2023 festival films

26.2 TO LIFE takes us inside California’s oldest prison, where members of the 1000 Mile Club–San Quentin’s volunteer-led running group–are about to run the prison’s annual marathon: 105 laps on a quarter-mile, uneven dirt and concrete path that loops…

A Good Neighbor is a feature-length documentary about Lucy Molina, a Latina single mother fighting against racism and climate change as she campaigns for city council in one of the nation’s most polluted zip codes. The film begins with Lucy in the car,…

A thrilling portrait of a young Siksika woman and the deep bonds between her father and family in the golden plains of Blackfoot Territory as she prepares for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world… on bareback. A sport for the truly brav…

Ampe: Leap into the Sky, Black Girl is a documentary film by Ghanaian/Nigerian artists Claudia Owusu and Ife Oluwamuyide. Set in Accra, Ghana and their hometown Columbus, OH, the film is a rhythmic love letter to Black girlhood through the lens of the…

Lauren is a Jewish American who grew up idolizing Anne Frank. Having received a final call back for a professional production of “The Diary of Anne Frank”, Lauren believes she is a shoe-in for the role. That is until she sees Mia, a Black actress from…

ANOTHER BODY follows a college student’s search for answers and justice after she discovers deepfakes of herself circulating online. Through candid video diaries, synthetic media, and 2D and 3D animation, the film takes you into Taylor’s online and off…

Nalini Nadkarni is a world-renowned ecologist who climbs trees in the rainforest canopy to study “what grows back” after an ecological disturbance. In 2015, her rope snapped on a research climb, and she fell fifty feet from a tree and nearly died. Afte…

There may be no journey more fascinating than the exploration of our roots. There may be nothing more revealing than the discovery of where we come from – our inspiration, our ideas, our culture. In the ESPN short film BLACK GIRLS PLAY, directors Miché…

Determined not to become another statistic of the Black maternal health crisis, one couple chooses the rare option of hiring an experienced midwife and doula and planning to give birth at home, away from the hospital and all of its interventions. But t…

Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora wanted to do something radical about the white men dominating newsrooms. 70% of policy and politics editors are men, almost all of them are white, says Emily. These are the people deciding which stories are told, who is…

A comedy about the insanity of modern politics and social media whataboutery. A tickly cough derails the career-defining live tv interview of MP Fiona Lacey (Maxine Peake) – Minister for the Environment. Trying to deliver a serious and important messag…

After the death of a friend, two nuns in their golden years contemplate what their future holds. One confession leads to another and before they know it, they’re embarking on an adventure.

A hand outstretched. The spinning of the wheels on a wheelchair. A ribbon twirling through the air. Feet sliding across the floor. The music crescendos as the movements reveal our three dancers: Lark, a deaf dancer; Janpi, who uses a wheelchair; and Ma…

“Daughter of the Sea,” an 18-minute documentary sponsored by Patagonia Films, reframes success in our modern age as joy and connection with nature. After Jaeyoun Kim, a native of Mara Island in South Korea, moves to Seoul to pursue corporate work, she…

Dear Thirteen weaves together nine stories of thirteen-year-olds from across the globe. Video diaries and candid interviews reveal how global issues are shaping – and being shaped by – young people: rising anti-Semitism in Europe, guns in America, gend…

When photographer and writer Cig Harvey found out her best friend Mary was diagnosed with terminal leukemia, she did what she knew best: made photographs. As Mary faced isolation and debilitating treatment, Cig set out to bring the world to Mary. Over…

Teenagers Egghead (Louis Tomeo) and Twinkie (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa) have been best friends since childhood, but recently they’ve been keeping secrets from each other. Egghead has a secret crush on Twinkie. Twinkie is a lesbian infatuated with social media s…

In a rural Texas Panhandle town, which has survived oil busts, devastating wildfires, and a diminishing population, a few things have remained constant – cowboys, high school football, conservative voters, and the family-owned weekly newspaper The Cana…

From Dreams to Dust tells the story of Pola, a nickel miner and family man from Indonesia. Every day, he risks his life to feed his family, abandoning his dreams for the sake of his children’s future. For the last decade, his village has been transform…

Filmed over the course of eight years and told from the unique perspective of both survivors and perpetrator, Great Photo, Lovely Life is a powerful portrait of intergenerational trauma, redemption and the corrosiveness of family secrets. A unique docu…

Inspired by a New York Times article, HOW WE GET FREE follows the intrepid Elisabeth Epps over the course of two years as she works to abolish cash bail in Colorado and put an end to the criminalization of poverty. Epps is the founder and leader of the…

With forty years of making music as the iconic folk-rock band Indigo Girls, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have made their mark as musicians, songwriters, and dedicated activists. They have represented radical self-acceptance to many – leading now multiple…

Jesselyn Silva, a 15-year-old girl from New Jersey, is a 3x national boxing champion. She has her sights set on becoming the best in boxing. Jess’s father, Pedro, navigates what it means to support his daughter’s dreams in an extremely dangerous sport….

