Directors: Aysia Lane, Crislyn Fayson #BlackAtSMU is an experimental documentary that uses an amalgamation of dramatic retellings, experimental explorations, and investigative interviews to explore a critical question: what is it like to be a Black student at a Predominantly White Institution? The film depicts five Black students’ encounters with racism at Southern Methodist University, a private college in Dallas, Texas. The stories explored originate from the hashtag “BlackatSMU” which trended on Twitter in the summer of 2020 following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. They range from a student-athlete navigating the lonely confines of becoming an activist in a suppressive system to Black students evacuating campus after fraternity brothers shouted racial slurs following Trump’s election.
Directors: Sanjna Selva Two days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lesya Verba, a Brooklyn-based artist and performer, gets through to her older sister in Odessa, Ukraine via FaceTime. Through the frame of this first FaceTime conversation since the day everything changed, Call Anytime, I’m Not Leaving the House is a film about love, memory, national identity, and the (im)permanence of home, as the sisters cling to a call that could be their last.
Directors: Nana Adwoa Frimpong In a world where Black women are expected to be invulnerable to pain, five Black women confront their personal struggles and explore healing through art.
Directors: Ben Bernard When a college student fights for the removal of a whipping post in his hometown, he is forced to reevaluate his priorities and his intrinsic biases.
Directors: Kevin Kodama A fantasy romance set in the ruins of a Japanese American internment camp where a young couple attempts to reconcile their relationship as ghosts.
Directors: Roderick Red Few in number and with limited resources, lawyers representing African Americans in Mississippi lost more than they won during the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. However, with the country's conscience pricked by violent images, hundreds of lawyers became inspired to work in the state and transformed its legal infrastructure.
Directors: Guillermo Casarin Guillermo Casarín, an aspiring young filmmaker, came to the United States from Mexico to pursue his dreams of becoming a film director. Now, he is on the verge of graduating from one of the best film schools in the world, but after experiencing racism in the country and film industry, he finds himself questioning his place in Hollywood. Through compelling interviews--such as Academy Award-winning directors Phil Lord, Lee Unkrich, and Guillermo Del Toro, and Melissa Fumero from the Golden Globe-winning show Brooklyn Nine-Nine--and archival footage, Bad Hombrewood reveals the dark side of Hollywood’s history and the challenges Latinx filmmakers face while trying to succeed in the entertainment industry.
Directors: Lori Webster Fore The black church is alive and well. See our faith in action, as we organize the church to reclaim our collective strength on the frontlines of social justice.
Directors: Jason & Blue In 1946, when attempting to vote was literally deadly, some among us were willing to do whatever was necessary to vote. This film follows Otis Moss, Sr. through his day long journey to cast his ballot in rural Georgia. Powerful, poignant, and prescient as today’s struggles with voter suppression multiply.
Directors: Christopher Thomas Brown Librarian Joshua Turner has made it his life’s work to inspire young people in his community with the power of books. When a medical emergency sends him to the hospital, those seeds of inspiration come full circle to save his life.
Directors: Carly Rogers A rookie officer must decide where her loyalties lie when her partner pulls his weapon on a black teen in her old neighborhood.
Directors: Yucong Chen In 2014, 24-year-old USC graduate student, Xinran Ji, was beaten to death by four teens when returning home from a study session. The case shook the Chinese community to its core, both in Los Angeles and back home in China, as many demanded for justice. A lawyer, Rose Tsai, took it upon herself to tirelessly advocate on his behalf and represent his parents, as they attempt to understand the senseless tragedy together.
Directors: Sarah D. Collins, Zoe Chiriseri Ramushu Aaliyah, 18, soars on aerial silks. Her cousin Bre, 16, twirls on lyra hoops. The girls dream of escaping the violence that has marred their young lives, and their possible ticket out is Trenton Circus Squad. Now that COVID-19 has changed everything, will the circus and girls’ dreams survive?
