DOC NYC — A–Z of films

If this weren’t a documentary, these five people would surely find themselves nestled in the pages of some postmodern epic.

Tomanová, making her debut here, shows rather than tells their story, leaving us to interpret.

An intensely sad and affecting look at a hugely talented young woman, ill equipped for the all-consuming fame which her soulful voice would bring her.

Neville and Gordon wisely embed the verbal duels into the surroundings.

The film is an interesting, timely, though ultimately dispiriting look at how the twin forces of institutional bigotry and internal discord fragmented one of the key organising forces in black America.

It's not that there's no value to Balaker's argument, rather that the elision of alternative viewpoints and seriously challenging material undermines it and makes it look naive.

One person's armed vigilante is another person's guardian angel and the border between these two ideas is wafer thin and easily crossed as Matthew Heineman's beautifully shot and probing documentary shows.

Having created such an important historical record, Lanzmann himself has become a historical subject, and there are distinct parallels between the interview techniques he describes using and he gentle way he is prompted to push his own boundaries.

Unflinching but uplifting, Longinotto's film shows how even one person, if they put their minds to it, can make an enormous difference.

Informative - and frequently worrying - although not particularly cinematic.

If you have a love of maths, or even just a love of puzzles, there are parts of this film that you will find compelling.

Her energy is remarkable and what this film shows is the humility, intelligence and bravery of a girl lucky to be alive

Even if Dick took away the interviewees and voiceovers from this film, the statistics alone would make for startling reading.

Hitchcock/Truffaut has the intriguing aura of a first episode with all the questions answered easily producing 500 more to be asked.

The director has uncovered a wealth of archive material.

Morgen creates a vivid, colourful and quite poignant rush through a life that was, at once, explosively creative and deeply troubled.

Oppenheimer boils down the atrocity to the experience of a single family, leaving us to extrapolate back up.

Though the impression is of something collected in a very informal way, the whole is skillfully assembled.

This is a bold little film with a lot of attitude.

It is more like a primer on her life than an in-depth study.

Moore is hopeful for the US, too, as he strolls along the remnants of the Berlin Wall, built to last and tumbled nevertheless.

There is a sense of the freshness of freedom but this a film that mainly deals in big emotions as though worried about getting down to specifics.

If you don't know Orry-Kelly's contributions to cinema and even if you do, Women He's Undressed is a must-see.