Running from 28 April to 7 May across some of Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s favorite screens, including the Roxy Cinema New York.

As one of the festival’s key venues, the Roxy Cinema will host a selection of premieres, bringing Doc’n Roll’s signature mix of music, art and subculture documentaries to downtown audiences. Expect immersive screenings, special guests, and post-film Q&As with directors and artists.

Now in its fourth edition, DOC’N ROLL NEW YORK’s 2026 lineup features two World Premieres, four North American Premieres and six NYC Premieres, celebrating the untamed, the legendary and the game-changers across genres spanning visual art, tattoo counterculture, jazz, rock, punk, blues, Irish folk, rave culture and underground dance music.

Doc’n Roll Head of Programming and Co-Founder Colm Forde says:
“We’re hugely proud to return to NYC with an expanded programme across some of the city’s most exciting independent cinemas. The Roxy Cinema is a vital part of that, a space that truly understands the importance of film culture and community.”

Founded over a decade ago in London, Doc’n Roll continues its DIY mission to bring under-the-radar and outsider arts documentaries, and the rebel spirits behind them — to audiences worldwide. At the Roxy, that spirit comes alive on the big screen.

WORLD PREMIERE

KÖLN TRACKS: THE LEGEND OF KEITH JARRETT’S KÖLN CONCERT + Director Q&A zoom

Vincent Duceau|France|2026| 77 min

The Köln Concert is one of the most legendary recordings in jazz history – the best-selling solo jazz album ever made. Yet the performance behind it almost didn’t happen.

This fascinating documentary retraces Keith Jarrett’s famous 1975 concert in Cologne Germany, where a series of unexpected obstacles – including a problematic piano and an exhausted musician – nearly caused the event to collapse. Through an investigation into the mysterious instrument and the fragmented memories of those involved, the film explores how a concert expected to be disastrous became an iconic recording. Blending storytelling and inquiry, it reveals how chance, limitation and improvisation can spark moments of extraordinary artistic creation.

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

FELIX, DARE TO DREAM + Directors Q&A

Valerio Bariletti & Morgan Bertacca|Italy|2025| 105 min

A story of defiance, creativity, and the search for freedom, and a cinematic portrait of Felix Leu, artist and patriarch of one of the most iconic and respected families on the international tattooing scene: the Leu Family, a bohemian clan that turned freedom and creativity into their way of life. Son of painter Eva Aeppli and assistant to Jean Tinguely, Felix grew up in Paris’s vibrant 1960s art world before embracing the revolutionary counterculture of the Beat Generation. In New York he met his lifelong partner, Loretta, and together they chose a nomadic path, raising four children while rejecting conformity and living with only time as their true wealth.  In the late 1970s, Felix discovered tattooing, first as a way to support their travels, then as a form of expression in which he became a pioneer, founding what would become the legendary Leu Family Iron. Loretta’s voice guides us through their extraordinary journey through hardship, love, and enduring commitment to artistic exploration. More than a film about tattooing, this is a meditation on independence, identity, and daring to remain true to one’s dreams.

NEW YORK PREMIERE

BIG MAMA THORNTON: I CAN’T BE ANYONE BUT ME + Director Q&A

Robert Clem| US| 2025| 88 min

The queer untold story of Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, the groundbreaking blueswoman whose voice launched legends, defied conventions, and carved her place in music history on her own uncompromising terms. This fascinating documentary profiles Thornton as a blues powerhouse who shook American music to its core. Towering in voice and presence, she made “Hound Dog” a #1 hit before Elvis ever sang it, and her ferocious “Ball & Chain” launched Janis Joplin’s career. Defying gender norms with great swagger in jeans, boots, and cowboy hat, Big Mama captivated audiences with raw energy, humor, and soul. From Alabama juke joints to European festivals, she lived hard, sang harder, and left an indelible mark on rock, R&B, and the blues.

NEW YORK PREMIERE

A CENTURY IN SOUND

Nick Dwyer, Tu Neill, Japan|Sweden| 2024| 106 min

CALLING ALL AUDIOPHILES!

Press play on Japan’s Ongaku Kissa – listening cafés where music is treated with near-religious devotion.
Visiting three shrines to sound, devoted to classical, jazz and rock, while tracing post-war Japan to the late ’80s, it’s a love letter to craft, culture, and turning it up by sitting very, very still.

A CENTURY IN SOUND tells a 100-year history of Tokyo through music and memory, done so through the “unique-to-Japan” cultural phenomenon of music focused establishments known collectively as “ONGAKU KISSA” (lit. “music cafes”). Places where local residents have gathered for decades to give reverence to the music they love.

From the “meikyoku kissa” (classical music cafes) that first sprung up in Tokyo in the early years of the Showa era (1920s / 1930s), to the “jazz kissa” that spread across the capital and beyond after Japan was defeated in World War II, to the “rock kissa” of the 1970s right through to the more contemporary iterations of more modern times, these have traditionally been spaces that are built with the sole purpose of serving the community with music.

Not just showcasing this incredible culture to an audience outside of Japan for the very first time, the film explores the universal themes of what role music plays in our lives, be it holding the key to some of our most cherished memories, how it brings us together, how it shapes our identity and, for some of us, is our entire reason for living. The documentary also invites us to question our own relationship with music as listening habits have changed over the past two decades as the world marched towards a digital future where streaming and the AI revolutions have most certainly transformed the role that music plays in modern society.

NEW YORK PREMIERE

IN TIME: DÓNAL LUNNY + Director Q&A zoom plus special guest in person

Nuala O’Connor|Ireland|2025| 90 min

Dónal Lunny is one of Ireland’s most outstanding artists, and this is the first film account of his life – a portrait that explores his peerless contribution to Irish culture and music. A founding member of Planxty, The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts, he played a central role in reviving and transforming Irish traditional and folk music for new generations. In this moving portrait, music fuses with the arc of Lunny’s biographical journey, and explores how pivotal moments in his creative and personal life intersected with major cultural, political and historical shifts in Ireland and around the world. The film also features rare and powerful performances,  including an emotive reunion with Christy Moore.

NEW YORK PREMIERE

TONY FOSTER: PAINTING AT THE EDGE + Director Q&A

David C. Schendel|US|2025| 95 min

Award-winning visual artist Tony Foster has spent nine of the past thirty-five years living in a tadpole tent, using his art as a platform to advocate for the conservation of wild land and raise awareness of climate change. Part explorer, part artist, he routinely risks his life to find the perfect undiscovered landscape. He does not use photography or sketches but paints on site, often in the most difficult weather and uncomfortable circumstances. On one occasion, Foster spent twenty-three days in the Grand Canyon at a single location. His paintings are not simply landscapes: by their inclusion of written notes and symbolic objects, they record his observations and experiences creating a visual diary of his experiences. In 2001, the Royal Geographical Society awarded Foster the Cherry Kearton Medal for artistic portrayal of the world’s wilderness areas. From 2019 to 2023, David Schendel and his film crew shadowed him, culminating in an eight-day, 100-mile canoe exploration of the Green River Wilderness to its confluence with the Colorado River in Utah. Responding to the necessities of shooting far from electrical outlets, PAINTING AT THE EDGE is one of the only fully solar powered documentary productions ever completed. Together, Foster and Schendel have created an impressively adventurous and intimate filmic portrait.