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Tribeca Festival · 2025

Tribeca Festival 2025

Documentary Competition

Programme

10 films · 2 reviews

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An Eye For An Eye

Convicted of murdering her husband, Tahereh served her sentence and now faces a ticking clock to negotiate with her in-laws who, under Sharia law, have the legal right to either execute her or forgive her - for a price.

(Country: US, Denmark, Iran; Year: 2025; Director: Tanaz Eshaghian, Farzad Jafari)

World premiere

Backside

Follows the lives of immigrant workers who look after and rehabilitate prized racehorses at Churchill Downs barns in Louisville Kentucky over the course of one season.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Raúl O Paz Pastrana)

World premiere

The End Of Quiet

A meditative documentary that offers a glimpse into one of the few inhabited places on Earth where Wi-Fi and phone signals are not allowed to reach.

(Country: Sweden, Denmark; Year: 2025; Director: Kasper Bisgaard, Mikael Lypinski; Writer: Kasper Bisgaard, Mikael Lypinski)

World premiere

For Venida, For Kalief

Kalief Browder’s story unfolds in full when his life, and that of his mother, Venida Brodnax Browder, are tragically derailed by years of malintent from the justice system.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Sisa Bueno; Writer: Venida Brodnax Browder)

World premiere

The Last Dive

Terry Kennedy has lived several lifetimes- as a Navy Seal, a Hell’s Angel, and, most memorably, as the unlikely friend to a giant manta ray named Willy. Now in his 80s, Terry mounts one last diving expedition to a remote island in search of his long-lost friend.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Cody Sheehy; Stars: Dawn Wilson, Dan Fitzgerald, Robert Rubin, Terry Kennedy, Mike McGettigan, Joyce Clinton)

World premiere

Maintenance Artist

Documentary profile of pioneering public artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles - the first artist-in-residence at NYC’s Department of Sanitation.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Toby Perl Freilich; Writer: Anne Alvergue, Toby Perl Freilich; Stars: Mierle Ukeles)

World premiere

Natchez

Review preview for Natchez

Cinemtographer Noah Collier deserves a lot of credit for keeping himself largely invisible so that people reveal themselves, while working with editor Pablo Proenza, Herbert smoothly brings together these facets so that a bigger picture begins to be formed.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
A consideration of the American South’s unreconciled history through a Mississippi town that mixes antebellum tourism with a community deeply divided over its past.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Suzannah Herbert; Writer: Suzannah Herbert, Pablo Proenza)

Full review See: Interview with Suzannah Herbert about Natchez

World premiere

Runa Simi

Follows an indigenous Peruvian man and his young son in their ambitious quest to fully dub Disney’s animated The Lion King in their native Quechua.

(Country: Peru; Year: 2025; Director: Augusto Zegarra; Writer: Augusto Zegarra; Stars: Dylan Valencia, Fernando Valencia)

World premiere

Sun Ra: Do The Impossible

A biographical, musical journey into the work and vision of Sun Ra, exploring his jazz roots, endless innovations, and ceaseless artistic and social quests.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Christine Turner)

World premiere

Underland

Review preview for Underland

A polished and beguiling piece of cinema that invites us to forge our own associations between different epochs and beliefs.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Documentary following explorers into places rarely glimpsed by human eyes: caves, flooded drains and underground laboratories.

(Country: US, UK; Year: 2025; Director: Rob Petit; Writer: Robert Macfarlane, Rob Petit)

Full review

World premiere