DOC NYC may be America’s biggest documentary film festival, but its quality happily matches its quantity.

An intense and—to a certain point—confrontational interview that works as an essential documentary about filmmaking.

The clip and talking-head-fest is a compilation of R-rated reveals, and note the subtitle. It really is a history lesson as well as a catalog of the nude and famous.

What could have been a Spinal Tap–like absurdist comedy or an insider’s look into the sometimes tortuous process of filmmaking ends up feeling more like score settling.

A spiritual sequel to 1995’s The Celluloid Closet, this eye-opening documentary zooms in specifically on transgender representation.

Fifteen years after her death, cognoscenti still debate Sontag’s literary output, cultural influence, and even her hairdo, so her film Duet for Cannibals will likely fall under the same scrutiny.

As an introduction to the history and use of sound in film, this documentary is admirable, enjoyable, and hard to resist.

A master class that brings valuable insights to a significant career, more than six decades after it began.

The actual nuts-and-bolts production of the Ridley Scott 1979 science fiction horror staple is only one piece of this examination.