The nation’s largest documentary film festival is kicking off in New York City next week.
DOC NYC will present more than 110 feature-length documentaries among over 200 films and dozens of events, with audiences hearing directly from those making the films. The festival will take place from Nov. 13 and will run through Nov. 21 at IFC Center (323 6th Ave.), SVA Theatre (333 W 23rd St.) and Village East by Angelika (181-189 2nd Ave.), and will continue online through Dec. 1.
“DOC NYC is honored to connect superb documentary art and artists with an appreciative public in New York City and across the U.S. in our virtual theater,” said the festival’s artistic director Jaie Laplante. “The filmmakers of this year’s official selection have gifted us with engaging, vigorous work that provides us with new ways of looking at our world.”
Kicking off the festival on Nov. 13 will be a screening of Sinead O’Shea’s portrait “Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story,” which honors the late Irish writer who passed away a few months ago, at the SVA Theatre. The festival will close, also at the SVA Theatre, with the World premiere of Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn’s “Drop Dead City – New York on the Brink in 1975,” which looks back on the circumstances involved in New York City’s mid-70s financial crisis.
One of the highlight’s of this year’s DOC NYC will be the premiere of Ondi Timoner’s “All God’s Children,” which will also be a part of the festival’s U.S. Competition. The documentary tells the story of a Brooklyn rabbi and Baptist pastor who join forces to create greater unity between their two communities.
The festival will premiere several films taken from war-torn areas of the world throughout its run, including Miriam Guttmann’s “Front Row,” executive produced by Sarah Jessica Parker, which features exiled Ukrainian ballet dancers; Joel ‘Kachi Benson’s “Mothers of Chibok,” which highlights a community of women in Nigeria who struggle to persevere while grieving for daughters kidnapped by Boko Haram; Areeb Zuaiter’s “Yalla Parkour,” where Zuaiter dives into her childhood in Gaza through a young man doing parkour in Nablus; and Sarah McCarthy’s “After the Rain: Putin’s Stolen Children Come Home,” which focuses on a group of Ukrainian children who had been abducted by the Russian army.
Like in years past, DOC NYC will highlight short films through the festival’s Shorts Competition (which has 94 films slated), DOC NYC U Competition (12 student films from nine NYC schools), and an out-of-competition special presentation of the forthcoming Season 3 of Firelight Media/American Masters’ acclaimed “In The Making” series (8 films). The festival will also highlight several filmmakers in their seventh annual 40 Under 40 cohort.
For more information and a full lineup of screenings, visit www.docnyc.net.
