New York Times Op-Docs

This latest selection of the year’s best short documentaries from The New York Times’ award-winning series is the fifth edition of a treasured Doc Stories tradition. This year’s program highlights people in search of something, from an amateur storm chaser on a quest for a tornado, to a fencer trying to overcome tragedy, to the head of a surrogacy agency seeking someone to bear her child.

Total runtime 97 min.

Film titles are listed alphabetically; program order TBA.

The Last Storm
(Liam Saint-Pierre, USA 2018, 20 min)
Mark Zabawa is ready to face death—but not before he sees a tornado.

My American Surrogate
(Leslie Tai, USA 2019, 24 min)
A Chinese businesswoman in California has become a matchmaker between Chinese parents and American wombs.

Stay Close
(Luther Clement and Shuhan Fan, USA/China 2018, 19 min)
The underdog story of a fencer from Brooklyn who overcomes a gauntlet of hardships on the road to the Olympics.

Tungrus and the Chicken from Hell
(Rishi Chandna, India 2018, 13 min)
A cautionary tale about the epic power struggle between humans and poultry.

Walk Run Cha-Cha
(Laura Nix, USA 2019, 21 min)
Paul and Millie Cao lost their youth to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Forty years later, they have become successful professionals in Southern California—and are rediscovering themselves on the dance floor.