Documentary of the Week

New York City’s shifting tides of gentrification are vividly revealed in the HBO documentary Class Divide. Director Marc Levin (Brick City) focuses on West Chelsea, where the Elliott housing project is located across the street from the Avenues private school. The film looks at the growing income disparities through the eyes of young people in the neighborhood. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site at HBO.

How are American police forces becoming more militarized? In the documentary Do Not Resist, director Craig Atkinson travels the country from Ferguson, Missouri to Washington, D.C., to observe the rise of armored equipment, SWAT teams, aerial surveillance and tracking technology. The film forces us to think harder about the costs of our mistakes. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

John McAfee made millions with his anti-virus software, then moved to the jungles of Belize in a compound set up like a modern-day “Heart of Darkness.” After his neighbor was murdered in 2012, Belize police sought him for questioning and he fled the country. Director Nanette Burstein's documentary Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee investigates the unsolved murder and uncovers new allegations. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Based on the book by Eric Schlosser, the documentary Command and Control plays like a thriller about an accident in a nuclear bomb facility in 1980. Filmmaker Robert Kenner (“Food, Inc”) tells a gripping story set in Arkansas when Bill Clinton was governor. Combining interviews with artful re-enactments, the film forces us to question our sense of safety. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

How should we interpret the dramatic rise and fall of literary sensation J.T. Leroy? Two documentaries offer different perspectives. “Author: The J.T. Leroy Story,” directed by Jeff Feuerzeig, profiles the writer Laura Albert who invented the orphaned teenage boy J.T. Leroy, impersonated the character by phone and enlisted her sister-in-law to portray him in public. “The Cult of J.T. Leroy,” directed by Marjorie Sturm, tells the story from the perspective of J.T. Leroy’s unsuspecting friends and associates, who felt betrayed by the elaborate false identity. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information on Author: The J.T. Leroy Story, click here to visit the official film web site. For more information on The Cult of J.T. Leroy, click here to visit the official film web site.

Walter Reuther rose up from working on the Ford assembly line to become president of the United Auto Workers. The documentary Brothers on the Line traces his rise along with his brothers Roy and Victor as they fought labor battles in the Depression, supported the civil rights movement and responded to anti-union backlashes. Filmmaker Sasha Reuther, a grand-nephew of Walter, doesn’t shy away from his family’s controversy. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In The Dog, filmmakers Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren profile John Wojtowicz, the larger-than-life bank robber portrayed by Al Pacino in “Dog Day Afternoon.” While the famous fiction film only captured one day in his life, this documentary explores his background in the early gay rights movement and what happened after he came out of jail as an infamous New York character. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Werner Herzog has explored extremes of human behavior in films like Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. His new documentary Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World explores the internet, artificial intelligence and where modern technology is taking us. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

You probably never heard of Orry-Kelly, but you would know his work as a fashion designer for Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman and others. In the documentary “Women He’s Undressed,” filmmaker Gillian Armstrong (“Little Women”) explores the career of Orry-Kelly and the secrets he kept as a gay man during a period of virulent homophobia.

Flint’s boxing sensation Claressa Shields was nicknamed "T-Rex" for her short arms and ferocious fight. In the documentary "T-Rex," filmmakers Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari follow Shields, at age 17, along with her hometown coach Jason Crutchfield as they train for the 2012 Olympics, the first to allow women boxers. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen T-Rex is streaming free at PBS Independent Lens. Here is a trailer:

Sharon Jones performs a revivalist style of soul music with The Dap-Kings. The new documentary Miss Sharon Jones! follows her over a year as she battles cancer and prepares for a comeback show at New York’s Beacon Theatre. Two-time Oscar winning director Barbara Kopple ("Harlan County USA”) delivers the feel-good film of the summer. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

When football player Steve Gleason is diagnosed with the paralyzing disease ALS, he and his wife Michel Varisco adapt to a new life. In “Gleason,” director Clay Tweel chronicles their struggles to cope with the illness, raise a new son and start a foundation to raise money for ALS victims. The film is especially poignant on the topic of fatherhood, as Gleason creates a video diary to leave for his infant. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film page.

