The 2024 Edition of DOC NYC Brings Latin American Non-Fiction Cinema to New York

The 15th annual edition of DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, will take place November 13-21, 2024, featuring a diverse selection of Latin American features and short films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, and Uruguay.

The Colombian film Soul of the Desert / Alma del desierto, directed by Mónica Taboada-Tapia, will have its North American premiere in the International Competition. Taboada-Tapia’s debut feature is a poetic, character-driven road movie following Georgina, a resilient transgender woman in her early seventies from the indigenous Wayúu tribe. After decades of solitary exile from her community and forever awaiting the identification she needs to collect food aid, Georgina embarks on a journey across the desert to reconnect with the family that once rejected her, confronting both personal and tribal challenges amidst Colombia's corruption.

Uruguayan filmmakers Marta García and Sol Infante Zamudio’s Bad Reputation / Mala reputación will have its U.S. premiere in the International Competition. The inspiring documentary follows Karina, a charismatic sex worker, feminist, and activist who has formed a union for current and former sex workers in Uruguay. The film captures her work alongside fellow campaigners as they fight to establish their rights and prevent future workers from experiencing the horrors of child exploitation, trafficking, abuse, stigmatization, and domestic violence.

Balomania, by Danish filmmaker Sissel Morell Dargis, is a vibrant exploration of Brazilian baloeiros, secret groups of men who craft and launch elaborate hot-air balloons. Having its U.S. premiere in the International Competition, this first-rate big-screen experience is an epic portrayal of free-spirited artistry. Beyond the spectacle of ever-more mammoth and elaborate balloon launches, Morrell Dargis takes on a parallel journey into the vulnerable and volatile emotions of Brazilian masculinity in a brotherhood ricocheting between fierce and fraught loyalties.

The Kaleidoscope Competition of the festival, which focuses on work that’s more essayistic and poetic, will host the New York premieres of two Latin American films: Brazil’s The Falling Sky / A Queda do Céu by Erik Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, and Colombia’s Welcome Interplanetary and Sidereal Space Conquerors / Bienvenidos conquistadores interplanetarios y del Espacio Sideral by Andrés Jurado. 

Based on the book co-authored by Davi Kopenawa and anthropologist Bruce Albert, The Falling Sky is an immersive and poetic film centered on iconic shaman Davi Kopenawa and the Yanomami community of Watoriki in the Brazilian rainforest. The film invites its audience to participate in the sacred ritual of Reahu and to shift perspectives on the incursions of illegal miners. 

Welcome Interplanetary and Sidereal Space Conquerors is a constellation of archival footage, historical documents, and sound recordings that present a fascinating counter-history of Colombia’s role in space exploration. Among the rare scenes, the audience witnesses fascinating Cold-War-era footage of a NASA boot camp built in the jungle to teach astronauts how to survive in a hostile environment. Constructed through artful editing and manipulation of the fragmented reality, this playful, spectral narrative raises critical questions about colonization and extractivism. 

The Cuban documentary Isla Familia will have its world premiere on Fight the Power, DOC NYC’s section focused on activism. Co-director and protagonist Abraham Jiménez, one of the most important voices of Cuban independent journalism, is expecting a baby with his wife, producer/co-director Claudia Calviño. As they become more and more exhausted and depressed from the constant harassment of the Cuban government, the young family embarks on a journey off the island and become political exiles in Spain. A heartfelt, intimate look at daily life in Cuba and the measures taken by one family to protect their freedom. 

Gaucho Gaucho, by American visual artists and filmmakers Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, will have its New York premiere in the Come As You Are section of the festival, which highlights films about people striving to find their place in the world or their communities. The film is an intimate portrait of a small community of iconic gauchos (cowboys and cowgirls) set in the northwestern cattle country of Argentina, who proudly preserve their traditions despite changing modern customs. The sacred bond they share with their animals is forged while facing the rigors of the wild together. 

Also in the Come As You Are section, Chile’s The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine by director Alfredo Pourailly De La Plaza will have its US Premiere. Set in the harsh climate of the Chilean Tierra Del Fuego, the film follows Toto, who has labored for 40 years in the gold mines. The work is arduous, and after suffering a stroke at age 60, he fears his working days are numbered. With his father’s health and financial future at risk, his cowboy son, Jorge, devises an ingenious machine to free his father from his labors. 

Additionally, two Latin American short documentaries will screen in the Shorts Program: Costa Rica’s Jerhy by John Ortiz, highlighting the challenges facing the Land Back movement, and Mexico’s The Cleaning Lady by Ericka de Alexander, exploring the fragmented connections of immigrant families upon their return home.

The 2024 hybrid edition of DOC NYC will be held at the IFC Center, the SVA Theatre, and Village East by Angelika, with online screenings continuing until December 1.