Film lovers, it’s time to nail down your fall movie-going schedule. Single tickets for the 57th New York Film Festival, which runs September 27-October 13, are on sale now. The Main Slate and Special Events sections have their hot tickets, among them Boon Joon-ho’s Parasite, Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory, Navid Lapid’s Synonyms, and Todd Phillips’s Joker, which just walked off with the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. And then there’s NYFF57’s Opening Night, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, and festival Centerpiece, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. Both are sure to sell out quickly. But don’t fret if you miss out, there’s always standby. These, however, aren’t the offerings we’re most excited about at this year’s event. We’re all about the documentary lineup. That’s where the magic is happening at NYFF57 with six world premieres and several films seeking distribution.

Most of the fest’s feature-length documentaries are contained in the Spotlight on Documentary section. But there are few hiding out in the Main Slate, Retrospective, and Revivals sections.

Dancing in 3D

Spotlight on Documentary is where you find Alla Kovgan’s Cunningham, a film about visionary choreographer Merce Cunningham. Cunningham, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 90, moved to New York City in 1939 to dance with the Martha Graham Dance Company. He later formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1953. Kovgan’s film follows Cunningham’s career over the course of three decades, from 1944 to 1972. And, similar to Wim Wenders’s immersive and transfixing tribute to German dancer Pina Bausch, Pina, Cunningham reaches out and moves you through the use of 3D. Cunningham recently premiered at Toronto and critics are going wild over it. If you miss it at NYFF57, Magnolia Pictures is releasing the doc theatrically on December 13.

New York Personalities

Joining Cunningham are two other eagerly awaited films about notable New Yorkers, Ivy Meeropol’s Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, and Ric Burns’s Oliver Sacks: His Own Life. Meeropol’s documentary is one of two coming out this year about Roy Cohn, the ruthless and unscrupulous American lawyer who cut his teeth as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel during the communist witch hunt era. The other doc, which opens at Film Forum on September 20, is Matt Tyrnauer’s broad and unflattering portrait, Where’s My Roy Cohn?. Meeropol’s documentary, which is being released by HBO, should have a more personal point of view than Tyrnauer’s. Cohn’s first job out of law school involved sending Meeropol’s grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, to the electric chair. Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn is making its world premiere at NYFF57.

Oliver Sacks: His Own Life

Ric Burns, not to be confused with his prolific filmmaking brother Ken, makes his NYFF directorial debut with Oliver Sacks: His Own Life. Burns’ film shines a light on the famed British neurologist and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat author who passed away from cancer in 2015. Prior to his death, Sacks, a notoriously private man, sat down for a series of marathon interviews. These discussions make up the backbone of Burns’ feature. Sacks also gave author Lawrence Weschler a green light to document his life. Weschler’s novel, And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?: A Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks, came out last month.

New York Stories

Other films with New York ties include D.W. Young’s The Booksellers, and Manfred Kirchheimer’s Free Time, both of which are world premiering at NYFF57. The Booksellers, which is executive produced by former Party Girl Parker Posey, takes a behind-the-scenes look at New York’s rare book world. It features interviews with several of NYC’s leading literati, including Fran Lebowitz, Susan Orlean, Kevin Young, and Gay Talese. The film is looking for a distributor.

As for Manfred Kirchheimer, the legendary 88-year-old filmmaker returns to NYFF after last year’s Dream of a City with another portrait of New York City between 1958 and 1960. Free Time is a time capsule of leisure-life in the city constructed from 16mm black-and-white footage shot by Kirchheimer and Walter Hess across a variety of neighborhoods. If you want a glimpse into bygone New York City, Kirchheimer is an excellent tour guide.

Bad Boy Filmmakers

Nick Broomfield and Nanni Moretti, two NYFF vets who have courted controversy in the past, return to the fest with new documentaries. Broomfield, who we last saw fondly detailing the love affair between Marianne Ihlen and Leonard Cohen in his film Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, arrives at NYFF57 with two films. His latest, My Father and Me, finds Broomfield pulling focus on his relationship with his father, Maurice Broomfield, a factory worker-turned-photographer of industrial post-WWII England. Broomfield also has a film he co-directed with John Churchill screening in the Retrospective section, the 1981 documentary Solder Girls.

Moretti, who is best known for his narrative films and leftwing political leanings, revisits a turbulent time in Chile’s history with his film Santiago, Italia. After the installment of dictator Augusto Pinochet as the leader of Chile in 1973, the Italian Embassy stepped in and did their best to save and relocate citizens targeted by the fascist regime. The Italian director’s film enjoys its North American premiere at NYFF57.

Apted’s Seven-Year Itch

Also included in this year’s documentary slate is the latest (and likely last installment) in the Up series. The critically acclaimed British series, which began in 1964, finds filmmaker Michael Apted checking in with the same group of subjects every seven years. In the first installment, 7 Up, the subjects who were selected to represent a range of socio-economic backgrounds were seven years old. Now at 63, Apted goes back to see how they are faring as they cope with Brexit and reconcile with growing old. 63 Up is the ninth episode in the series. It recently screened at Telluride and the response has been positive.

