Filmmaker Joanna Vasquez Arong weaves together myths to tell how a small town in the Philippines copes with devastation and trauma in the aftermath of a typhoon. A girl’s voice divulges bits and pieces of her own memory of her grandmother and mother to tie in the experiences she felt visiting this ravaged town. Premiered at the 2020 Slamdance Film Festival.
Author: Greggory Morris
Review in the works
2020 DOC NYC Review
BLUE CODE OF SILENCE-
Filmmakers Magnus Skatvold and Greg Mallozzi exquisitely and tellingly profile former NYC police officer Bob Leuci, who in the 1960s was a member of the NYPD’s Special Investigative Unit AKA SUI, a major undercover narcotics operation. BLUE CODE of SILENCE’s 74 minutes of virtuosic cinematic story telling, nevertheless, caused this reviewer to navigate swells of ambivalence. There is obviously more to this movie than just a profile of a rogue cop who was treated as a prince of the city even though he had a mega-measure of antagonists who considered him a rat.
DOC NYC 2020 Film Review
BARE
Director Aleksandr M. Vinogradov’s visually stunning 91-minute film about the Belgian choreographer Thierry Smits’s creating his new visually stunning contemporary dance piece, Anima Ardens – stirring up this reviewer’s collective unconsciousness and consciousness to a feverish pitch. The athleticism of 11 men, naked, whirling, pirouetting, dashing around huge alabaster stage as well as enmeshing and scrumming with arms and legs and heads and torsos going this way and that, rhythmically and synchronously and kinetically, forming and reforming edificial shapes and collages with human building blocks that expand and melt away into other forms and entities was transfixing.
Films About the Black Experience – DOC NYC 2020, November 11-19
DOC NYC 2020 November 11-13, Part 7: Spotlight On Canada, Feature Films, Short Films, Shorts Programs
Spotlight On Canada – A showcase of the Canadian titles that are represented throughout the festival’s sections. Co-presented by the Consulate General of Canada in New York. Feature Films 9/11 KIDS DOPE IS DEATH EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF INFLUENCE JACINTA…
DOC NYC 2020 November 11-13, Part 6: Behind The Scenes Films About Film And Television, Arts & Culture Films About The Arts, Sonic Cinema Movies About Music
Behind The Scenes Films About Film And Television BELUSHI Dir/Prod: R.J. Cutler Prod: John Battsek, Diane Becker, Trevor Smith R.J. Cutler (The September Issue) profiles the legendary John Belushi, whose insatiable appetites and anarchic energy led to his demise at…
DOC NYC 2020 November 11-13, Part 5: Fight The Power Stories of Activism & Jock Docs Films About Sports
Fight The Power Stories of Activism THE BIG SCARY “S” WORD Dir/Prod: Yael Bridge Prod: Morgan Spector, Eden Wurmfeld A comprehensive exploration of the long-debated and misunderstood ideology of socialism, increasingly attracting both supporters and detractors in a polarized America.…
DOC NYC 2020 November 11-13, Part 4: Investigations Revealing Real-Life Tales & International Perspectives Travel The World
Investigations Revealing Real-Life Tales 76 DAYS Dir: Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous Prod: Hao Wu, Jean Tsien A suspenseful, immersive look at life under COVID-19 lockdown in Wuhan, China, focused on front-line hospital workers and their patients. THE LETTER Dir/Prod:…
The Mother of All Documentary Film Festivals

DOC NYC 2020 November 11-13 Part 3: Winners Circle International Award Winner, Masters Films by Nonfiction Auteurs & Ameridan Perspectives Explore the USA
Winners Circle International Award Winners ACASA, MY HOME Dir: Radu Ciorniciuc Prod: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan Winner: Krakow A large Roma clan who have lived off the grid in the wilderness for 20 years are forced to resettle in the unfamiliar city.…
