THE MORTICIAN OF MANILA
Filipino mortician Orly manages and lives at a 24-hour funeral home, where he has a sobering perspective on the lives impacted by President Duterte’s “war on drugs.”
Politics
THE OFFICE OF MISSING CHILDREN
What has happened to the over 2,600 kids separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border under President Trump’s “zero tolerance” family separation policy?
THE STORY OF PLASTIC
NYC PREMIERE Plastic, a seemingly indispensable product, has wrought all sorts of innovations, but at what cost? The plastic industry’s success depends on consumers discarding the product and purchasing new items, creating an endless supply of litter that lingers forever. Filmmaker Deia Schlosberg’s incredibly detailed investigation into the plastic-production pipeline will shock, horrify and forever […]
THIS IS NOT A MOVIE
NYC PREMIEREAward-winning filmmaker Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze) profiles the legendary Middle East journalist Robert Fisk, known for his books Pity the Nation and The Great War for Civilization. Now in his 70s, Fisk remains vital and intrepid. The film follows him on contemporary reporting missions from Syria to Bosnia, while also looking back on […]
TIGHTROPE: AMERICANS REACHING FOR HOPE
WORLD PREMIERE How did the idea of “rugged individualism” become a curse for everyday Americans? Distraught over the loss of too many childhood classmates, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn explore the causes and costs of opioid addiction, poverty and incarceration plaguing America, from the inner city to small towns like Kristof’s hometown […]
TOWN BLOODY HALL
As the festival honors the late D.A. Pennebaker, we present a special screening of a new DCP of this rare classic. In 1971, Pennebaker filmed an event at New York’s Town Hall exemplifying the crosscurrents of feminism. On stage, Norman Mailer engaged in a debate with Female Eunuch author Germaine Greer, lesbian journalist Jill Johnston, […]
TUNGRUS
A week in the peculiar lives of a middle-class suburban Mumbai household, which is turned topsy-turvy when the family adopts a chicken as a pet. Courtesy of New York Times Op-Docs.
WE ARE THE RADICAL MONARCHS
NYC PREMIERE Finding that traditional youth organizations aren’t directly focusing on the issues facing young girls of color, two moms, Anyavette Martinez and Marilyn Hollinquest, begin their own troop, the Radical Monarchs. Based in Oakland, a city with a long history of social justice movements, this progressive group is more likely to participate in protest […]
WE BELIEVE IN DINOSAURS
NYC PREMIERE In rural Kentucky, a creationist group builds a life-size, $120 million Noah’s Ark museum—replete with animal, human and dinosaur models—in an attempt to affirm the factuality of the Biblical story. Standing against this attempt to co-opt history and science are a local geologist, an atheist activist and a former creationist. Throw in a […]
WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED
NYC PREMIERE In this artfully constructed project, a set of unfinished films commissioned by the state during communist-era Afghanistan revisits a nation that only existed in celluloid. Recovered reels, accompanied by the reflections of filmmakers, actors and critics, reveal genre films whose stories of love, war and history offer great insight into the heartbeat of […]