World Premieres

Rounding out the Spotlight on Documentary cast are several world premieres. You’ll find Abbas Fahdel’s Bitter Bread about a community of Syrian refugees living in a tent camp in Lebanon, Tania Cypriano’s surgical transitioning doc Born to Be, and Lynn Novick’s College Behind Bars, which goes inside correctional facilities in New York State to explore The Bard Prison Initiative.

While not world premieres, also making this year’s cut are Tim Robbins’s prison theater doc 45 Seconds to Laughter and Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s State Funeral, a found-footage documentary about the days following Stalin’s death in 1953. Both films recently bowed at Venice.

Documentary DPs Rock

This year’s Retrospective section pays tribute to the American Society of Cinematographers. The fest recognizes DP Ellen Kuras with a screening of Michel Gondry’s 2005 documentary Dave Chapelle’s Block Party. The film distills the day-long performance event hosted by the comedian into a 103-minute film. Included are cameos by Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, the Fugees, Jill Scott, and more.

Documentary Revival

Bert Stern’s Jazz on a Summer Day

The festival’s Revivals section, which showcases important works that have been remastered or restored, has its share of documentaries. Music fans will not want to miss the 4K Restoration of Bert Stern’s 1959 concert film Jazz on a Summer Day. Shot at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, the documentary features performances by Thelonius Monk, Big Maybelle, Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Anita O’Day, Gerry Mulligan, and more, shot to beautiful effect in saturated color film stock.

Also, screening in Revivals are documentary shorts by Armenian-Georgian auteur Sergei Parajanov, Iranian director Forough Farrokhzad, and Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Seta. Parajanov’s films are meditations on the nature of art and artist, while the single short of Farrokhzad’s that is screening goes inside a leper colony in Iran.

De Seta’s colorful shorts, made in the 1950s, explore the daily labors and traditional customs of rural workers and their families in and around Sicily, Sardinia, and Calabria. His films have been restored by Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory and The Film Foundation, with funding from the George Lucas Family Foundation.

Agnès Varda’s Swan Song

Agnès Varda’s last film, Varda by Agnès, has the honor of being the only non-fiction film to screen in this year’s Main Slate. Last year, the privilege went to Monrovia, Indiana, Frederick Wiseman’s riveting observation of small-town America post-the 2016 election. And, in 2017, it was Varda and JR’s playful collaboration Faces Places that was the sole Main Slate doc, screening alongside fest favorites Call Me By Your Name and The Square. Varda, who passed away earlier this year at 90, documents her career in her final film. Varda by Agnès, which had its world premiere at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival, consists of interviews, lectures, clips, and archival footage. The film’s screening at NYFF57 is a preview of coming attractions, as Film at Lincoln Center is hosting an Agnès Varda career-spanning retrospective to coincide with Varda by Agnès‘s theatrical release later this year.

Documentary Shorts

Last, let’s turn to the documentaries included in the NYFF57 short film programs. In Shorts Program 2, we find Pia Borg’s Demonic, a horror-documentary about the infamous Satanic Ritual Abuse Panic of the 1980s. Also featured is the World Premiere of Theo Anthony’s Subject to Review, which is presented by ESPN 30 for 30. Anthony’s film looks at the implications of the rise of professional tennis’s instant replay system Hawk-Eye. Electronic music juggernaut Dan Deacon composed Subject to Review’s soundtrack.

Pia Borg’s Demonic

For a complete listing of all the films screening at the 57th New York Film Festival, visit the festival’s website. Tickets for the 2019 event are available here. And, if your film of choice is sold out, monitor this page on the NYFF website for ticket availability updates.

NYFF57 Documentaries
Main Slate
Varda by Agnès dir. by Agnès Varda – New York Premiere

Spotlight on Documentary
45 Seconds to Laughter dir. Tim Robbins – North American Premiere
63 Up dir. Michael Apted – New York Premiere
Bitter Bread dir. Abbas Fahdel – World Premiere
The Booksellers dir. D.W. Young – World Premiere
Born to Be dir. Tania Cypriano – World Premiere
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn dir. Ivy Meeropol – World Premiere
College Behind Bars dir. Lynn Novick – World Premiere
Cunningham dir. Alla Kovgan – U.S. Premiere
Free Time dir. Manfred Kirchheimer – World Premiere
My Father and Me dir. Nick Broomfield – North American Premiere
Oliver Sachs: His Own Life dir. Ric Burns – New York Premiere
Santiago, Italia dir. Nanni Moretti – North American Premiere
State Funeral dir. Sergei Loznitsa – U.S. Premiere

Revivals
Jazz on a Summer’s Day dir. Bert Stern
3 Short Films by Sergei Parajanov w/The House is Black dir. Forough Farrokhzad
10 Documentary Shorts by Vittorio De Seta

Retrospective
Dave Chapelle’s Block Party dir. Michel Gondry
Solider Girls dir. Nick Broomfield & Joan Churchill

Shorts
Program 1: International – San Vittore dir. Yuri Ancarani
Program 2: Documentary – Demonic dir. Pia Borg & Subject to Review dir. Theo Anthony

(Images above, l to r: 45 Seconds to Laughter, 45 Seconds to Laughter, Cunningham, and Dave Chapelle’s Block Party)