The Doc N’ Roll Festival, born in London more than a decade ago, is about to launch its biggest American edition yet. Starting on May 1, the music documentary-focused series returns to New York City for its third year. This time around, there are more screenings and more films than ever before, which seems to show once and for all that there is an American audience for a film festival centered entirely around only independently-created music documentaries.
Founded more than a decade ago in 2013, Doc N’ Roll has tapped into a surprisingly underserved niche: documentaries about music and musicians that weren’t being shown elsewhere. This lack of support was in spite of a devoted audience waiting to see movies about beloved musicians, songs, albums, and scenes. Co-founders Colm Forde and Vanessa Lobon-Garcia launched the venture after moving to London from various cities around Europe, and quickly realized something strange.
“There were festivals for everything,” Lobon-Garcia shared during a recent interview, pointing out that events were dedicated to films about bicycles, chocolate, and mountains, but that there wasn’t already one for music documentaries in a city as culturally rich and music-obsessed as London. Driven by a passion for these kinds of movies, the two decided to fill the gap themselves.
The festival quickly attracted a loyal, like-minded community of viewers in London. People were hungry for stories that weren’t making it to traditional cinemas, and they wanted that moviegoing experience. From the start, the two wanted to make sure that they weren’t only trying to show films, but also build a communal place where conversations could take place around obscure artists and forgotten genres. “We were trying to bring people away from their screens and back into the cinema,” Colm said. “A place where like-minded misfits could meet.”
That philosophy helped Doc N’ Roll develop an identity around showing the stories that major distributors and movie theaters too often overlook. Many of the films featured what are often called “musicians’ musicians” — artists who may not have topped the charts, but who left a mark on the artists who did. Because these films often couldn’t land traditional theatrical runs, Doc N’ Roll became a lifeline, and a way for them to finally be seen on the big screen.
In the years since it launched in the smallest of forms, Doc N’ Roll has expanded across the U.K. and Ireland, held regional editions in multiple cities, and even managed to cross the Atlantic. Its move into New York has proven especially impactful. The two festival organizers realized early on into the American venture that a number of music documentaries were essentially being shelved in the U.S. because they couldn’t get past a few gatekeepers, such as major festivals, and they couldn’t pay for costly PR campaigns. Many of these docs can be tied up in licensing restrictions and are actually only allowed to be shown at festivals, which makes Doc N’ Roll’s model an ideal home for them.
The festival’s first year in New York started small, with just three films and a tiny budget, but the response was immediate. The screenings sold out. Filmmakers flew in from London. Band members came from all around the world. “It was just drive, passion, and belief in what we’re doing,” Forde said.
That early success wasn’t a fluke. Doc N’ Roll returned the following year with four films and once again filled every seat. Now, entering year three, the event has expanded the program and doubled down on its mission to get these indie flicks seen. Lobon-Garcia noted that more U.S.-based filmmakers and producers are reaching out, offering their films and asking to collaborate. “It’s created momentum,” she said. “Now people from America are contacting us.”
The festival’s growth isn’t limited to New York City alone. Doc N’ Roll recently held its first festival in Amsterdam and has organized screenings in cities like San Francisco and even Dubai, via partners. Expansion to Tokyo and Los Angeles is high on the wish lists of the founders, particularly given LA’s strong ties to the movie industry.
While the growth has certainly been exciting, the small team is selective about what they show. Lobon-Garcia emphasized that while she and Forde curate the program, it’s not just about personal taste. Often, they screen films about genres they don’t typically listen to or musicians they may not even care for — but the storytelling wins them over. “A music doc, if it’s a good story, has so many human layers,” she said. “Maybe it’s not the type of music I’d ever listen to, but that person’s story connects with me.”
Doc N’ Roll became an essential cultural bridge between music and film in the U.K. more than a decade ago, and now, slowly but surely, it’s doing the same thing in America. Many people who aren’t involved in the music or film industries may not realize just how many movies are made each year that go largely unnoticed, including documentaries. The hope is that events like Doc N’ Roll change the future for many of these projects, allowing them to be shown as they were intended, find an audience, and potentially even reach those gatekeepers that may have ignored such titles only a short time ago.