Directors: Debbie Africa, Mike Africa Sr. Mike and Debbie Africa joined the MOVE Organization in 1974 with relatively light demonstrations against the city of Philadelphia in the interest to confront some societal ills. Their beliefs and activism put them in the cross hairs of the Philadelphia police and officials. By Your Side highlights how they maintained their relationship through the hardship of the Rizzo era, the 40 years they both spent in prison separated from each other, their children, families, and freedom. Mike and Debbie want to tell the story of their young lives, their hopes, dreams and fears- the story of their determination and commitment to never giving up.
Directors: C. Craig A candy bar stealing transient, a hawk-eyed convenience store manager, two bumbling lawmen, and a clerk just trying to do his job all collide in this story about fighting "the man."
Directors: Amin Anari A teenage girl wants to get a divorce and has gone to the Iranian Forensic Medicine Department to get a certificate to remove her husband's name from her birth certificate. There, her mother, a traditional woman, objects the presence of a number of interns to attend her daughter's virginity examination.
Since you arrived, my heart stopped belonging to me ( Desde que llegaste, mi corazón dejó de pertenecerme)
2021
Directors: Erin Semine Kökdil Central American mothers journey by bus through Mexico, searching for their children who migrated north towards the United States but disappeared en route.
Directors: Gopika Ajay and Annick Laurent To the Plate follows struggling restaurateur Moonlynn Tsai and her girlfriend Yin Chang as they find a way to keep local businesses alive and serve their community. They started the mutual aid initiative Heart of Dinner after hearing Asian elders were being targeted for hate crimes and struggling with food insecurity. Through them, our documentary shows younger generations’ response to anti-Asian crimes which have dramatically surged the past few weeks.
Directors: Bilal Motley Midnight Oil is the story of the controversial last days of Philadelphia’s 150 year old oil refinery, which experienced a massive explosion in June 2019. The film follows first-time filmmaker and refinery worker, Bilal Motley, as he struggles to reconcile his love and kinship for his distressed refinery brothers and sisters and his growing awareness of the surrounding communities of color, fighting for environmental justice.
Directors: Jon Appel In Philadelphia, where Kay is plagued by extreme hours at her grocery store job, a product called R.E.S.T. (Rapid Eye Stimulation Treatment) is distributed to the masses through the televised guise of the Polites. This product triggers REM cycles of sleep, full of dreams, that leave the brain feeling fueled in a small amount of time. It is designed for workers who don't have time to sleep and both Kay and her boyfriend Josiah use it. Meanwhile, Kay’s mother Anya leads a group of thinkers and activists who refuse to take R.E.S.T. due its exploitative nature and numbing side effects. The key to Anya's energy are the secret naps she takes during her Park Services job. When Anya's boss forces her to wear a sleep monitor that wakes her up whenever she is on the clock, her health deteriorates. When Anya falls ill, Kay must come
Directors: Dwayne Logan Aiming to bridge the divide that exists between embattled Americans, Black Thoughts places viewers within the history ravaged mind of a broken-hearted Black man, as he contemplates how confusion has kept citizens engaged in an endless cycle of conflict
Directors: Defne and Kaya Ceyhan Paul Robeson was a singer, actor, scholar, and athlete. He was one of the first world renowned black artists and used his stature to speak for the rights of others, combining his artistic achievements with political activism. His activism was a precursor to the modern civil rights movement. Shunned but never silenced, Robeson spent his life breaking racial barriers and fighting for the oppressed members of society in America and around the world.
Directors: Mohammed Saffouri Abrar, a young Muslim American woman running for a school board seat in Fairfax County, Virginia, faces many obstacles during her electoral journey that make her stronger and push her closer to achieve her goal.
