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Festival coverage

DOC NYC

11 November – 19 November 2020

The eleventh edition of DOC NYC is running online from November 11-19 and available to viewers across the US. The 2020 festival includes 107 feature-length documentaries.

Other years (12)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • Unapologetic
    Review preview for Unapologetic

    Their stories complement each other, driving home the message that social justice is not a performative media statement, but a matter of courage in the face of existential threat.

    Nikola Jovic · 3 out of 5
    Fed up with misdeeds committed by Chicago law enforcement and a political system unwilling to hold anyone accountable, two millennial Black women take action.
  • Missing In Brooks County
    Review preview for Missing In Brooks County

    To their credit, there’s no direct interrogation or intervention from Molomot and Bemiss at any point.

    Matthew Anderson · 3.5 out of 5
    Just 70 miles north of the Mexican-US border is a land haunted by ghosts. Brooks County, Texas is a barren landscape designed as a deterrent to illegal crossings, but people continue to attempt to cross, and many die trying.
  • A Crime On The Bayou
    Review preview for A Crime On The Bayou

    Buirski has assembled an impressive set of historical sources but allows the story to unfold so naturally that it feels as if it were being told for the first time.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    The story of a lasting bond formed between an unjustly arrested Black man, Gary Duncan, and Richard Sobol, his young Jewish attorney.
  • Lift Like A Girl
    Review preview for Lift Like A Girl

    Has a visual energy that is spurred on by Marian Mentrup's percussively dynamic score, which arrives at key moments.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    In a dilapidated corner of Alexandria, an exceptional community of young female weightlifters is trained by the grumpy yet charismatic Captain Ramadan.
  • Dick Johnson Is Dead
    Review preview for Dick Johnson Is Dead

    The emotional honesty of this film is by turns elating and heartbreaking, with Kirsten not scared to let her feelings show on camera alongside those of her dad.

    Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
    With this inventive portrait, a cameraperson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilising moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humour, she celebrates Dr Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
  • Big Vs Small
    Review preview for Big Vs Small

    Where other films might emphasise skill and natural ability, it's patience and persistence that are shown to pay off here.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Profile of big-wave surfer Joana Andrade.
  • Enemies Of The State
    Review preview for Enemies Of The State

    Almost everybody here is hiding something - sometimes from themselves.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    When their hacker son is targeted by the US Government, the DeHarts will do anything to protect him.
  • Time
    Review preview for Time

    Bradley’s direction emphasises the beauty of the Rich family’s resilience and humanity, with shots that carry the panoramic vistas of French New Wave and the hypnotic tones of underground cinema.

    Stephanie Brown · 4 out of 5
    Fox Rich fights for her husband’s release from jail, after he is sentenced to 60 years of incarceration for a bank robbery, a crime she also served time for in the Nineties.
  • Nasrin
    Review preview for Nasrin

    Considerable courage has gone into acquiring this footage.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    Portrait of Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is serving a prison sentence of 38 years in Iran for representing women who protested the country’s mandatory hijab law.
  • Boys State
    Review preview for Boys State

    Perhaps Boys State's greatest achievement is that it finds a way to make all these boys relatable.

    Jeremy Mathews · 4 out of 5
    In an unusual experiment, a thousand 17-year-old boys from Texas join together to build a representative government from the ground up.

A–Z of DOC NYC 2020 reviews

Features

  • Imaginary reality
    Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker on memorial culture and The Meaning Of Hitler
  • DOC NYC encore highlights
    Gunda, Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, Calendar Girl, The Meaning Of Hitler and In My Own Time: A Portrait Of Karen Dalton
  • Archiving fashion history
    Christian D Bruun on Calendar Girl, Ruth Finley and The Met’s Costume Institute
  • DOC NYC highlights
    Five films to catch at this year's edition
  • Nature boy
    Malia Scharf and Max Basch on Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide
  • Sniffing out secrets
    Directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw chat about their documentary The Truffle Hunters

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