New documentary festival planned for New York in November

New York will get a new film festival this year as DOC NYC will host its inaugural run Nov 3-7 at the IFC Center.

The annual festival aims to celebrate documentary storytelling “cross the fields of film, photography, prose, radio and other innovative forms.” The centrepiece of the event will be a competition of eight documentary films – all US or world premieres. There will also be sidebars on specific themes or retrospectives.

The festival is headed by several industry veterans: Managing Director John Vanco (VP and GM of IFC Center), Artistic Director Thom Powers (programmer for Toronto International Film Festival), and Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen. The trio have worked together on IFC Center’s popular film series Stranger Than Fiction (which will continue in addition to the festival).

New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies will be the festival’s presenting sponsor in association with the Tisch School of the Arts. Opening and closing night events will be held at NYU’s Skirball Center for Performing Arts.

“DOC NYC will fill an important void in New York City and will be a cornerstone for documentary storytellers from all over the world to showcase premieres, hold panels and give audiences the thrill of discovery,” Vanco said in a statement. “We’re creating a festival that will curate people as much as work, creating a space for the world’s leading thinkers, activists, creators, and celebrities to come together for dialogue, inspiration, and incubation of ideas.”

“We want to take a fresh approach to the concept of a festival,” Powers added. “Since New York City is the center of journalism, broadcasting, publishing and more, it makes an ideal location to gather the world’s leading documentary storytellers across many fields and give them a platform to reach new audiences. The line-up will look at the past, present and future.”

The festival’s impressive advisory board includes Oscar winner Barbara Kopple, author Nelson George, comic book artist Joe Sacco, Cara Mertes of the Sundance Documentary Development Fund, Ruby Lerner of Creative Capital, and Philipp Engelhorn of Cinereach, filmmakers Dan Klores and Michael Moore, TIFF’s Cameron Bailey, Cinetic’s Matt Dentler, IFC Films’ Jonathan Sehring, radio veteran Dean Olsher, journalist Anya Schiffrin, advertising exec Mary Warlick, and storytelling producer Jenifer Hixson. Also joining the board from NYU are Mary Domowicz, Robert Boynton and Dan Streible.

DOC NYC is not using an open submissions process for its first event, but filmmakers can find information on the festival at DOCNYC.net.