“You know good work when you see it,” said Tribeca Film Festival executive director Nancy Schafer when I asked how her team went about choosing documentaries for its new series, Tribeca Cinemas Presents: Doc Series. “You know engaging stories when you see them. One of the things that people get scared about—if they’re not indie-film people—is that they think docs are dry, but they can be fun or wacky. We’re going to show the full range.”

The fortnightly series joins the well-received Tribeca Cinemas Kids Club, and Schafer says that more series will follow. But doesn’t the Tribeca Film Festival already feature documentaries? How are these different? “The Tribeca Film Festival shows 99 percent new films,” says Schafer. “This is an opportunity to present films that may be 15 to 20 years old. Or maybe they’re more recent, maybe they were in other festivals, maybe the timing wasn’t right for us to include them in the festival.”

I asked her to choose one favorite moment from one of the films in the recently announced slate, but she couldn’t—name just one, that is. “When I first saw Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison [right] it gave me shivers. It was such a powerful album—I was raised with my mother listening to it (that makes her sound much hipper than she is!). And I remember seeing Dark Days when I lived in Austin, Texas, but when I was about to move here. I remember thinking, Oh, if films like this are being made about the city, I’m going to love it.”

All screenings are at 7:30 p.m, and admission is $10 ($8 for students and seniors). Tickets can be purchased at tribecafilm.com/docseries or at the box office before each screening.

Monday, Jan. 25
P-STAR RISING (2009, dir. Gabriel Noble)
In the early ’80s, Jesse Diaz was a rising star in the hip-hop world. Now a broke single father in Harlem with two children to support, Jesse finds a shot at redemption in his 9-year-old daughter Priscilla Star, a precocious and immensely talented rapper. With P-Star Rising, director Gabriel Noble follows four years of father-daughter ups and downs as they navigate the grit and the glamour of the music biz. From sit-downs with image consultants to the elation of spending that big signing bonus, Priscilla always remains a magnetic figure with a resolve and way of talking that belies her young age. World Premiered Tribeca Film Festival 2009. Director Gabriel Noble and P-Star will be in attendance.

Monday, Feb. 8
THE DUNGEON MASTERS (2008. dir: Keven McAlester)
An evil drow elf is displaced by Hurricane Katrina. A sanitation worker lures friends into a “Sphere of Annihilation.” A failed super-villain starts a cable-access show involving ninjas, puppets and a cooking segment. These are the characters, real and imagined, of Keven McAlester’s documentary The Dungeon Masters. Against the backdrop of crumbling middle-class America, two men and one woman devote their lives to Dungeons and Dragons, the storied role-playing game, and its various descendants. As their baroque fantasies clash with mundane real lives, the characters find it increasingly difficult to allay their fear, loneliness, and disappointment with the game’s imaginary triumphs. Soon the true heroic act of each character’s real life emerges and the film follows each as he or she summons the courage to face it. Along the way, The Dungeon Masters re-imagines the tropes of classic heroic cinema, creating an intimate portrait of minor struggles and triumphs writ large. Director Keven McAlester will be in attendance.

Monday, Feb. 22
DARK DAYS (2000, dir: Marc Singer)
A truly classic documentary celebrating its 10th anniversary, Dark Days takes you on a journey you will never forget. In the pitch black of the tunnel, rats swarm through piles of garbage as high-speed trains leaving Penn Station tear through the darkness. For some of those who have gone underground, it has been home for as long as twenty-five years. Deeply moving and surprisingly entertaining, Dark Days is an eye-opening experience that shatters the myths of homelessness by revealing a thriving community living in tunnels beneath New York City and honestly capturing their resilience and strength in their struggle to survive. With a haunting soundtrack by DJ Shadow, the film is the winner of three Sundance awards, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary and an LA Film Critics Award for Best Documentary. Director Marc Singer will be in attendance.

Monday, Mar. 8
JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON (2008, dir: Bestor Cram)
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison examines the most important day in the career of one of America’s foremost popular artists.  It was January 1968, a year that would be saturated in violence and historical change. Cash’s 1968 concert at Folsom State Prison in California and the ensuing album became a symbol of the late 1960s and transformed his career. Drawing from rock photographer Jim Marshall’s stark images of that day, rare archival footage, as well as exclusive interviews with participants and observers, the film traces Cash’s rocky road that led to the concert and the torrent of stardom and political debate that came after it. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison remains one of the greatest live albums ever made, and the man himself one of America’s greatest troubadours and advocates for prison reform. Forty years later, the album still resonates today with a rawness and authenticity that few recordings have ever achieved. This film exposes a lesser-known “Man in Black,” forever defined by darkness and light. Director Bestor Cram will be in attendance.

Monday, March 22, 2009
NERDCORE RISING (2008, dir. Negin Farsad)
Nerdcore Rising investigates the newest wave of hip-hop, nerdcore, as it follows the godfather of the genre, MC Frontalot, on his first national tour. Beginning in South Carolina and culminating in nerd mecca—the Penny Arcade Gaming Convention in Seattle—masses of fans across the country come out to bask in the Front’s geek glory as he strives to achieve mainstream success. MC Frontalot fanatics are the real stars of the film. They are hackers and gamers, bloggers and podcasters, they play World of Warcraft, live virtually in Second Life, and of course, they love nerdcore hip hop. In short, they are hardcore nerds, and together, they illustrate the funny, fascinating, and unapologetically uncool cultural phenomenon that is nerdcore. MC Frontalot wants to live in a world where nerdcore is a real genre of hip-hop and where other MC’s take him seriously as a rapper-de-la-resistance! Nerdcore Rising is embedded in the nerd trenches, illuminating this struggle. Director Negin Farsad and actor MC Frontalot will be in attendance.