Hugh McIntyre: Doc N’ Roll is, what, 13 years old already?
Colm Forde: We started as a film festival in 2013. So it’s like 12 years old in the city.
McIntyre: What was the realization that there’s a gap missing and you needed to do something?
Forde: We’d just landed in London — from Dublin, Vanessa from Barcelona. We’d been living in Dublin for a while, and then chose London as a go-between between the two cities. A lot of people choose it to reinvent themselves.
My background’s in film restoration and archiving, and I was looking for an archiving job to manage archives and output. Long story short, it was during the austerity cutbacks, so that wasn’t going to happen — those were all public jobs.
It was actually Vanessa’s idea. She wanted to launch in Dublin when I was in Galway, but I was too busy in my main job to engage.
Vanessa Lobon-Garcia: My background is in fashion, so I was working in my career in that, but we both love music documentaries. That’s the first thing we choose when we need to watch a film. So many times, it’s like, why are we always watching music documentaries? So I thought, why is nobody doing a music documentary festival?
In the U.K., there are festivals for everything. I checked. There’s a festival about bicycles, festivals about mountains, about chocolate. I can’t believe in this city, a city that’s shaped by music, nobody had decided to do this.
We were really naïve. Then we discovered why nobody was doing it — because it’s not easy. But you know, when you’re completely naïve, you think, “Oh, we should do this!” And you just start and put all your passion into it.
McIntyre: You said you discovered why people haven’t done it. Why it’s so difficult. What makes it so hard?
Forde: In the U.K., in an English-speaking country, all the major cinemas — the networks, the arthouses, the chains — there are three major ones. They’re all competitors. So they take the cream off the top of all the films, the ones that would actually help pay the rent.
So we’re left taking risks on the more obscure stuff. And while we love taking those risks, the cinemas have already taken the titles that would be easier to sell.
In other European countries, it’s easier. The cinemas won’t go near the risky stuff, so festivals like ours get a better chance. In the U.K., there’s not really a “need” in the cinema community for a music documentary festival, because they’ll just show the big ones when they feel like it—like the Led Zeppelin doc in IMAX, for example.
We thought we could screen films more widely, or at least in a more primary way—but that didn’t happen. That’s what made our journey difficult. But here we are, 11 years later, post-COVID, still going. It’s just much more difficult than we expected. We’re picking up the niche end.
Lobon-Garcia: Yeah, it was difficult, but at the same time, there’s passion. And there are so many people like us who love these weird films that won’t screen anywhere else. You realize there’s a niche audience that’s super passionate. They’ve been coming since the beginning. You build a community — that was a big thing.
Forde: Exactly. We were trying to bring people away from their screens and back into the cinema, which could take the place of the record store, that’s disappearing. A place where like-minded misfits could meet. People into unusual music and obscure producers. So we tried to create that socially, communally.
And it worked, to an extent. We showed a lot of outliers — films about musicians’ musicians or artists’ artists. Maybe not commercially huge, but very influential. That’s a hard sell, though. It’s not easy.
McIntyre: Chappell Roan once called herself “your favorite artist’s favorite artist.” You may not listen to them, but the people you love were inspired by them.
Forde: Exactly. We just call them musicians’ musicians.
We’ve gained a lot of respect from the music community. Lots of musicians come to our screenings and really appreciate what we’re doing. But unfortunately, most of the support or recognition comes after the fact, after the event’s over. Because no one wants a deluge of fans looking for them at the screening. It’s great, but it doesn’t help ticket sales in real time — it helps the next year.
One of our biggest early successes was working with the BFI Southbank, the biggest, most prestigious cinema in the UK. That was with, ironically, an American artist who wasn’t well-known at the time: Gregory Porter.
This was 2016. He was a mainstream artist in Germany but not in the U.S., especially not in his hometown. Same old story — jazz guys go to Europe, make money, come home, play to 50 people in a bar.
