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DOC NYC · 2020

DOC NYC 2020

Short List

Programme

15 films · 14 reviews

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76 Days

Review preview for 76 Days

Across this film, two dominant themes emerge - the overwhelming nature of the situation and the importance of small acts of kindness.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Filmed in Wuhan, China by an independent crew, 76 Days covers the length of the city’s lockdown for Covid-19.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Weixi Chen, Hao Wu, Anonymous; Writer: Hao Wu)

Full review

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.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss)

Full review

Collective (Colectiv)

Review preview for Collective

Although he is dealing specifically with one instance in Romania, it's easy to see evidence of greater global malaise reflected here.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Documentary considering the aftermath of a nightclub fire that exposed deep corruption in the Romanian healthcare system.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2019; Director: Alexander Nanau; Writer: Alexander Nanau, Antoaneta Opris)

Full review

Crip Camp

Review preview for Crip Camp

Strikes a good balance between informing, educating and entertaining.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Down the road from Woodstock in the early 1970s, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers, transforming their young lives and igniting a landmark movement.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: James Lebrecht, Nicole Newnham)

Full review

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.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Kirsten Johnson; Writer: Nels Bangerter, Kirsten Johnson)

Full review

The Fight

Review preview for The Fight

An eye-opener of a documentary.

Jane Fae · 3.5 out of 5
Inside the ACLU, a team of scrappy lawyers battle Trump’s historic assault on civil liberties.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegmanm Eli B Despres)

Full review

Gunda

Review preview for Gunda

The language captured here speaks volumes. The animals’ faces, their reactions and movements, remind doubters of their sentient nature in every shot.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Pigs, cows and chickens. Intimate portraits of living beings who wind up dead on a plate every day.

(Country: Norway, US; Year: 2020; Director: Victor Kossakovsky)

Full review

I Am Greta

Review preview for I Am Greta

The fight against climate change and the ossified political system are connected with her personal struggle with Asperger's syndrome and the search for one's place and acceptance in the world.

Mateusz Tarwacki · 3 out of 5
Profile of the teenage Swedish climate activist.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2020; Director: Nathan Grossman; Writer: Olof Berglind, Peter Modestij; Stars: Malena Ernman, António Guterres, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Greta Thunberg, Svante Thunberg, Malena Ernman, António Guterres, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Greta Thunberg, Svante Thunberg)

Full review

MLK/FBI

Review preview for MLK/FBI

Pollard casts fresh light on the Bureau’s attempts to discredit King as a threat to the American social order as well as the organisation’s inner workings.

Sunil Chauhan · 4 out of 5
Based on newly declassified files, Sam Pollard's documentary explores the US government's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King Jr.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Sam Pollard)

Full review

On The Record

Documentary, sees women go on the record to accusing hip hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual assault.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering; Writer: Kirby Dick, Sara Newens, Amy Ziering; Stars: Sil Lai Abrams, Burak Agan, Tarana Burke, Kimberle Crenshaw, Drew Dixon, Jenny Lumet, Kierna Mayo, Joan Morgan, Sheri Sher, Sil Lai Abrams, Burak Agan, Tarana Burke, Kimberle Crenshaw, Drew Dixon, Jenny Lumet)

The Social Dilemma

Review preview for The Social Dilemma

The Social Dilemma has so little to offer that's new that one wonders why anyone bothered to make it.

Jennie Kermode · 1.5 out of 5
Consideration of the downsides of social networking.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Jeff Orlowski; Writer: Davis Coombe, Vickie Curtis, Jeff Orlowski; Stars: Tristan Harris, Jeff Seibert, Bailey Richardson, Joe Toscano, Sandy Parakilas, Guillaume Chaslot, Lynn Fox, Aza Raskin, Alex Roetter, Tim Kendall, Justin Rosenstein, Randy Fernando, Jaron Lanier, Roger McNamee, Shoshana Zuboff)

Full review

A Thousand Cuts

Review preview for A Thousand Cuts

The film's broad scope also serves to further underline its title - the cuts it references aren't just being made in one place, but all over the body politic.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Nowhere is the worldwide erosion of democracy, fuelled by social media disinformation campaigns, more starkly evident than in the authoritarian regime of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. Journalist Maria Ressa places the tools of the free press - and her freedom - on the line in defense of truth and democracy.

(Country: US, Philippines; Year: 2020; Director: Ramona S Diaz)

Full review

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.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Garrett Bradley)

Full review

The Truffle Hunters

Review preview for The Truffle Hunters

This is a sensuous plunge into a world that's built on simple pleasures.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
In the secret forests of northern Italy, a dwindling group of joyful old men and their faithful dogs search for the world’s most expensive ingredient, the white Alba truffle. Their stories form a real-life fairy tale that celebrates human passion in a fragile land that seems forgotten in time.

(Country: Italy, US, Greece; Year: 2020; Director: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw)

Full review See: Interview with Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw about documentary The Truffle Hunters

Welcome To Chechnya

Review preview for Welcome To Chechnya

By pushing us into the day-to-day stress of the organisation, France gives a palpable sense of the desperation many of those fleeing feel.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ pogrom raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: David France)

Full review