DOC NYC — A–Z of films

Effectively assembles footage and facts in a relentless barrage that just overwhelms you, while confidently establishing connecting threads that have terrifying implications.

Over the course of this accidental film, poignantly named by its subject as he contemplates sport and mortality, generational differences in attitude and expectation emerge.

Directors Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn do a good job of keeping things balanced and of illustrating the ways in which sensationalism can be misleading.

More than just a portrait of one woman's life or a remembrance of that awful time, Big Sonia is a film about history, how we carry it with us and why it matters.

Ratner gives her ample room to explain her take on the world.

The people encountered while working as a cinematographer for different documentarians, shooting all over the globe, are woven into a fascinating, irregular net of meaning.

There are some truly horrific stories here, including several involving the rape of children, and some viewers will consequently find the film too distressing to watch. Its overall message, however, is one of empowerment and self-realisation.

This documentary fails to join the dots or link a past that still resonates with a controversial present.

We get to watch Lynch work on a sculpture, sit and smoke, or interact with his toddler daughter Lula in the present. Family photos and home movies light up the past.

Despite the confusion there is a tremor of excitement that never goes away.

The symbolism in Fire At Sea is so organic that it might dawn on you hours or days after seeing the film.

Its rambling tale is skillfully unfolded.

Heidenreich’s shooting is economical and the editing tight, so that squash games are included to show Toorpakai’s abilities on the court and the support for her off it, without getting in the way of the bigger issues surrounding equal rights.

The film shimmers and provokes where it is least expected.

This is a very happy documentary, telling a very ordinary story of an extraordinary family coping with the addition of a second child.

The Islands And The Whales knows when to be small, and its intimate portraits of day to day life illustrate how the monumental intersects with the personal.

The full use of what film can do is eye-opening - the juxtapositions jolt awareness of what is important and remains necessary.

Oakes is careful not to make his film hagiographic. Jim is presented as restless, troubled by a sense of guilt at his advantages, and sometimes naive.

This is not about once upon a times or fairy tale endings but the challenges on the way and it stands as a testament to the love and determination of every member of the Suskind family.

As the voice of Gertrude, Tilda Swinton seductively pulls us in, reading her letters sent from afar.

The Lure is overlong and could do with some tightening up, but there's plenty to enjoy about it.

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

When Darius tells us about his great love, it's magical - like hearing Roald Dahl's Charlie talk about the Chocolate Factory.

There's a much better five hour documentary inside this, trying to get out.

The directing duo show a sensibility for wider rural issues that mourns the loss of more than just one person.

Its real achievement is the skill with which it balances its inspirational message with an honest portrait of day to day life and what it means to be an athlete.

A humane film which, though it contains a lot of pain, points the way toward hope.

Two things shine out from Tyler Hubby's documentary feature debut about filmmaker/composer and general avant-garde maverick Tony Conrad - the playfulness of the man himself and, in terms of his work, his bloody-minded patience.

He seemingly lets the camera into almost every nook and cranny, so that a picture emerges of not only him but the media goldfish bowl people like him inhabit.