The Oscar-nominated directors of RBG deliver a touching portrait of the iconic television chef Julia Child. She defied expectations for women of her time by traveling abroad, mastering French cuisine, and then, in her fifties, becoming a celebrity on public television with The French Chef and inventing the genre of cooking shows. We watch how […]
Director Peter Nicks is the recipient of DOC NYC’s 2021 Robert and Anne Drew Award that honors excellence in observational documentary. Following his films The Waiting Room and The Force, Homeroom completes a thematic trilogy exploring different institutions in Oakland, California. Here, we follow the senior class of Oakland High School through the tumultuous year […]
Flee uses animation to tell the story of Amin Nawabi (a pseudonym), who fled Afghanistan as a boy, relying on human smugglers to reach Denmark. Filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen met Nawabi when they were both in high school. Now in his thirties, Nawabi shares stories about his life’s journey that he’s long kept secret from […]
Using khat, a stimulant leaf chewed by Sufi Imams seeking eternity, as a connecting thread, Faya Dayi takes us on an ethereal journey through Harar, Ethiopia, dipping into the lives of its Oromo denizens as we follow the crop from harvest to consumption. In this hypnotic tribute to the beauty of the land of her […]
Academy Award-nominee Lucy Walker focuses on one day in California’s 2018 megafire season to discover why these infernos are growing more common. Contrasting the experiences of wealthy Malibu in the southern end of the state with middle class Paradise in the north, Walker mixes personal reportage with history to deliver an in-depth understanding. The result, […]
Filmmaker Stanley Nelson, a DOC NYC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, has a distinguished career telling stories of Black struggle against white supremacy. He teams with co-director Traci A. Curry to revisit the largest prison uprising in U.S. history at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York in 1971. The filmmakers conduct dozens of new […]
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus, known for her complex portraits of Bobby Fischer, Nina Simone and Marilyn Monroe, takes a fresh look at the life of undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau. Her profile is neither hagiography nor exposé, but rather a nuanced look at his passions, achievements, blind spots, and tragedies. We gain insights into key figures […]
When the coronavirus first became news in January 2020, filmmaker Nanfu Wang was visiting her family in China. In this penetrating film essay, she seeks to understand how governments shaped information about the pandemic both in China and the United States, making decisions with far-reaching ramifications. She skillfully weaves a wide range of sources to […]
When 12 young soccer players and their coach were trapped by monsoon floods inside a cave in Thailand, the world watched for 16 days as reporters gave updates from outside the rescue zone. Now we gain a perspective that no journalist could capture, through the eyes of Thai and international rescue divers and never-before-seen footage. […]
Winner of the Best Documentary Feature Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ascension is an impressionistic portrait of China’s industrial supply chain that depicts a thriving capitalism in a communist state. The film unfolds in three parts, its focus shifting from factory workers, to an aspirational middle class, and finally to the hedonistic elites at […]