Netflix, Showtime, specifically HBO and more recently CNN as well as Aljazeera America, have been providing expanded platforms for documentaries which can be readily accessed.  Further festivals such as Britdocs and the Guanajuato International Film Festival’s ‘Documentary with an Impact’ program identify documentaries which have real consequences driving discernible change. Non-fiction programs have secured a firm position in the media landscape especially if they are issue oriented..

Over the last years there has been a rapid growth in documentary productions and an expansion of documentary programs at festivals such as the New York Film Festival and Tribeca.  The fifth edition of DOC NYC, New York City’s Documentary film festival; held at four established venues from November 13-20 has grown into the largest documentary festival in America with more than 25 thousand participants and fifty sold out screening   The program featured 155 films including 92 feature-length productions with more than 60 shown for the first time New York and 20 world premieres. Participation of more than 200 presenters in 25 panels and master classes included outstanding film makers like Albert Masyles, D.A.Pennabaker, Ric Burns, Darren Aronowski, and Jim Jarmush.  As other large, midsize or small festivals based in New York City with broad or narrow audience appeal such as the New York Film Festival, Tribeca, the NY Indian Film Festival or the Winter Awards Fest, the DOC NYC fest benefits from New York City’s as a choice location. The media industry is concentrated here, virtually all of the colleges and universities in the New York area have been running film programs churning out  thousands of trained students. There is the presence of a great number of local actual and aspiring film makers in addition to those drawn to New York. Festivals enjoy here an opinion shaping film literate audience and a large press and media industry corps which can provide buzz to the films selected. There is no major documentary film festival held during this part of the year in the United States. Also,  DOC NYC lacks the pressure cooker atmosphere of festivals like Sundance. Media corporations are the principle sponsors of DOC NYC including but not restricted to HBO, History Films, A&E, 13/WNET, NBC and CNN but also the Sundance Doc Club, Citi Bank and Indiewire.  The event was produced by IFC.

DOC NYC has expanded its program by adding two days to the Doc-A-Thon panel series. Sessions focused on first time film makers, shorts, virtually all aspects of documentary film making, and the audience.  The competition sections Viewfinders stressed directorial visions and Metropolis had New York themes.

Other sections were devoted to Shorts, the Sonic Cinema, American Perspectives, and International Perspectives. Well received new sections this year celebrated activism in Fight the Power, focused on performance in Centerstage and highlighted sports in Jock Docs. The new DocsRedux and the Short List programs presented outstanding classic and the best current documentaries. These sections carried documentaries which had been shown before and/or already premiered at festival.To list but a few from the Doc Redux series there was  ‘David’ 1961, D.A. Pennebaker; ‘High School’ 1968, F, Wiseman; ‘Salesman’ 1968, A. Masyles, D, Maysles & C. Zewrin; ‘Hoop Dreams’ 1994, S. James; and ‘Metallica: Some Kind of Monster’ J. Berlinger & B. Sinofsky, 2004.  Most recent significant productions in the Short List included   ‘Citizen Four’ L. Pointras; ‘E-Team’ K. Cevigny & R. Kauffman:’ Finding Vivian Maier’ J. Maloof & C. Siskel; ‘The Great Invisible’ M. Brown; ‘Last Days in Vietnam’ R. Kennedy; ‘Life Itself’ S. James; ‘Merchants of Doubts’ Kenner and ‘Red Army’ G.Polsky..  The Doc Redux and Short List selections were mini festivals in themselves and crucial for the comprehensive broad scope of the festival.

Among some of the noteworthy new production was  ‘The Yes Men are Revolting’ by Laura Nix presenting the last five years’ activities of these pranksters, the second chronicle devoted to them; ‘Enquiring Minds: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer’ directed by Ric Burns is a marvelous portrait of the path breaking tabloid and his publisher Generoso Pope Jr. and offers a stimulating discussion of his family’s link to the mafia.  Amy Berg’s hard hitting film ‘An Open Secret’ analyzes the exploitation and abuse of children by Hollywood’s film industry. The US Egypt co-production ‘Cairo Drive’   by Sherief Elkatsha records through chaotic traffic conditions  the street level perspective drivers have of Cairo and the wide range of its residents in the context of the recent turmoil in Egypt.  Viko Nikci’s ‘Coming Home’ depicts a former convict who adjusts’ to life after spending 13 years in prison on an alleged attempted murder charge.  In a witty portrait “Florence Arizona’ Andrea Scott describes a small town’s dependence on the local prison industry. Adam Zucker reviews in ‘The Return’ the challenge several young Polish women face who were raised Catholics but discover that they are Jewish. Their quest for a Jewish identity can be difficult as distinct from the taken for granted identity of Jews growing up in the United States or Israel. Inclusion of Wim Wenders “The Salt of the Earth’ in the Short List section was as Stephen Holden  put it “ a crowning moment  of the fest    featuring imagery from the utmost horror to the beautiful.

‘Cairo Drive’ was the Grand Jury Prize winner in the Viewfinders Competition, ‘Homme Less’ by Thomas Wirthensohn portraying the photographer Mark Reay and New York City, scored The Grand Jury Prize in the Metropolis as did Danielle’s Schwartz’  ‘Mirror Image’ on accountability and socially constructed justifications in a family setting. The SundanceNow Doc Club Audience Award was won by Rachel Lears and Robin Blotnick for ‘The Hand That Feeds’ on the labor struggle of bakery service workers.

Established in 2010 by Thurn Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, the DOC NYC festival is probably the most important addition to New York’s rich festival scene. It speaks for the acumen of the organizer that they selected seven of the 15 documentaries now on the Oscar short list. DOC NYC is a festival that cannot be missed.

Claus Mueller   filmexchange@gmail.com