In the documentary Zero Days, Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney investigates the top secret world of cyber warfare. He speaks with anonymous sources at the National Security Agency and other former U.S. government officials on the record to explore the origins and purpose of computer virus known as Stuxnet, which spread all over the world in 2010 and caused explosions at the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran. Now that this new weapon has been unleashed, what can we expect in the future? — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

At the age of 93, Norman Lear still has the energy and curiosity of a 9-year-old. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (“Jesus Camp”) trace the ups and downs of his career from creating the hit TV shows “All in the Family,” “Maude,” and “The Jeffersons” to founding the non-profit People for the American Way. Lear stands as an inspiration for being vibrant at any age. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

The documentary “Life, Animated” chronicles how journalist Ron Suskiind learned to communicate with his autistic son Owen from Disney films. Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams follows Owen as an adult as he moves out from his parents home. The film makes inventive use of Disney clips and original animation. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

New Zealand filmmakers David Farrier and Dylan Reeve grew intrigued by online videos of grown men participating in tickle competitions. But when they contacted the production company, Jane O’Brien Media, they receive a torrent of homophobic attacks and threats. They travel to the U.S to investigate who’s behind the mysterious company. What started as a lark becomes a journalistic thriller. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Despite the saturation coverage of O.J. Simpson's murder trial, director Ezra Edelman proves there is a lot more to understand about this story. His new ESPN documentary spans five episodes, examining the full scope of Simpson’s football and acting careers and the context of race relations in Los Angeles. New interviews with key players such as defense attorney Carl Douglas and LAPD officer Mark Fuhrman bring layers of nuance to a story that’s about a lot more than one celebrity on trial. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In "The Music of Strangers," Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville ("20 Feet From Stardom") profiles several members of the Silk Road Ensemble, the international music group founded by Yo-Yo Ma. Their stories take place against the back drop of upheavals in Syria, Iran, China and beyond as they search to find meaning in their music. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In the documentary The Witness, director James Solomon follows Bill Genovese as he investigates the notorious 1964 murder of his big sister Kitty. The New York Times famously reported that 38 people witnessed the crime without calling the police. But the film reveals a more human story. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Steve Wise is a crusading attorney trying to change human minds over animal rights. In the documentary "Unlocking the Cage," filmmakers DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus follow Wise and the Nonhuman Rights Project as they file a lawsuit on behalf of four chimpanzees held captive in New York state. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg follow New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner as he spirals down from the top of the polls over a sexting scandal. The film's candid portrait of Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin won it the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

Cleveland holds a sports record as the only city with three professional teams that hasn’t won a championship in 50 years. Director Andy Billman explores the history of Cleveland’s fans keeping their faith in the ESPN documentary BELIEVELAND. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Before Saturday Night Live or The Simpsons, American comedy talent like Michael O’Donoghue, John Belushi, Chevy Chase and many others sharpened their skills under the banner of a magazine called National Lampoon. Director Douglas Tirola explores this overlooked chapter of pop culture history, pushing the boundaries of good taste, in the documentary Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In 1960, when the documentary Primary captured John F. Kennedy on the campaign trail in Wisconsin, it also represented a breakthrough in technology for hand-held camera crews, bringing cinéma vérité to non-fiction filmmaking. Three years later, Kennedy allowed the same team and cameras into the White House for the film Crisis, about the administration's civil-rights showdown with segregationist Gov. George Wallace. Now these films have been restored by Criterion as The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream, director Michael Levine captures a pivotal era inside a beloved family-run business that’s operated for five generations in New York’s Lower East Side. We watch as the forces of gentrification, competition and technology put pressure on the owners to make tough decisions over the future of their matzo-making tradition. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In National Bird, director Sonia Kennebeck profiles three whistleblowers who worked inside the US military’s drone program and now fear a government backlash for speaking out. The film makes its U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Director Liz Garbus, a two-time Oscar nominee, captures a series of intimate conversations between Anderson Cooper and his mother Gloria Vanderbilt in HBO's Nothing Left Unsaid. Vanderbilt reflects on her highs and lows including her relationships with Leopold Stokowski, Frank Sinatra, Sidney Lumet and Wyatt Emory Cooper. While her life in the spotlight is unique, her joys and pain are universal. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site at HBO.

The conservative Senator Jesse Helms once castigated Robert Mapplethorpe’s provocative photographs, saying “look at the pictures.” Directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato take him at face value in this candid HBO biography “Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures” that includes interviews with the photographer’s inner circle and rare recordings in his own words. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit HBO's official web site for the film.

Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson has collaborated with acclaimed filmmakers such as Laura Poitras and Michael Moore. Now she takes the role of the director in the documentary Cameraperson, drawing upon 25 years of footage to craft her own visual memoir. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Against all odds, Brooklyn Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm — the first black congresswoman in the U.S. — ran for President in 1972 and took her campaign all the way to the Democratic convention. Director Shola Lynch explores this forgotten chapter of political history in CHISHOLM 72: UNSOUGHT AND UNBOSSED, now available for download on multiple platforms. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film's Facebook page.

