viewers to reconsider our place in the world and our interactions with animals, moving beyond traditional roles of pets, food, and objects.</p>

<p>Street performers Adrian Jusdanis and Alan Zavodsky draw crowds with their dynamic sound and high energy.</p>

<p>Why do they jump despite the danger? A diverse group of cliff divers in Mexico poetically relate the thrill of taking that leap into the water.</p>

<p>Until she learned about a proposed plastics plant a few miles from her home, Sharon Lavigne was a special education teacher whose favorite pastime was singing in her church choir. Vs Goliath: Cancer Alley follows Sharon, a grandmother of twelve, in her fight against the industries poisoning her community. She lives in the region known as &ldquo;Cancer Alley,&rdquo; a corridor along the Mississippi River that was once the heart of plantation country, and is now petrochemical plant country, still populated largely by the descendents of the enslaved. Receiving a message from God that she must stay and fight the plants, Sharon becomes an internationally renowned activist as she mobilizes her family and wider community.</p>

<p>A young Indigenous woman&rsquo;s struggle against restrictive traditions, charted through her perspective, offers a nuanced portrait of resilience and self-determination.</p>

<p>Warren King transforms cardboard into sculptural reflections of his Chinese-American family&rsquo;s immigration and his path from engineer to artist. Preparing for a Wisconsin homecoming show, King explores belonging through art.</p>

<p>A moving story of a son reconnecting with his Indigenous mother, who left him as a child to return to her tribe in the Amazon. As an adult, he seeks to rebuild their bond across distance, culture, language, and time. The story revolves around several hurdles they encounter, many of which are bureaucratic, trying to get her to the US. The heart of the film, though, lies in the tender relationship between mother and son.</p>

<p>In Northern Ireland&rsquo;s underground car community, daring spirits share deep bonds built on their passion for high-speed diffing. Amid a mental-health crisis, they navigate challenges both on and off the road, chasing adrenaline as an outlet for their personal struggles.</p>

<p>We Met at Grossinger&rsquo;s is a dazzling excavation of cultural memory and mythology. Throughout decades of prejudice stifling the integration of Jewish immigrants in America, the Borscht Belt in the Catskills provided an oasis of belonging, and Grossinger&rsquo;s Resort and Hotel was the crown jewel. The real-life inspiration for the setting of the 1987 classic film Dirty Dancing, Grossinger&rsquo;s provided both a physical and mental getaway where Jews&mdash;and others from marginalized communities&mdash;needing a break from NYC could relax. The resort&rsquo;s growing reputation attracted a wide variety of comedians, athletes, and political figures, including Jackie Robinson and Eleanor Roosevelt. DOC NYC alumna Paula Eiselt resurrects this vanished world with an immersive warmth, providing a timely reminder of the historic richness of Jewish culture and its immeasurable contributions to American life.</p>

<p>5-year-old Tako, dressed in pink, spends her summers in the gray old mud healing center in Georgia and waits for her grandmother to make time for her.</p>

<p>In a political landscape marked by racialized power structures, an Algerian-American filmmaker raised in Canada decides to turn the lens on his family. His ancestors, he discovered, did great things&mdash;and owned slaves. What We Inherit unpacks this complicated legacy and directly engages with descendants of the people held captive by the filmmaker&rsquo;s ancestors.</p>

<p>Juan is on the beautiful mountain of La Sarna trying to make a documentary when two events lead him to confront serious topics: on the one hand, the discovery of a violent event related to the place, and on the other, the progressive loss of his sight.</p>

<p>Aney, a New York&ndash;based healthcare worker, returns to rural India after her mother dies from lack of medical care. Driven by grief and resolve, she sets up a clinic for village outcasts, hoping to change the system. There she meets Farida, a wise and resilient teenager from a nomadic tribe. Aney&#39;s work with the village helps her heal from her mother&#39;s death, but Farida&#39;s life takes a tragic turn when her father dies because he can no longer afford his hospital stay. As Farida&#39;s life unravels, Aney discovers that her utopian dreams are no match for harsh reality. Filmed over seven years, this deeply personal East-meets-West story of mutual healing shows how the sufferings and joys of the human experience blurs borders and boundaries, countries and caste.</p>

<p>At the Masters of Musical Whistling competition, where virtuoso whistlers compete for global supremacy and bragging rights, we follow an array of quirky personalities and dazzling talents in a film sure to be a crowd-pleaser.</p>

<p>To fill in the gaps and inconsistencies in her father&rsquo;s biography, filmmaker Evi Stamou begins a correspondence with an artificial intelligence. From this conspiratorial and often impertinent exchange, possible and probable stories emerge, painting the portrait of a young dreamer, at a time when the Greek military junta was gaining power.</p>

<p>In Women Laughing, longtime New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly sets out to explore her lifelong passion for humor and cartooning by speaking, laughing, and drawing with a diverse group of remarkable women who create cartoons for the iconic magazine. Featuring intimate conversations with some of the most celebrated and groundbreaking cartoonists at The New Yorker including Roz Chast, Emily Flake, Liana Finck, Sarah Akinterinwa, Amy Hwang, and Bishakh Som, the film also journeys back in time to the earliest days of celebrated magazine. Women Laughing is a joyful celebration of women, art, and the creative spirit, as well as a look at the state of women&rsquo;s humor over the last century through the perspectives of the pioneering cartoonists, then and now, who have wrestled with some of the central social issues of our time.</p>

<p>An immersive archival documentary that reanimates the clash between the then-emerging World Trade Organization (WTO) and the more than 40,000 people who took to the streets of Seattle to protest the WTO&#39;s impact on human rights, labor, and the environment.</p>

<p>Growing up in the US, filmmaker Khoa Ha always knew her grandfather was a famous musician in her native Vietnam. What she didn&rsquo;t realize was the magnitude of his popularity or the mystique that surrounded his real background. In excavating the story of the musician Y V&acirc;n, she not only discovers the man behind the persona but also unearths a part of Vietnamese music history that was lost to time.</p>

<p>Take a trip beyond headlines and meet the hyperactive boy who would go on to be a TV mogul and actor, all before becoming the president of Ukraine and the subject of global attention in leading the country&rsquo;s defense against Russian aggression. With interviews with those who knew Volodymyr Zelensky before he became one of the most famous men in the world, the documentary combines interviews and archival material to show us the Zelensky we don&rsquo;t know.</p>