DOC NYC announces line-up

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson And The Band will open the festival Photo: Courtesy of DOC NYC

The line up for the 10th edition of DOC NYC has been announced today.

The festival, which runs from November 6 to 15, will include 20 world premieres and 27 US premieres in a line-up of more than 136 feature-length films and more than 300 films and events overall.

Daniel Roher's Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson And The Band will open the festival, with Canadian musician Robertson in attendance. The Capote Tapes - a fresh look at writer Truman Capote - directed by  Ebs Burnough, will close the event and the centrepiece gala will be Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator, which sees Eva Orner shine a light on the disgraced head of the yoga empire.

Among the world premieres are Joe Berlinger’s The Longest Wave, about world champion windsurfer Robby Naish and Ngawang Choephel’s Ganden: A Joyful Land, on Tibetan Buddhism’s most important monastery. There are also world premieres for Geeta Gandbhir’s Hungry To Learn, which explores food insecurity among college students and Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe’s He Dreams of Giants, an epic portrait of Terry Gilliam as he attempts to realise his decades-long dream of adapting Don Quixote.

Other documentarians in the line-up, include Kim Longinotto, Michael Apted, Patricio Guzmán and Barbara Kopple.

This year's festival includes new sections, including Masters, which offers "a spotlight on today's nonfiction auteurs"; Investigations, considering true crime; environmentally focused Green Screens; plus a selection of culinary stories in Food For Thought.

DOC NYC is dedicated to DA Pennebaker, who died earlier this year Photo: Courtesy of DOC NYC

Director of programming Basil Tsiokos - who leads the programming team in collaboration with artistic director Thom Powers said: “Our tenth anniversary lineup reflects a more international scope than in previous years, drawing compelling stories from all over the world, in addition to a rich selection of American nonfiction."

This year’s festival is dedicated to the memory of D.A. Pennebaker, who was a constant presence at DOC NYC until his death this year. In 2014, at the festival’s inaugural Visionaries Tribute, he was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award along with his partner Chris Hegedus. This year’s festival poster features a photograph of Pennebaker taken by Don MacSorley in 1967 during the filming of the classic documentary Monterey Pop.

More than 500 filmmakers and special guests are expected to attend, with Q&As following most screenings. Special screenings of the latest documentaries by Lifetime Achievement Award recipients Martin Scorsese (Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese) and Michael Apted (63 Up) will also be presented.