The film festival launches on 28 April with a special Opening Night mixer at Ace Hotel Brooklyn, bringing together documentary directors, producers and industry guests for an evening dedicated to alternative arts and music storytelling.
Now in its fourth edition, DOC’N ROLL NEW YORK’s broad-ranging 2026 lineup of outsider arts and subculture documentaries features two World Premieres, four North American Premieres and six NYC Premieres, celebrating the untamed, the legendary and the game-changers in genres ranging from visual art and tattoo counterculture, jazz, rock, punk, blues, Irish folk, rave culture and underground dance music.
The festival proudly presents two World Premieres: Before It Was Cool - The Brooklyn Beat from Lauterbach’s, a love letter to a forgotten Brooklyn music scene that helped shape the borough’s creative identity, and Köln Tracks: The Legend of Keith Jarrett’s Köln Concert, exploring the remarkable story behind one of the most iconic and best selling recordings in jazz history.
This year’s genre-hopping programme takes audiences deep into the worlds of musical pioneers and subcultural movements: psychedelic punk provocateurs Butthole Surfers, Sex Pistols’ founding member Glen Matlock, blues powerhouse Big Mama Thornton, Irish folk innovator Dónal Lunny, underground DJ and global dancefloor architect Lee Burridge, tattoo legend Felix Leu, pioneering New York electro, hip-hop and dance producer Arthur Baker and Rockers Revenge, the fascinating world of Japan’s kissa listening cafés, the explosive rise of the UK rave and breakbeat movement and a captivating profile of renowned visual artist and environmentalist Tony Foster, whose expedition-based works capture the world’s most remote and fragile landscapes.
These twelve acclaimed independent documentaries will immerse audiences in the lives and legacies of uncompromising artists, with most screenings featuring exclusive post-film Q&As with directors, artists and key creatives that will offer insights into the stories behind the scenes.
FULL FESTIVAL LINE UP HERE
