The 16th edition of DOC NYC is currently underway, bringing documentaries from around the world to audiences in New York through November 30. From this year’s lineup, we have identified the festival’s science or technology-themed documentary features to look out for, with descriptions quoted from the festival.
THE AGE OF WATER. Dir. Alfredo Alcántara, Isabel Alcántara Atalaya. NYC Premiere. “Set in Mexico’s heartland, this urgent investigative documentary follows a group of women who uncover radioactive contamination in their water after three young girls die of leukemia. These mothers-turned-activists link the crisis to the corporate extraction of ancient rocks. Facing government denial and community resistance, they fight for accountability. Blending expert insight with local history and mythology, THE AGE OF WATER exposes a growing global issue, making clear that water contamination knows no borders.”
THE BALLOONISTS. Dir. John Dower. NYC Premiere. “After a number of false starts, Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard and his British navigator and co-pilot Brian Jones embark to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon. Traversing adverse conditions and politically fraught airspace, the duo surges onward through the sky as they battle the elements and the ever-looming threat of disaster. This globe-trotting tale, featuring breathtaking archival footage, is a compelling look at one of the few modern feats of exploration.”
Still from THE BALLOONISTS. Courtesy of DOC NYC.
BELOW THE CLOUDS. Dir. Gianfranco Rosi. “Shot over three years in luminous black and white, Gianfranco Rossi’s new film unfolds across Naples, a city perched between Vesuvius and the sea, with tremors in the ground, echoes of ancient ruins, and everyday lives steeped in memory and unrest. In shadowed classrooms, makeshift after-school centers; in fire station switchboards, anxious voices; beneath the earth, tomb-robbers, gods, and ghosts. It’s a mosaic of time and history, of ordinary people holding onto meaning under a sky perpetually weighed by clouds.”
THE KEEPER. Dir. Jon Bowermaster. NYC Premiere. “For 25 years, charismatic river steward John Lipscomb has patrolled the Hudson in his wooden boat, covering more than 80,000 miles on ‘America’s first river.’ Fighting industrial waste, sewage, and negligence, Lipscomb has become both the river’s watchdog and poet laureate, bearing witness to its wounds and recoveries. Sweeping imagery and intimate reflection honor a life devoted to ecological justice while capturing the moment Lipscomb prepares to pass the torch to a new generation.”
Still from THE KEEPER. Courtesy of DOC NYC.
OMEGA WANTS TO DANCE. Dir. Ramon Tort. North American Premiere. “In an imagined future where humans no longer exist, an AI system reflects on dance as the essence of consciousness, spontaneity, and identity. Philosophers, historians, artists, and Nobel laureates trace dance across ritual, flamenco, butoh, rave culture, and historical dance epidemics. Eclectic archives, experimental interludes, and candid testimonies weave a vibrant essay on movement as joy, ritual, and survival. At once speculative sci-fi and grounded documentary, the film creates a dazzling meditation on humanity’s eternal urge to dance.”
THE PINK PILL: SEX, DRUGS & WHO HAS CONTROL. Dir. Aisling Chin-Yee. World Premiere. “Following advocates pushing for FDA approval of a pill demonstrated to boost female desire, this engaging documentary explores stark inequalities regarding women’s sexual health. The film exposes how medical education and healthcare institutions systematically ignore women’s sexual needs while normalizing dozens of drugs for male erectile dysfunction. Witty, urgent, and illuminating, THE PINK PILL interrogates the double standards in science, medicine, and society that shape how female desire is understood and often dismissed.”
PLAN C FOR CIVILIZATION. Dir. Ben Kalina. World Premiere. “Physicist David Keith, a leading and controversial figure in solar geoengineering, seeks to test his planetary-cooling technology after decades of research and theorization. His journey unfolds amid fierce debates over the ethical, political, and environmental implications of reflecting sunlight to slow global warming. Activists warn that the technology could delay fossil fuel reductions or be misused geopolitically. The documentary offers a gripping, real-time look at science shaped by public discourse, ethics, and institutional power.”
SHIFTING BASELINES. Dir. Julien Elie. NYC Premiere. “Many of those who called Boca Chica home don’t anymore. When Elon Musk’s SpaceX decided to build its 50-story rocket in the Texas town, it forced people away. Birds have been stopped in flight, and people who remained can no longer access the beaches they grew up visiting. Julien Elie’s dystopic sci-fi documentary is a warning for what happens when greed and ego seem to have no visible boundaries.”
Still from SHIFTING BASELINES. Courtesy of DOC NYC.
THE TALE OF SILYVAN. Dir. Tamara Kotevska. “In rural North Macedonia, when a farmer’s family departs for opportunity abroad and government policies render his land unsellable, he takes work in a landfill. There he rescues an injured white stork, forming an unlikely bond. Interwoven with a local folktale of transformation and loss, the lyrical film becomes a meditation on migration, aging, nature, and the ways kindness can persist in the hollow spaces left by change.”
UNANIMAL. Dirs. Tuva Bjork, Sally Jacobson. North American Premiere. “Beautifully composed and subtly unsettling, UNANIMAL interrogates the entangled, often contradictory relationship between humans and animals. Narrated with calm detachment by Isabella Rossellini, the essay film offers a critical yet poetic historical lens on the evolution of our cohabitation with nonhuman life. It creates space for viewers to question the ways we project meaning onto animals, and how our frameworks of science, entertainment, and affection shape their lives—and ours.”
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