DOC NYC presents a substantial lineup of films by and about LGBTQ people
At the time I write this, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s “You Can See Everything” had topped the U.S. box office last weekend. Their film twists a true crime saga and celebrity profile into something much more provocative and complex than second-screen streaming fare. Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s IDF documentary “NAZA” has become a … Read More
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At the time I write this, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s “You Can See Everything” had topped the U.S. box office last weekend. Their film twists a true crime saga and celebrity profile into something much more provocative and complex than second-screen streaming fare. Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s IDF documentary “NAZA” has become a news item in its own right. As the latest installment of “DOC NYC” gets underway, its lineup demonstrates the continuing strength of nonfiction films. While the festival’s Achilles heel, as always, is its resistance to experimental and hybrid work, it includes a substantial lineup by and about LGBTQ people. Beyond the films I was able to preview, that includes profiles of queer athletes (Billie Jean King, Megan Rapinoe) and artists (Frida Kahlo); as well as documentaries about three members of the Khawaja Sara community, who live as a third gender in Pakistan and other parts of South Asia; and an Irish support line for lesbians.
Julia Schwalb’s “Kick” follows Nicky Hiltz, a trans non-binary runner, on her path towards participating in the Olympics. Conservatives have propagandized trans athletes playing in women’s sports into a menacing specter, one all too many liberals and progressives have also fallen for. “Kick” reveals the cost of being perceived as a symbol of a social ill: Nicky can’t compete without receiving a deluge of bigoted messages. They’re supported by their girlfriend, who came out publicly while she was playing sports at Brigham Young University, and parents. (Their mom notes that they were never bullied as a teenager, but they’re suffering from it now.)
[caption id="attachment_65735" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Julia Schwalb’s “Kick” follows Nicky Hiltz, a trans non-binary runner, on her path towards participating in the Olympics.Curren Sheldon[/caption]
“Nicky” follows two paths: one tracking Nicky’s progress towards the Olympics and improving her skills as a runner and another following the effects of becoming a public figure in the sports world as a non-binary person. Hatred hinders their performance. Nicky says “I was exhausted from over-explaining myself.” They face a conflict between their professional life and their goal of altering their body to become more masculine. In the end, Nicky gets frank about the dilemma they and others in their shoes have to cope with: “Sports saved my life. It shouldn’t just be reserved for someone who’s cisgender.”
Queer director Kevin Truong’s “Mai American” pays tribute to his mother Tot, a Vietnamese refuge who emigrated to the U.S. in 1981. Truong reckons with the impossibility of fully rendering a life through translation. After failing to make a living as a photographer in New York, he moved back in with his mother at 33. He realizes that he’d come to project stereotypes on her because, in his words, “I hated being Vietnamese, I just wanted to be American.” When he looks back at home videos, not understanding Vietnamese makes it impossible for him to fully comprehend his father’s words. Truong recollects these emotional experiences with great reserve. Tot reads from her memoir over images of her beloved cats and Kevin’s photographs and paintings. Both Kevin and Tot come to peace with the way their lives defy conventional paths. She only fell in love once, with an American soldier, and Kevin’s father was married to another woman. Kevin only counts one serious relationship in his life, and while he feels lonely, he’s immediately turned off by “no femmes, no Asians” ads on hookup apps. By the end of the film, they’ve achieved a moving understanding of each other’s lives – and they still live together.
A portrait of gay experimental filmmakers Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, who’ve been a couple since the ‘60s, Patrick Shen and Brandon Veddder’s “Illuminations” couldn’t be as meditative as their own work and still communicate the facts of their lives. Shen and Vedder strike a middle ground by having Dorsky and Hiler speak about their goals, while showing them go about daily tasks. Even as they profess lofty spiritual aspirations for their work, they’re devoted to filmmaking as a mechanical process. Dorsky values an unwieldy 16mm Bolex camera as a working piece of 19th-century technology. They process their own film. “Illuminations” isn’t mournful or nostalgic, but it views Dorsky and Hiler’s aging along with their medium, now reliant on video and always dominated by commerce. Their vision of filmmaking as a spiritual practice, which can induce a direct experience of the world, remains as idealistic as it was in the ‘60s.
