SHORT FILMS
CLEAN SLATE — This uplifting documentary follows Shanyeill McCloud’s work helping the formerly incarcerated expunge their records and start their lives again.
PINE GROVE: MORE THAN A SCHOOL — Told by members of the community and former students, More Than a School documents the story of Pine Grove, one of few remaining Tuskegee-Rosenwald Community Schools. Built in 1917 to educate African American children in the South during the Jim Crow era, the historic schoolhouse is now listed on America’s “Most Endangered Historic Places.”
ARRIVALS — An experimental documentary, Arrivals follows the stories of refugees, immigrants, and Indigenous peoples along their journey of displacement.
ECHOS OF THE RIO — A woman living on the U.S./Mexico border invokes the voice of the Rio Grande. Guiding her through the history of migration and the symbiotic relationship with the indigenous people of the land. As the river speaks, echoes follow, ultimately exposing the socio-ecological destruction caused when the river became a border and a political weapon.
RUNAWAY — Runaway is a short film remix of "Stop the Runaway" — a runaway slave ad published in the Nashville Register in 1804.
ON THE 19TH DAY OF THE WAR — The Norwegian poet, Odveig Klyve, wrote this poem on March 14, 2022, the 19th day of the war in Ukraine, and published it on social media the same day. The poem was quickly shared several thousand times. Spontaneously people started to translate this poem, and it has now been translated into more than 100 different languages and dialects.
I IDENTIFY AS ME — Through the intimate lens of eight Black & Brown Trans, gender-diverse people, and masculine-presenting women, the social concept of gender is challenged.
SPEAK — Speak is a short dance film about being vulnerable as a man. Torn between the "Alpha Man" on the outside and the softness inside, the two characters embody a man's struggle with his feelings.
ALIEN NUMBERS — A short performative documentary about the inner struggle of an immigrant feeling insecure and unsure of their place and future in what they thought could be their new home. The film employs a blend of archival footage and performative elements creating a visual tapestry that immerses the audience in the protagonist's personal journey.
INTERCEPTION — When a bronze-skin bombshell rocks the world of Sunday Morning Football, millions tune in... but few know the tumultuous story of Jayne Kennedy, the first Black woman to boldly “intercept" the racial lines of American sportscasting.
INDOMITABLE — Narrated and executive produced by Sienna Miller with original music by Ben Harper, Indomitable tells the story of the emotional wounds of the war in Ukraine, centered on the besieged town of Chernihiv. There, at the country’s central neuropsychiatric hospital, hundreds of patients and staff rode out one of the worst chapters of the war, hunkered together in the basement for 37 days without power or heat. Their experience tells the larger story of the mental health crisis that Ukrainians will now face for years to come.
OLIVE TREE — A Palestinian-American granddaughter, uncovers the details of her grandparents being forcibly removed from their homes in Palestine by the Zionist military.
A’AI — The first film in the indigenous Esselen language, A’ai is a discussion with a pelican on the shore who is announcing the funeral of its kelp forest to a Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation woman. It is a narrative about a marine ecosystem in danger, and a response to the environmental crises in which our lives are entangled.
RENEGADE — Renegade Running, founded by Victor Diaz, is an inclusive run specialty store in Oakland, CA. Bucking the norms of the industry, Diaz’s journey with running and his fierce determination led him to create a vibrant and rebellious space, where every runner, especially those often underrepresented, can find a home and be celebrated for who they are.
I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE — I Am Because You Are follows the journey of six women of color as they embark on their first mountaineering trip in the beautiful and rugged Bugaboos. When their planned summer trip was disrupted by historic levels of spring snow the crew decides to come together, pack their bags and take on the adventure.
CHASING LIGHT — Within the cultural landscape of Manhattan’s Chinatown, six business owners and community leaders reflect on the neighborhood’s evolving identity, the imperative to document its change, and the importance of bolstering future generations while honoring heritage in sustaining the neighborhood’s future.
IN HONOR OF A PURPLE HEART — As a Vietnam Veteran and retired Police Officer, Jerry Smith has overcome countless obstacles to devote his life to the service of others. A child of the foster care system, and the cousin of Emmett Till, he has navigated circumstances of bias and racism to receive an education, play college sports, and serve his country as both a Vietnam Veteran and a Police Officer. Despite all of this, he continues to petition the US Government for the Purple Heart Award he was denied on the basis of his ethnicity, for an injury sustained in Vietnam.
THE TEST — A Ghanaian maintenance worker at a Virginia retirement community dreams of becoming an American citizen to provide a better life for his family. With their future at stake, he enlists the help of two elderly residents to prepare for the biggest test of his life: the US Citizenship exam.
QUEENS PRIDE — A short film celebrating the most diverse Pride celebration in the world, Queens, New York City.
DESERTED — The world produces 1.5x the amount of food needed to feed every person a sufficient diet, yet millions go hungry. The structures and functions of American society keeps individuals in an unnecessary cycle of food insecurity. Deserted is a short film about the cyclical nature of food insecurity in America.
