Documentary Movies 2020 List

With Abel Ferrara • Nicolas Nicolaou

This documentary portrait of theater operator Nicolas “Nick” Nicolaou moves from 1970s Times Square adult film houses through decades of city regulation, chain takeovers, and cultural shifts, charting a charming odyssey through the history of film exhibition and New York City. Abel Ferrara traces the life and work of friend and fellow cinephile Nicolas “Nick” Nicolaou, a Cypriot immigrant who began working as a teenager in small neighborhood movie theaters around Manhattan, defying gentrification, changing viewing habits and corporate dominance in the 1980s, only to emerge decades later as one of New York City's last independent theater owners. A moving tribute to friendship, tenacity and the love of cinema, The Projectionist is also a timely paean to what going to the movies is all about.

With Zach Norris • Saru Jayaraman • Ruby De Tie • Scott Seitz • Jennifer Siebel Newsom • Jessica Congdon

The Great American Lie examines the roots of systemic inequalities through a unique gender lens. With America facing widening economic inequality and stagnant social mobility, this film takes audiences on an empathy journey, inspiring a path forward.

With Kirsten Johnson

In this inventive portrait, director Kirsten Johnson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.