Recapping DOC NYC 2012
DOC NYC recently finished it’s third run in New York City, overcoming difficulties presented by Hurricane Sandy to present a lineup of over 115 events and hosting some 125 filmmakers and other guests to eager audiences.
One of the major highlights of the festival was the closing night gala of THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon that has been gathering a lot of media attention over the past few weeks. Writing for The New York Times, Jim Dwyer wrote up the screening of the film.
The festival’s award winners were named just prior to the screening of THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, with INFORMANT by Jamie Meltzer taking home the Grand Jury prize in the Viewfinders competition, and RADIOMAN receiving the Grand Jury prize in the Metropolis competition. RAFEA: SOLAR MAMA by Jehane Noujaim and Mona Eldaief was given the SundanceNOW Audience Award, and Riley Hooper received the Grand Jury prize in the Shorts competition for his film FLO.
Writing for Movies.com, Christopher Campbell noted three films that screened at the festival made his must-see list for the year. And in a Docutopia blog post, Anthony Kaufman took a look at some of the films at DOC NYC that investigate the notion of innocence lost.
The festival’s Doc-A-Thon panels also provided festival attendees with access to challenging conversations, tapping into the collective knowledge of a well-recognized group of documentary figures. Tom Roston wrote a piece for the POV blog on a panel he moderated that featured documentary DPs sharing the secrets of their craft. Sarah Sluis of the Screener blog captured DOC NYC’s “Meet Your Distributors” panel for the blog’s readership.
Indiewire’s Jay Hernandez also took a look at DOC NYC’s Short List, a group of 10 films from the festival circuit deemed worth keeping an eye on during the awards season.
Some DOC NYC titles have already made their mark in the awards arena, with David France’s HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE winning best documentary at the recent Gotham Awards, and Jared Leto’s film ARTIFACT nabbing the Audience Award.
For those in New York City still in need of a doc fix, keep an eye out for the new winter schedule of the Stranger Than Fiction series, programmed by DOC NYC Artistic Director Thom Powers, by going to www.stfdocs.com.
