Producers Club, close to the iconic Times Square,
New York City, NY, USA.
The full program for 2026 is here!
Screening 1
6 PM
An experimental doc that gets up close and personal with the topic of feminine body hair, the beauty standards built around it, and how it affects self-perception and expression.
Izzy Holmes is a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology Film and Media.
Running saved Samantha Sauer’s life. It also keeps trying to kill her. Training For Life follows Samantha, a certified patient advocate living with gastroparesis and multiple chronic illnesses, as she attempts to train for a comeback half-marathon after years of health setbacks and a near-death experience with sepsis.
Lauren Keenan is a filmmaker and writer dedicated to championing women and telling underrepresented stories. She's worked in the film industry for 10 years, coming up in the television world on shows like Apple TV's BLACKBIRD and AMC's THE WALKING DEAD. Lauren is based in Brooklyn, New York.
“The Sky Over Kherson” takes viewers through the Ukrainian city, from homes and vehicles destroyed in attacks to a hospital treating the wounded and children learning to recognize the sounds and dangers of war. The film documents what daily life looks like for civilians living under the constant threat of drones.
Matteo is a director and visual storyteller who bridges two worlds that rarely meet: the journalistic grit of crisis and conflict documentary, and the precision of political and commercial campaigns. Based in New York, he heads the film unit for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), leading productions across crisis zones like Ukraine, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Yemen. Backed by a master’s in International Relations from New York University, his projects have been featured at Sundance and appeared in The New York Times, Reuters, and Rai TV.
Get scrappy with our hero, a traditional master blacksmith busy navigating the challenges of modern life, having forsaken power tools for a higher calling. While Ryan only works on bespoke objects, that hold special meaning to their owners, he must reconcile the mundane reality of supporting his family and business with upholding convictions of personal morality and purity of art.
Maksym Putintsev grew up in Ukraine in the 90's and moved to Canada with his family when he was twelve. The humbling combination of childhood dreams and hands-on work on set has given him a unique perspective and creative freedom that he now enjoy as a cinematographer in his world of narrative storytelling.
Using images from 27 Black Lives Matter Protests the story of 16 people killed by the police is told along with Poetic context and an original soundtrack by Selwyn Brown from Steel Pulse.
David Reibman has worked in Film and Television since graduating from Cooper Union in 1977. He started out working at a video production company then as an apprentice editor and video technician for the Movie “Reds” with Warren Beatty. He worked as an editor for the Network News department for 33 years, including 6 years at 60 minutes. During that time he continued to make art and co-produced a dance video “Urban Innocence” that was shot at the World Trade Center in 1987. In 2019 he retired from CBS to pursue his art full time and eventually produced the film “Say Their Names”.
The nerve of the heart is called the wanderer. This is a film about a heart surgeon who became one.
Yehuda Rabi is a Canadian filmmaker interested in people, animals and accidents. Originally from Calgary, he currently lives in Toronto. Wanderer is his latest short film.
For more than three decades, every Wednesday, elderly Korean women and their supporters have gathered in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, demanding justice and recognition for the victims of wartime sexual violence.
Zhou Yu is a documentary director whose work spans major Chinese media platforms, including China Central Television (CCTV), Tencent Video, and Youku.
Histories and memories of industry (especially cement manufacturing in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania), domestic labor, immigration, and family are entwined in a merging of narrative poetry, stop motion animation (melding mineral and organic materials), and documentary-style video footage.
Anne Ciecko is a maker, writer, and educator. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, she currently lives and works in towns in western Massachusetts. Her poetry films/videopoems and experimental short works have been screened at festivals worldwide.
Screening 2
7:45 PM
Fashion Activist Erika Ewing and Street Artist Vincent Ballentine show how BLM murals are a healing space for Black people. The film explores racism and the Black Lives Matter movement through art.
Janneke Wade-de Jong is a filmmaker and Part-Time Faculty at Parsons School of Design. She also teaches documentary filmmaking to BIPOC students at the Educational Video Center. She’s interested in working in the documentary field, particularly directing and editing documentaries.
Mark an older man shares his passion for Trapeze with his younger friend Amber.
Simon Feldman began his career as a traditional advertising photographer in New York, working with many of the top advertising and design firms. Today his studio works in both stills and motion, and flies its own FAA licensed aerial unit, Aeroflightcam, for film production and television.
Shot on nostalgic Super-8 film, this home-movie-style documentary follows my gender transition within my NYC queer community, tracing a journey where joy emerges as a radical antidote to pain. At its heart, this short film is a love letter to young trans and non-binary people.
Cody Stickels is a filmmaker and photographer focused on emotionally driven stories that nourish audiences. He’s a Chicken & Egg (Egg)celerator Lab fellow with A Texas Sonand participated in the Film Independent Documentary Story Lab. Most recently, Cody was selected for the Voices With Impact Mental Health Short Film Grant for Five Years in 8mm. His last film, A Night at Switch n’ Play, won the Audience Award at NYC’s NewFest Film Festival and screened internationally at BFI Flare, Inside Out, and Woodstock. The project received support from the Richard Vague Production Fund and was featured in IndieWire, NewNowNext, and Deadline.
Deb Kapell pursues her curiosity of life and death at all sizes while making stunning images of microbiology. This short film is episode #1 of the documentary series, Dig Where I Stand, which profiles interesting characters within a 15-minute bike ride of Director Eric Jenkins-Sahlin's apartment.
Eric Jenkins-Sahlin is a film editor, cinematographer and director based in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been featured in the Guardian, Vice, The New Yorker, AdWeek, Roads & Kingdoms, DocNYC, and Spike Lee’s NYC EPICENTERS documentary. Eric was Director for a non-broadcast industrial video that won a 2019 Bronze Telly Award, Assistant Editor for In Search of Bengali Harlem (2022), Assistant Editor for the Academy Award-nominated Knife Skills (2017), and Associate Producer for A Photographic Memory (2019 Sundance Edit and Story Lab). Eric was a Fulbright Scholar to China, a UnionDocs Summer Documentary Lab fellow, and a participant in Mountain Workshops; is the Director of the Brooklyn Documentary Club and a member of Filmshop.
Ray was born into a family of musicians. As a child he discovered an old drum kit in the basement and began thumping away. At age 12, Ray was extensively burned during a camping accident. Ray received inspiration from his mother while depressed and fighting for his life. What came to mind was playing drums. Once he decided on that, nothing could stop him.
Chris Ware is a 30 time NY Emmy winning journalistic cinematographer specializing in storytelling that captures the human spirit. He has also won the distinguished Peabody Award, Edward R. Murrow and The George Polk Award.
A young man is trying to preserve his everyday life in a form of a video diary. He shares those important moments (both beautiful and trivial) with his girlfriend and his best friend. That period of his life turns out to be the year of exploration, great changes and even greater uncertainty.
Mieszko Chomka completed the DOK PRO course in Wajda School in 2023; one year later, he finished his debut documentary short Let’s Leave It Untitled. He is currently studying directing at The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź.
In a world ruled by patriarchy, one girl from India’s hinterlands finds the courage to challenge gender norms to achieve her dream of becoming a drone pilot.
Ipshita is an independent filmmaker with a nature-inspired, intuitive cinematic voice rooted in lived experiences. Her work explores climate change, culture, and conservation, often in grassroots India. Collaborating with global broadcasters and social organisations, she creates films on environment, gender, and human rights, capturing deep community bonds and inspiring change, one powerful story at a time.
Awards Ceremony
9:30 PM
Best Documentary Film
Best Director
Best Cinematography
Best Super Short Documentary Film
Best Student Documentary Film
Best Experimental Documentary Film