Film Library

Blending 40 years of home movies, raw film archive, and intimate present-day verité, a poignant reflection from Amy Ray & Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls – the iconic folk rock duo. A timely look into the obstacles, activism, and life lessons of two queer friends who never expected to make it big.

La Singla was born deaf and learned to dance flamenco without listening to music. At age 17, she revolutionized flamenco, but before turning 30 years old, she disappeared from the stage. Fifty years later, the time has come to tell her story.

For more than a hundred years, movie makeovers have promised audiences that with a little help, any ugly duckling can transform into the belle of the ball. Featuring clips from nearly a hundred films, MAKEOVER MOVIE immerses us in the candy-colored and kinetic world of the makeover montage. Alongside these iconic images, women of color and queer women reflect on the racialized, heteronormative, and contradictory beauty standards at the core of the movie makeover.

A decision delayed for decades allows a Kansas City family to finally unify when they do something that countless African Americans before them could not do—choose their own last name.

Visual artist/muralist, Sydney G. James, addresses the status of Black women in society, police brutality, family and community through bold brushstrokes and hues that evoke the complexities of Black reality, joy, pain, and resilience. Inspired by personal experiences, current events and her hometown of Detroit, she invites conversations with family members and fellow artists as she creates a new work on canvas and transforms vacant walls into creative spaces.

In the short documentary film TEAM DREAM we meet close friends Ann Smith and Madeline Murphy Rabb in their final days of preparation for the 2022 National Senior Games. While they train, we learn about their lives growing up amid segregation and stigma before breaking boundaries in their adopted hometown Chicago. A decade after joining Team Dream, a Chicago-based organization training women of color in swimming, biking and triathlon, the two women continue to reach goals they never thought possible. When Misha, a former Division I swimmer, helps them with their starts and turns, the women help her find her way outside the pool. The film culminates with Ann and Madeline competing at the games in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. TEAM DREAM shows you’re never too old to dream.

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. In an emotional final interview before her passing in March 2022, Sally tells her own story as a pioneering chef of California cuisine and sets the table for another way to look at life: where balance, rather than recognition, is the ultimate prize.

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.

Veteran actor Sharon Washington commits to writing a play about her fairytale childhood living inside a New York public library, but there’s an unforeseen cost – waking the family dragon she thought she’d silenced decades ago.

This personal account of the war in Ukraine was filmed in the first weeks after liberation of Bucha district. When Spring Came To Bucha follows several protagonists closely as they deal with the aftermath of a violent occupation on practical and psychological level. Stories about destroyed lives but also about humanity and hope, as the war in Ukraine continues to rage.

In this high school reunion movie turned inside out, filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo circles back to her tortured adolescence, wondering if she remembered it all wrong. Oscillating between present-day, real-world encounters and fantastical re-stagings of her most primal teen memories, YOU WERE MY FIRST BOYFRIEND is a hybrid documentary that explores growing older and making peace with the things that haunt us.

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.