If only I’d had more time. It’s a common refrain I tell myself whenever a top-drawer festival such as DOC NYC comes along. I didn’t get to nearly as many films this year as I would have liked (it’s always that way), but what I did see was a firm reminder that truth is not only stranger than fiction, it’s often braver.

Here’s a look back at some stellar documentaries, which you should watch, too.

Andrew Bujalski's “There There” has the rarest of abilities to capture the natural conversations between people who are moving through their life journeys, seeking self-worth, and looking to define themselves. This is an honest and organic film, impeccably performed by its excellent cast.

Filmed during the pandemic lockdown, Bujalski’s experimental work is a series of six two-character segments with each

The hypocrisy of religion, the bigoted truth about the moral majority and the bawdy sexual proclivities of Jerry Falwell Jr. and his swinging wife are front and center in Billy Corben’s sharp documentary “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal that Brought Down a Dynasty."

The film dives right into the nasty business of yet more disreputable goings-on in the American Christian community, thanks to its

In Tobias Lindholm’s “The Good Nurse,” the sharply-refined lead performances from Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain are so strong that they make viewers forget about a screenplay that doesn’t always live up to their work.

Written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns (“1917,” “Last Night in Soho”) and based on the book by Charles Graeber, the film focuses on the crimes of Charles Cullen, a nurse who, over the

In the worst tradition of hypocrites everywhere, Jerry Falwell Jr. admonished his flock to abstain from alcohol, premarital (and certainly extramarital) sexual activity, and no dancing. But as we now know, the president of Virginia’s Liberty University was not only fond of a stiff drink, he and his wife Becki were involved in a multiyear throuple with a twentysomething pool boy they met at Miami’s swanky Fontainebleau hotel.