In the film City of Gold, director Laura Gabbert profiles the Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold, who chronicles the ethnic mosaic of Los Angeles through its cuisine. The film also reflects on the craft of food writing with appearances by Calvin Trillin, Robert Sietsema and several restaurateurs. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

Winner of a special jury prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, the documentary Trapped follows abortion providers who are battling state laws that could shut them down. The laws are known by the acronym TRAP, for "targeted regulation of abortion providers." One clinic profiled in the film is Whole Woman’s Health — the plaintiff in the current Supreme Court case that could have a significant impact on abortion rights. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

For four decades, Chef Georges Perrier presided over one of America's top restaurants, Le Bec-Fin. Filmmaker Erika Frankel follows him for several years as his restaurant faces hard times while his protege Nicholas Elmi rises in prominence. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

2016 Oscar Nominees for Best Documentary Short Body Team 12, directed by David Lang (13 minutes). Liberia's outbreak of Ebola is seen through the eyes of Garmay Sumo, the lone woman on a team dedicated to the safe disposal of dead bodies. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. Chau, Beyond the Lines, directed by Courtney Marsh (34 minutes). Chau, a Vietnamese teenager who suffered birth defects resulting from his mother’s exposure to Agent Orange, uses art to transcend his handicap. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah, directed by Adam Benzine (40 minutes). Thirty years after the release of the epic documentary Shoah, director Claude Lanzmann looks back on the effort and his eventful life. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (40 minutes). In Pakistan, eighteen-year-old Saba defies her family’s choice for marriage and is targeted for an “honor killing” by her father and uncle. But she survives to tell the tale. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. Last Day of Freedom, directed by Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman (32 min). Illustrated with lyrical animation, Bill Babbitt tells the story of feeling obligated to turn in his troubled brother for a crime. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. And here is a link to showtimes at the IFC Center. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

Visionary filmmaker Henry Hampton spent 10 years raising the money and building the crew to create the 14-hour history of civil rights Eyes on the Prize. After his death in 1998, the series fell out of circulation due to the costs of re-licensing its impressive array of archival footage and music. Now it's finally back, on public television's World Channel, in time for Black History Month. It's an essential text of American history. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

In “Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown to Off the Wall,” director Spike Lee taps into rich archival footage to document the rise of the King of Pop. New interviews with Questlove, Stevie Wonder and others supply a lively history of hits like “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You.” The urge to dance while watching may prove irresistible.

Filmmaker Brian Oakes pays tribute to his longtime friend in JIM: THE JAMES FOLEY STORY, about the photojournalist who became the first American publicly executed by ISIS. Through interviews with Foley’s family and colleagues, the film illuminates the new rules of journalistic engagement in today’s conflict zones. — Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers For more information on theatrical screenings, click here.

Every January, the Sundance Film Festival showcases an impressive array of documentary world premieres. This year, New York characters figure prominently in these three films: Weiner, directed by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg; Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper, directed by Liz Garbus; and Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. For more information, click here to visit the festival web site. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

2016 Oscar Nominees for Best Documentary Feature Amy, directed by Asif Kapadia. This intimate documentary explores the musical gifts and troubled life of the singer Amy Winehouse. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. Cartel Land, directed by Matthew Heineman. The film reveals vigilantes fighting the drug wars on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. The Look of Silence, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. This imaginative film, the successor to Oppenheimer's 2014 Oscar winner The Act of Killing, follows an Indonesian optician as he investigates his brother’s murder during that country's genocide in the 1960s. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. What Happened, Miss Simone? directed by Liz Garbus. The film probes the political activism and personal turbulence of the singer Nina Simone. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. The filmmaker embeds camera crews in the violent clashes between protesters and government forces that led to the president’s overthrow in 2014. For more information, click here to visit the official film web site. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen

The documentary Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art explores a group of artists who fled New York City for the American southwest in the 1960s to create earthen works too massive for any gallery. Filmmaker James Crump combines archival footage with new interviews and beautiful cinematography to give fresh perspective on a movement that rejected the idea of art as a commodity. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

In The Story of Film, director Mark Cousins explores the history of cinema from the silent era to the present, spanning Hollywood icons and lesser known breakthroughs across the globe. Whether you watch all 15 hours or skip around, this epic work will awaken your curiosity. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the film web site.

In Where to Invade Next, the documentary provocateur Michael Moore travels to Europe and beyond looking to bring back ideas useful for America. Delivering laughs and memorable characters, the film is imbued with optimism as it takes on issues of education, labor, justice and women’s leadership. — Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen For more information, click here to visit the official film web site.

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.