That world premiere did really well for us—our first big step up. It was at the BFI, two sold-out screenings, 450 seats each. So a 900-person opening for our third edition. That premiere paid for the rest of our festival — 25 other films. We had no sponsorship at the time. Later we got help from the BFI’s Film Audience Network to bring these unusual films to hard-to-reach audiences in 12 regional cities. That’s how we became a U.K.-wide festival.
McIntyre: In addition to being U.K.-wide, you’ve held screenings in other cities — but particularly, you’ve made your way to America. This is the third edition, right?
Forde: Yeah. We started in New York. Just a small drop in the ocean, three films. But they did well.
Two years ago, we brought them to Nitehawk because we knew there were films that don’t get picked up by the major festivals there, mostly because of music and archive rights. They can only show in festivals. So if they can’t get into Tribeca, DOC NYC, or the New York Film Festival — the big three — then they just kind of get ignored.
It’s not that they give up, but it becomes difficult. Takes a lot of energy and money to market films in that ecosystem.
But we knew there was an audience there, just waiting. Especially for the Cymande film we showed. It’s a transatlantic story: Manchester, London, Brooklyn. We showed 20 minutes of it in the cinema, and people couldn’t believe they couldn’t get a screening in New York.
We sold out. The filmmakers flew in from London, and two of the band members flew in from St. Lucia in the Caribbean.
Lobon-Garcia: That’s the community we’re talking about. The filmmakers believe in it. They see the value in what we’re doing, and they get involved and bring people to support the screenings.
Forde: They know from their own socials that they have strong audiences in New York or San Francisco. So because we’re already in cities across the U.K. and Ireland, we can just pop up in New York and say, “Here we are.”
We show films that can’t screen elsewhere due to rights, and we sell them out.
For example, Willy DeVille — that couldn’t even get a screening in New York. And we sold out 200 tickets five weeks before we landed, two years ago. Sanctuary, the distributor, was astounded.
McIntyre: When you came to America, you’d already been doing this for years, in different cities. You knew what you were doing. But how did staging the festival in New York City — or just America — differ from the U.K.?
Forde: The big difference is PR costs. We don’t have much money to spend there. We built our audience very niche, very DIY. We used targeted social media ads. I’m not a fan of the platforms themselves, but they’re cost-effective. Hiring a PR firm in New York could cost $5,000 to $10,000 for 10 days. We just don’t have that. Same in London.
New York is just faster — more competition for people’s attention.
We started small, didn’t even call it a festival at first. It was just a weekend of three films. Last year we came back with four films, sold out again. So now, yes, we can officially call it a festival.
Lobon-Garcia: We’re keeping the same model—small but strong.
Forde: People are reaching out to us. Well-known producers in New York are saying, “Hey, I have a film.” Now people from America are contacting us.
Lobon-Garcia: It’s created momentum. Once we screen in New York, people in Australia, Canada, even Montreal reach out asking to collaborate.
Forde: We actually get more interest from the U.S. than the U.K. now. It took 12 years to build that in the U.K., and now California’s buzzing. Industry people are paying attention. Indie cinemas across the U.S. are valuable partners for us. And New York City is a total music mecca, like London. It makes perfect sense for us.
McIntyre: A lot of festivals struggle with too many submissions — especially documentaries. Do you face the same issue, or is it hard to fill the schedule sometimes since your focus is so niche?
Forde: We did struggle in the early years. I was scouring social media, mostly Facebook, to find films. It’s important to note: the vast majority of films we show are crowdfunded. They already have grassroots communities we can tap into, which is critical since we don’t have 10 or 20 grand to spend on promo like some other festivals do.
We wouldn’t exist without Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Around 90% of our films are born from those campaigns. So now we don’t have a problem anymore.
But in the first three or four years, I was spending 12-hour days digging through obscure corners of music culture. Now we use FilmFreeway, and about 80% of the submissions come to us. Only 20% I actively chase.
Lobon-Garcia: At first, we were worried. Will there be enough music documentaries every year? But it keeps surprising us. This year, I think we already have more submissions than ever. Now we actually have to turn things down.
Forde: In London, which used to be our main hub, we were showing about 33 films. But we’ve had to scale that back, mainly because we no longer have foundational support from public funders like the BFI or a private sponsor.