Shalini Kantayya’s “Love Apptually” relates a familiar story about the flaws of dating apps. They’re designed to be addictive, so that users don’t actually find a successful relationship and quit paying a monthly fee. They make it easy to judge people based entirely on their looks. At a minimum, they reinforce patriarchal and heteronormative ideas about romance, and at worst, they enable abuse. The documentary, which uses journalist Judith Duportail as a guide through this landscape, plays as though it were an extended magazine article. It’s most striking when it moves away from generalities and gets into the experiences of the apps’ users. One is Jerry, a gay man who loves rom-coms. He fears violence if he approaches attractive men in real life, so he sees apps as a safer method of finding prospective dates. But by the end of the film, he’s connected with 500 men without forming a relationship. The only successful couple in “Love Apptually” are two people who met in VR Chat, using avatars and talking for months before meeting in person. While the ending is overly optimistic, considering the consumerist hellscape the film lays out, “Love Apptually” shines a light on the exploitation of our deepest emotions.
“DOC NYC 2026” | Runs Nov. 11th-19th at IFC Center, Village East and SVA Theater | Films are available to stream from the 11th to the 29th | Full lineup and schedule available at docnyc.net
Julia Schwalb’s “Kick” follows Nicky Hiltz, a trans non-binary runner, on her path towards participating in the Olympics.Curren Sheldon[/caption]
“Nicky” follows two paths: one tracking Nicky’s progress towards the Olympics and improving her skills as a runner and another following the effects of becoming a public figure in the sports world as a non-binary person. Hatred hinders their performance. Nicky says “I was exhausted from over-explaining myself.” They face a conflict between their professional life and their goal of altering their body to become more masculine. In the end, Nicky gets frank about the dilemma they and others in their shoes have to cope with: “Sports saved my life. It shouldn’t just be reserved for someone who’s cisgender.”
Queer director Kevin Truong’s “Mai American” pays tribute to his mother Tot, a Vietnamese refuge who emigrated to the U.S. in 1981. Truong reckons with the impossibility of fully rendering a life through translation. After failing to make a living as a photographer in New York, he moved back in with his mother at 33. He realizes that he’d come to project stereotypes on her because, in his words, “I hated being Vietnamese, I just wanted to be American.” When he looks back at home videos, not understanding Vietnamese makes it impossible for him to fully comprehend his father’s words. Truong recollects these emotional experiences with great reserve. Tot reads from her memoir over images of her beloved cats and Kevin’s photographs and paintings. Both Kevin and Tot come to peace with the way their lives defy conventional paths. She only fell in love once, with an American soldier, and Kevin’s father was married to another woman. Kevin only counts one serious relationship in his life, and while he feels lonely, he’s immediately turned off by “no femmes, no Asians” ads on hookup apps. By the end of the film, they’ve achieved a moving understanding of each other’s lives – and they still live together.
A portrait of gay experimental filmmakers Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, who’ve been a couple since the ‘60s, Patrick Shen and Brandon Veddder’s “Illuminations” couldn’t be as meditative as their own work and still communicate the facts of their lives. Shen and Vedder strike a middle ground by having Dorsky and Hiler speak about their goals, while showing them go about daily tasks. Even as they profess lofty spiritual aspirations for their work, they’re devoted to filmmaking as a mechanical process. Dorsky values an unwieldy 16mm Bolex camera as a working piece of 19th-century technology. They process their own film. “Illuminations” isn’t mournful or nostalgic, but it views Dorsky and Hiler’s aging along with their medium, now reliant on video and always dominated by commerce. Their vision of filmmaking as a spiritual practice, which can induce a direct experience of the world, remains as idealistic as it was in the ‘60s.
Shalini Kantayya’s “Love Apptually” relates a familiar story about the flaws of dating apps. They’re designed to be addictive, so that users don’t actually find a successful relationship and quit paying a monthly fee. They make it easy to judge people based entirely on their looks. At a minimum, they reinforce patriarchal and heteronormative ideas about romance, and at worst, they enable abuse. The documentary, which uses journalist Judith Duportail as a guide through this landscape, plays as though it were an extended magazine article. It’s most striking when it moves away from generalities and gets into the experiences of the apps’ users. One is Jerry, a gay man who loves rom-coms. He fears violence if he approaches attractive men in real life, so he sees apps as a safer method of finding prospective dates. But by the end of the film, he’s connected with 500 men without forming a relationship. The only successful couple in “Love Apptually” are two people who met in VR Chat, using avatars and talking for months before meeting in person. While the ending is overly optimistic, considering the consumerist hellscape the film lays out, “Love Apptually” shines a light on the exploitation of our deepest emotions.
“DOC NYC 2026” | Runs Nov. 11th-19th at IFC Center, Village East and SVA Theater | Films are available to stream from the 11th to the 29th | Full lineup and schedule available at docnyc.net 