Antonia Singla was born in the suburbs of Barcelona and became deaf shortly after birth, so she learned to dance flamenco without listening to the music. At the age of 17, she revolutionized the world of flamenco, but before she turned 30 she disappear…

Fourteen women will gather in Paris to show the world the singular talent which unites them and which for far too long has been considered the pursuit of only men. A flick of their wand can raise an ocean of sound and a look in their eye can command an…

A pop culture essay film on the makeover movies we grew up loving—and all the ways they taught us that we needed to fix ourselves. For more than a hundred years, movie makeovers have promised audiences that with a little help, any ugly duckling can tra…

PARKER invites you into one family’s intimate journey that has been decades in the making. Centered around three tight-knit generations of the Parker family, this short documentary will leave you wanting to hold your loved ones a little closer. Sedoria…

Periodical, a new feature documentary from XTR and MSNBC Films, tells the unexpected story of the human body by exploring the marvel and mystery of the menstrual cycle, from first period to last. But this is not your middle school sex-ed class. Bringin…

Praying for Armageddon is a political thriller that investigates the dangerous consequences of the fusion between Evangelical Christianity and American politics. Through years of reporting, this film not only reveals how structures of fundamentalism we…

Cut off from the glitz and glamor of Palm Springs, and overshadowed by towering sixty-foot Tamarisk trees, lies the historically Black Lawrence Crossley neighborhood. Allegedly planted by the City in the late 1950’s to line the 14th fairway of a City-o…

Subject explores the life-altering experience of sharing one’s life on screen through key participants of acclaimed documentaries The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, The Wolfpack, Capturing the Friedmans, and The Square. These erstwhile documentary “stars” rev…

As the brutal Chicago winter draws near, Deirdre, Helen and Jennefer—avid open water swimmers—make a pact to continue through the snow and ice as the pandemic rages on. This intense commitment becomes their salvation from lockdown and helps alleviate e…

SYDNEY G. JAMES: HOW WE SEE US explores the creative process of visual artist/muralist Sydney G. James as she creates a new large-scale work on canvas, based upon her mother’s vintage family photograph. As work on her new painting progresses, Sydney’s…

Ann Smith and Madeline Murphy Rabb are 82 and 76 years old respectively, and nothing — not age, not race, and certainly not Chicago’s notorious weather — will stop them from meeting with their trainer Derrick Milligan. The two women are getting ready f…

The French Laundry, run by legendary chef Thomas Keller, has often been recognized as the best restaurant in the world, but few know the story of its original founder, Sally Schmitt. A culinary pioneer in California cuisine at a time when there were fe…

An honest, at times absurd, conversation about being a Black woman in America, “The Mirror” is a short animated film that weaves the personal stories, experiences and reflections of nine Black women talking about their interactions with white people. O…

THE TEST is a character-based documentary short that follows the story of Eric Frimpong, a Ghanaian immigrant who works as a maintenance worker at a large retirement center. Eric dreams of bringing his wife and three children to the US, as he hasn’t se…

How do we change our direction to face the unknown? Why do we choose to take a journey that is both exhilarating and exhausting? Who do we rely on when faced with challenges and indecision that could break us? What stimulates us to persevere when every…

Russians bombarded Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin and other cities in the region following their invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. By the time they retreated a month later, the damage was massive: destroyed houses, executed civilians, and ruined live…

Adventurer, competitor, daughter, friend, pioneer, hero, and badass human are all words used to describe French kayaker, Nouria Newman. In Wild Waters, we follow Nouria as she prepares to become the first female to run a 100ft (30m) waterfall; we watch…

What if you could rewrite your adolescence? In this high school reunion movie turned inside out, filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo embarks on a fantastical quest to reconcile her tortured teen years. She ‘goes back’ in more ways than one, tracking down old f…

Made over 6 years, YOUR FAT FRIEND charts the rise of writer and activist Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger to NYTimes best selling author and beloved podcaster. Her aim – a paradigm shift in the way we see fat people in the world and the fat on our…