So it’s just me and Vanessa running things, and then we bring in producers in the lead-up to each edition. During those final eight weeks, we’re working 12-hour days. We had to cut back simply because we didn’t have the energy to keep going at that pace.
It wasn’t just 33 screenings. We’d often show films twice. We’d be on the road with six or seven of them. In London, we could take risks — show Greek films, Ukrainian films, all sorts. But in the regions, we have to streamline it — pick 10 of the key films that are easier to sell, then build from there.
Now, we have people complaining they’re not getting in, even though a few years ago, they probably would’ve had a better shot. But our name’s grown, and now we get even more international submissions. Roughly 60% of our submissions are from the U.S., then Canada, because they have good funding for filmmakers, and then the U.K.
Even though it’s painful to turn films away, there’s a silver lining. It helps sustain the business. In the past seven or eight years, we’ve also become a U.K. and Ireland distributor.
For example, we’re about to distribute a film with BFI funding this June, right after we return from New York. It’s about Genesis P-Orridge, the avant-garde industrial music icon who pretty much helped create industrial music in the late ’70s. We’re doing a proper release for that film: 120 screens over three weeks, plus a TV broadcast.
So even if we can’t show a film in the festival, we can offer a one-off screening during a quieter part of the year. That helps keep filmmakers happy and gives us something to sustain the business with.
We’re also handling global sales now. We focus on smaller global sales for these films, which often don’t make money but need someone passionate to advocate for them. Other sales teams might bring 50 films to Cannes and throw money at lavish events, but most of those films never earn anything, they’re just funding the team’s trip. We don’t do that. We’re selective and aim to get real value for filmmakers.
McIntyre: Now that you’re getting more submissions than you can show, how do you decide what makes the cut? Is it personal preference? Are you trying to tick certain boxes?
Lobon-Garcia: Colm and I watch a ton of stuff — we do it together. It’s partly about what we’d want to watch, but also about what we think the audience would want.
It’s not just about our personal taste. Sometimes, it’s music I wouldn’t normally listen to, but the film is amazing. What I’ve learned about music documentaries is that it’s not just about the music, it’s about the human stories behind them.
Early on, I only wanted to watch docs about music I liked. But now, I’ve seen how many of these films are powerful human stories. Maybe I wouldn’t listen to that artist, but the story really connects.
The selection process is about more than just liking the band – it’s about the story, the quality of the film, and understanding where you’re screening. Programming in London is different from programming in Manchester or Amsterdam or New York.
We consider who the audience will be. What kind of cinema is it? What kind of people go there? We really try to understand that context. And we do help other festivals with programming too, so we’ve learned how to read a city and its audience.
Forde: Yeah, it’s not about ticking boxes. It’s about believing in the stories we’re showing.
Lobon-Garcia: Exactly. We believe in what we’re doing. It’s about telling important stories — human stories.
McIntyre: You started in London, then spread across the U.K., then to Europe and now the U.S. Where do you see the future of Doc N’ Roll going?
Forde: We just finished our first festival in Amsterdam last week. That’s a new launch. We’re excited to build that audience.
We’d love to get a foothold in Tokyo or Kyoto. Japan has a famously strong subculture and music fanbase. We’re also working in Dubai. Haven’t been ourselves, but we’ve booked films there with local subculture organizers. And we’re looking at places like Norway, Sweden…
Lobon-Garcia: It’s expanding, and it’s exciting. We’d love to grow our presence in L.A. too—that would be a big step forward.
Forde: Yeah, L.A. is kind of an obvious one. L.A. is definitely ready for something like this.
Lobon-Garcia: So much of this depends on people. Once we meet the right people, it’s all about networking and belief. We’ve grown in a different way — not through marketing, but through connection. People say, “I love what you’re doing. How can I help?”
Forde: People recognize the risk we’re taking. We’re doing this without a safety net, just pure drive. Every year, we meet more people on the ground. We’re going to network for 10 days solid. We’ve got tons of great meetings lined up.
Lobon-Garcia: People see the passion. And passion matters. One passionate person will work harder than 10 who are just “interested.” That’s true in both music and film—it’s what makes this all possible.