Directors: Molly E. Smith Feminism is a dirty word. At least that is how some women see it. It has been weaponized, becoming closely associated with political ties and radical behavior. The media paints this picture of polarization between generations particularly regarding feminism, but these few loud opinions do not make up the whole. In this film, we take a closer look at the evolution of feminism through the generations, reveling a surprising similarity. Are we really different in our ideas of feminism, or is this just a perception? With Generation Z on track to being “most diverse, best-educated generation yet” according to the 2018 study by the Pew Research Center and having access to smart phones since their time of birth, there is no question that Generation Z will forever impact the feminist movement. This film is a culmination of a year long research study to determine the
Directors: Matheus Moura Yeda, the green-faced woman, sells homemade bread and cookies to support the house where she lives with her sick husband. Through the context of green-faced people, we know the reality of those who live on the fringes of a purple-faced society.
Directors: Adewale Olukayode Femi is a Nigerian immigrant who works as a manager at a grocery store in Brooklyn, New York. Over the course of a night, he is informed by a fellow manager that his older brother, Adeola, has stolen a large sum of cash during his shift as a cashier. In confronting Adeola for the missing cash, two brothers question their dissonant life values and realize how different they have transformed from one another in pursuing the American Dream.
Directors: Alexander Etseyatse A Loss and prevention officer have a sense of real regret after facing a moral decision. Messages tend to resonate more when they’re more subtle, subversive, and provoke thought. Winner: "Carl Lerner Award for Social Significance" at NYU First Run Film Festival
Directors: Monica Wise Robles In a country where indigenous people are increasingly displaced, their land stolen, where students disappear without trace following police arrest, and journalists are murdered at an alarming rate, a courageous new voice emerges. Lupita, a Tsostil Maya massacre survivor, at the forefront of a new movement of indigenous women. If anyone can change the conscience of Mexico, it is Lupita, confronting corrupt militares, mobilizing her pueblo’s resistance, and cultivating a new generation of organized and vocal Maya activists. The film intimately follows Lupita taking on risks and responsibility to represent her people, weaving her personal narrative into the painful revolutionary history of Mexico. Part lyrical testimony, part vérité storytelling, part tribute to 500 years of indigenous resistance, this film mediates the point-of-view of a brave woman who must balance the demands of motherhood with her high stakes choices to reeducate and restore justice to the
Directors: Set Hernandez Rongkilyo For years, advocates have been organizing to make healthcare access a right for all in California, regardless of their immigration status. Set against the backdrop of California's Health4All campaign, COVER/AGE follows two leaders who have been championing the immigrant health justice movement in the Golden State. One is an elderly caregiver who has spent over a decade taking care of senior citizens, in spite of being ineligible for the same services she provides due to her immigration status. The other is a long-time community advocate who has been organizing directly-impacted people towards policy change at the intersection of immigrant, health, and gender justice. As the conversation around universal healthcare continues to gain momentum in the national level, this film highlights the urgency of expanding healthcare access to undocumented people by centering the unwavering voices of immigrant health justice leaders.
Directors: Dia Sokol Savage Every night at 6pm, detained immigrants are legally released from a for-profit ICE facility onto unfriendly, industrial streets near Denver, Colorado. The men and women, most of them asylum-seekers, have little idea where they are and have nothing more than the clothes on their backs. "Welcome Strangers" tells the story of Sarah Jackson, a young woman who searches the streets for these immigrants and invites them into her home. She and a team of volunteers greet them with compassion and provide them with shelter, clothing and help them reunite with their families.
Directors: Deepak Sethi Three Indian people imagine their personas as their "coffee shop names," the names they give baristas because their real names are hard to pronounce.
Directors: Keisha Rae Witherspoon A film crew follows three grieving participants of Miami’s annual T Ball, where folks assemble to model R.I.P. t-shirts and innovative costumes designed in honor of their dead.
Director: Aya Bogod Producers: Marissa Koval, Skye Kupping, Alice Ye, Sarah Zhou A homeless mother faces impossible choices as she fights to protect her daughter's innocence while struggling to secure shelter and survive on New York City's unforgiving streets.
