Film Library

A selection of short films produced by the Youth Documentary Academy.  

Ana and Sergio are not only immigrants, but also parents to a teenage son and a growing daughter with Dandy-Walker Syndrome. They navigate their lives in Crete, Nebraska, as Sergio learns English and Ana runs errands as well as her own salon.

May, an 8-year-old detective, lives with her mother in the suburbs. Left to her own devices, May, alongside her trusted toy robot, investigates the neighborhood. She inspects every abandoned cigarette butt and eavesdrops on her neighbors in search of a mystery. Then, while investigating one day, she discovers the aftermath of a violent death and learns that her world is far more mysterious and consequential than she thought.

Evelyn McHale is a young wife to be in the 1940s. One morning, Evelyn’s feeds her fiancé Barry breakfast as she experiences a flashback to when she was young and her mother, Helen, fed her family. Helen is a disheveled woman who doesn’t meet the “perfect housewife” standard. The film continues to cut between time periods, showing the parallels between Evelyn’s parents’ relationship and Evelyn’s relationship with Barry. Helen leaves her husband and child, and eventually Evelyn leaves her fiancé as well.

An inside look into the world of taxidermy and the passionate artists from all over the world who work on the animals.

Subject explores the life-altering experience of sharing one’s life on screen through the participants of five acclaimed documentaries. As tens of millions of people consume documentaries in an unprecedented “golden era,” the film urges audiences to consider the impact on documentary participants – the good, the bad, and the complicated.

Subjects of Desire is a thought-provoking feature documentary that examines the cultural shift in beauty standards towards embracing Black aesthetics and features. The film deconstructs what we understand about race and the power behind beauty.

An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.

Tommy makes a drastic decision in order for her siblings to escape the heat before the summer’s over.

Summer Pasture is a feature-length documentary about a young nomadic couple living with their infant daughter in the high grasslands of eastern Tibet. Filmed during the summer of 2007 with rare access to an area seldom visited by outsiders, Summer Past…

Sun Come Up follows the relocation of some of the world’s first environmental refugees, the Carteret Islanders – a community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean. When rising seas threaten their survival, the islanders face a painful decision: they must leave their beloved land in search of a new place to call home.