Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story will open this year’s edition of DOC NYC. The festival announced its main line-up today with Sinéad O’Shea’s opener putting the spotlight on the Irish author who passed away this summer at age 93 following a career writing acclaimed and controversial novels that emphasized women’s sexuality and agency. Blue Road was a highlight last month at the Toronto International Film Festival. DOC NYC will host the U.S. premiere.
World premieres in DOC NYC’s U.S. Competition include The People’s Way, directed by Ashley Tyner and William Tyner; Death & Taxes, directed by Justin Schein; and All God’s Children, directed by Ondi Timoner. The latter serves as the festival’s Centrepiece selection. Having their North American premieres in the competition are Black Snow, directed by Alina Simone, and My Sweet Land, directed by Sareen Hairabedian. The competition also includes Eddie Huang’s TIFF Docs opener Vice Is Broke, which has its U.S. debut at the festival, and Daniel Kaufman’s Stone Mountain, which comes home after screening at Sheffield.
Meanwhile, the International Competition features the world premieres of After the Rain: Putin’s Stolen Children Come Home (U.K./Ukraine) from director Sarah McCarthy and Yalla Parkour (Sweden/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Palestine) from director Areeb Zuaiter. Having their North American premieres in competition are The Basement (Ukraine), directed by Roman Blazhan, and Soul of the Desert (Colombia/Brazil), directed by Mónica Taboada-Tapia. The latter doc hits DOC NYC after winning the Queer Lion at Venice. Rounding out the International Competition are Hot Docs Best International Feature winner Farming the Revolution (India/France/Norway), directed by Nistha Jain; Balomania (Denmark/Spain), directed by Sissel Morell Dargis; and Sudan, Remember Us, directed by Hind Meddeb, all of which have their U.S. premieres at the festival.
Meanwhile, four Canadian features comprise the Voices of Canada stream at this year’s festival. Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story from directors Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee brings the story of the trailblazing transgender singer to DOC NYC, while Canadian music gets a spotlight in Disco’s Revenge from directors Peter Mishara and Omar Majeed and Born to Be Wild: The Story of Steppenwolf from director Oliver Schwehm. Director Laurie Townshend’s award-winning portrait of poet Stacyann Chin, A Mother Apart, rounds out the features in the Voices of Canada stream.
Also screening at the festival is Drop Dead City: New York on the Brink in 1975, which has its world premiere as the Closing Night selection. The film is directed by Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn. Other DOC NYC selections include the world premieres of Reiner Holzemer’s Thom Browne: The Man who Tailors Dreams, Nathalie Masduraud and Valérie Urréa’s Simone de Beauvoir doc Looking for Simone, and Chih Hsuan Liang’s Paul Bridgewater bio Man from Pretentia.
Still to be announced are the marquee “Short List” and “Winners Circle” streams, with the former offering a reliable bellwether for the Oscar shortlist and nominations heading into awards season and the latter boasting films fêted around the world. Presumed Oscar frontrunners this year include Daughters, No Other Land, Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, and Will & Harper in a generally open race. DOC NYC runs Nov. 13-21 with online screenings continuing until Dec. 1.