SAINT LEROI — When a black angel descends to earth to reinstate a more equal arbitration of justice amidst an anti-Black America, Saint Leroi challenges who is allowed judgment, justice, rapture, and rebirth.
INVOLUNTARY — Carlton, a man in his 70s suffering from Dementia, is moved from a nursing home in the middle of the night.
I AM NOT OK — A mother and son respond to the unending killings of black Americans amidst the backdrop of the protests that followed the death of George Floyd. Dance and archival photographs are woven together to evoke fear, outrage, and anger and the need for communities to come together and find solutions.
DIE LAUGHING — A documentary short that illuminates the power of comedy, and the lengths comedians will go to inspire laughter while expressing the truth—where freedom of expression is a literal fight for freedom.
MIXED MEMORIES — Mixed Memories reveals the accounts of three luminous women of mixed origin from Black and Indigenous communities as they try to come to terms with their complex identities.
MOBILE — After being evicted for her inability to pay rent, Lydia attempts to stay with friends but finds that living in her car is her only choice. Lydia struggles to figure out what to do next and stay safe while keeping a sense of normalcy working as a rideshare driver in Los Angeles.
FORBIDDEN TO SEE US SCREAM IN TEHRAN — The front woman for an Iranian death metal band risks everything as she plots to call the cops on her own underground concert in the hopes that the raid will help her secure her asylum in another country.
THE ABC’S OF BOOK BANNING — “Banned books need to be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this,” exclaims the 100-year-old Grace Linn, appearing at her Martin County, Florida school board meeting. Book banning in Florida is not an isolated occurrence, it has been spreading across America in at least 38 states. Books are montaged throughout the half-hour film, reflecting the suppression of worthy books for appropriate age groups: Books on LGBTQ matters, on racial difference, on wars and its horrors, the truth of coming-of-age. Intermittent artistic animation gives the audience a profound glimpse into the stories we lose when we restrict important works of literature. Grace concludes, “My husband was killed in action in World War II… one of the freedoms that the Nazis crushed was the freedom to read the books they banned.” [OSCAR NOMINEE FOR BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM]
AWAKENING TO JUSTICE — When a historian discovers a forgotten abolitionist manuscript dated from 1839, he and his fellow researchers uncover a text that sheds light on the reality of racism today — and the history of faith and race in America.
SONGS FOR YOU ALWAYS — Cheryl Marshall, once a well-known soprano in New York City, has used her talents to sing to nursing homes residents for the past 10 years.
100 MILLION DISPLACED — With over 100 million people forcibly displaced from their homes, 100 Million Displaced sheds light on the current global refugee crisis. It serves as a call to action, urging viewers to confront the complex realities of the refugees and seek a more comprehensive and compassionate response from governments and communities worldwide.
LAST LAP — Ian Gonzalez wanted his running community on the South Side of Chicago to have easy access to obtain shoes. When he looked for a store and didn’t find one — he made one. Ian shows us the unique joys and challenges of being an entrepreneur of color and fighting to make a place where a diverse and inclusive group of runners can come together.
FREE TO CARE — Over 30 years ago, Lisa Creason attempted to rob a Subway cash register. She had no plan, no weapon, and no get-away car. It was an act of desperation to feed her infant daughter, and resulted in a criminal record she couldn’t escape. Denied her dream of becoming a nurse, Lisa must fight an unjust law to provide for her family and create opportunities for thousands of others across the state of Illinois.
LITURGY OF ANTI-TANK OBSTACLES — Sculptors in western Ukraine who used to make religious statues retrain to fight the Russian invasion.
PEDACITO DE CARNE — Sandra finds herself in a new role as a caregiver for her mother living with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Burnt out by the nonsense that is social service, the relentless pile-on of caregiving demands, and the heartbreak of slowly losing parts of her mother, Sandra risks it all and takes a night off.
TAKE ME HOME — Anna is an adult with a Cognitive Disability living with her mother in Midland Florida. When her mother is unresponsive, she calls her sister for help, but without the language to be believed, Anna is brushed aside.
MATRIARCH — Matriarch is an experimental short documentary celebrating the legacy of elderly motherhood from the perspective of the filmmaker's grandmothers, two Southern Black women hoping to maintain their independence during what could potentially be the final year of their lives.
NAI NAI AND WAI PO — When a first generation Taiwanese-American filmmaker turns a camera on his grandmas (his “Nǎi Nai” and “Wài Pó”)—are inseparable best friends and roommates in their 80s and 90—their daily lives unfold in hilarious and unexpected ways as they dance, stretch, and fart their sorrows away, eventually giving way to a poignant meditation on lives marked by both joy and pain.
SUNFLOWER FIELD — Under the shadowy threat of war, a young Ukrainian girl awaits a call from her father. As she waits, the day turns into night and she sinks into various dreamscapes from which she must find her way home.