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12 films to see at the 5th Annual DOC NYC festival

1. She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry (Mary Dore)

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Showtime: Sunday, November 16 at 2:15PM (SVA)
Synopsis: “Mary Dore’s vibrant and inspirational film is at once a far-ranging look back at our vital pasts and a timely reminder of the need for vigilance in the face of current reactionary legislation that would restrict women’s rights.”

2. Every Last Child (Tom Roberts)

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Showtime: Friday, November 14 at 7:15PM (IFC)
Synopsis: After the Taliban bans polio vaccinations and spreads misinformation about sinister conspiracies to frighten the masses [in Pakistan], the country suffers devastating outbreaks of the disease, prompting strategic problem solving from the World Health Organization.

3. The Wound and the Gift (Linda Hoaglund)

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Showtime: Saturday, November 15 at 4:45PM (SVA)
Synopsis: “This film takes us inside several sanctuaries for dogs, tigers, horses, birds, and other animals. We see how much the animals give back to their caregivers.”

4. Rubble Kings (Shan Nicholson)

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Synopsis: “Hypnotic archival footage and present-day interviews with former gang members reveal how peace was brokered at the peak of the bloodshed in a most unlikely manner, laying the foundation for what ultimately became hip-hop culture.”
Showtimes: Sunday, November 16 at 9:15 PM (SVA)

5. Hotline (Tony Shaff)

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Showtime: Monday, November 17 at 7:15PM (IFC)
Synopsis: “Some are for profit, others for the public good—from the titillation of phone sex or the spiritual advice of Miss Cleo, to the lifesaving potential of a suicide prevention line, Tony Shaff’s inquisitive film explores what motivates individuals to reveal personal details of their lives in conversations with faceless strangers.

6. Sex(ed) (Brenda Goodman)

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Showtime: Saturday, November 14 at 11:45 PM (IFC)
Synopsis: Brenda Goodman assembles an eye-opening array of these well-intentioned but often funny teaching schools to reveal our culture’s ever-fraught relationship to sex and the human body.”

7. Life Itself (Steve James)

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Showtime: Saturday, November 15 at 9:15PM (BOWTIE)
Synopsis: “Using Ebert’s memoir as a launching point, Steve James adroitly traces the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic’s career, demonstrating how Ebert, with TV sparring partner Gene Siskel, popularized film criticism for the masses.”

8. Homme Less (Thomas Wirthensohn)

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Showtime: Saturday, November 15 at 9:45PM (IFC)
Synopsis: “Thomas Wirthensohn exposes the dark underbelly of the American Dream in an often merciless city.”

9. Enquiring Minds: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer (Ric Burns)

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Showtime: Saturday, November 15 at 7:00 (SVA)
Synopsis: “Ric Burns uncovers the strange history of the National Enquirer and the tabloid’s legendary publisher, Generoso Pope Jr.”

10. Heaven Adores You (Nickolas Rossi)

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Showtime: Saturday, November 15 at 9:30PM (SVA)
Synopsis: “Structured as both an expansive overview of Elliott Smith’s life and as an elegiac city symphony focused on the influence of Portland, New York City, and Los Angeles on his music, Nickolas Rossi’s film is an artful tribute to a talent cut too short.”

11. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras)

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Showtime: Tuesday, November 8 at 4:00PM (BOW TIE)
Synopsis: “Oscar-nominated director Laura Poitras started receiving encrypted e-mails from someone identifying themselves as Citizen Four, who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programs run buy the NSA and other intelligence agencies. The film that results from this series of intense encounters is a real-life thriller enfolding minute by minute before our eyes.”

12. Kings of Pastry (2009, DA Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus)

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Showtime: Saturday, November 15 at 2:15 PM (IFC)
Synopsis: “Sixteen French pastry chefs gathered at the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition for three intense days of mixing, piping, and sculpting everything from delicate chocolates to six-foot sugar sculptures in hopes of being declared by President Sarkozy one of the best.”

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kaitlinduffy

Kaitlin Duffy is a writer from Cleveland. When she's not blogging or pondering the great complexities of the world and outer space, she is finding rare vinyl steals, visiting new places, laughing often, Instagramming everything in sight, watching movies, or working on her first feature Port de Cleve.