The 55th New York Film Festival
September 28-October 15
Nonfiction makes up more than half of the 60 new features presented at the beloved, venerable Film Society of Lincoln Center event.
While a single spot in the Main Slate goes to a documentary – Agnès Varda and JR’s acclaimed FACES PLACES – nonfiction takes all but one slot in the Special Events section, including: Susan Lacy’s epic biography, SPIELBERG (pictured); Susan Froemke’s history of the Metropolitan Opera, THE OPERA HOUSE, and four brand-new SHOAH offshoots by Claude Lanzmann, under the title FOUR SISTERS: THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH, BALUTY, THE MERRY FLEA, and NOAH’S ARK.
Eighteen works of nonfiction make up NYFF’s Spotlight on Documentary, including the world premieres of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s VOYEUR, which follows Gay Talese as he tries to complete a book on a motel owner who spied on his guests; Griffin Dunne’s JOAN DIDION: THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD (covered), about the acclaimed writer; Alison McAlpine’s CIELO, a meditation on the skies above Chile; Ena Talakic and Ines Talakic’s HALL OF MIRRORS, a portrait of investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein; and Alex Gibney’s NO STONE UNTURNED, an investigation into an unsolved massacre committed in 1994.
Additional docs and hybrids appear in Projections, such as Luke Fowler’s essay on a Canadian computer pioneer, ELECTRO-PYTHAGORAS (A PORTRAIT OF MARTIN BARTLETT); and Kevin Jerome Everson’s observational portrait of an African American community on Election Day, 2016, in Charlottesville, TONSLER PARK (pictured).