Documentary of the Week

Steven Avery was exonerated by DNA evidence after 18 years in prison. After he sued the county and the DA for $36 million, he was accused of a new murder. Filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi follow his case through many twists in turns in this gripping 10 hour series.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen 

For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

Directors Mina T. Son and Sara Newens take us into the world of competitive ping pong as they follow three driven teenagers who dedicate their lives in hope of attaining their Olympic dreams.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In 1962, the French director Francois Truffaut conducted a marathon interview with Alfred Hitchcock. Director Kent Jones draws upon those tapes and also interviews contemporary filmmakers for a probing exploration of Hitchcock’s films and the process of film-making.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information click here to visit the official film web site.

In the documentary Janis: Little Girl Blue, director Amy Berg uncovers rare archives and conducts new interviews with Janis Joplin’s family, friends and bandmates to tell a poignant story of the pioneering woman rocker who died of an overdose at age 27.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

The cartoonists at The New Yorker are a reticent bunch. The documentary Very Semi-Serious overcomes that challenge and takes us inside their world. We get to meet some of the rising talents and learn what inspires the veterans.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

For more information, click here to visit the film's web site.

The documentary "OXD: One Extraordinary Day" brings us choreographer Elizabeth Streb and her dance troupe Extreme Action Company as they rehearse in Brooklyn and perform in London, dangling from the London Eye and the Millenium Bridge. This fun, exhilarating and emotional film makes its world premier at the DOC NYC festival on Saturday.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen 

For more information, click here to visit the film page at the festival web site.

Locals says there are precisely 167 languages spoken in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens. Legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman brings his cameras to this diverse neighborhood in a three-hour-plus documentary. Wiseman will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the DOC NYC festival this month for his 48 years of filmmaking.

-- Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen 

For more information, click here to visit the film web page.

In Heart of a Dog, performance artist Laurie Anderson displays her style of combining music and storytelling in a first-person reflection on the loss of her beloved dog Lolabelle. Visually, the film blends home movies, dream imagery and animation.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen 

For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In “A Ballerina’s Tale,” filmmaker Nelson George follows Misty Copeland as she copes with an injury that threatens her career and rallies to break boundaries in the world of ballet. Copeland shows herself to be an attentive student of ballet’s history, and a powerful agent for its future.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen 

For more information, click here to visit the official film web page.

The documentary (T)ERROR, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Prize, follows an undercover informant during an actual FBI operation against a Muslim man in Pittsburgh. Filmmakers Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe play each side against the others without telling any of them what they're doing. The film shows us something we aren’t meant to see — and tells us something we aren’t meant to know — in the domestic war on terror.

— Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen