Thursday, May 14
Documentary Shorts Block - USA
10AM - 12PM
Oasis Cinema 9
Directed by Winslow Crane-Murdoch
Synopsis
When news anchor Paul Linnman arrived in Florence OR on November 12th, 1970, he had no idea that the story he was about to tell would forever define his career. Following a small Oregon town, an exploding whale, and the man who made the story famous, Oh Whale is about how we don't get to choose our fate, only what we make of it.
Flowers & Bullets
Directed by Ricardo Bracamonte
Synopsis
A group of barrio kids team together to reclaim space as a garden and art collective and save a shuttered neighborhood school
Barriga Llena, Corazón Contento (Full Belly, Happy Heart)
Directed by Jordana Rubenstein-Edberg, Marshall Hanig
Synopsis
Barriga Llena, Corazón Contento (Full Belly, Happy Heart) is a chorus of stories from the organizers of Fenix Community Fridge, a grassroots food pantry in Ridgewood, Queens, run out of a local car service. The film interweaves migration journeys, home-made meals, and the everyday acts of care that bind a community together.
Human Perception of Place
Directed by Renee Yubeta
Synopsis
A reflective essay film exploring how human emotion shapes our connection to place. Moving through memory, perception, alienation, and belonging, the film reveals how environments become part of our identity.
Hilos Del Mar
Directed by Javier Andres Guerra-Escalante
Synopsis
In Paredón, México, a resilient woman defies tradition as one of the towns few female fisherman, raising five children alone after her husband’s death and building a small business rooted in family and the sea.
The Hour of Liberation is Near
Directed by Máte Vargas
Synopsis
A document of the constructed colonial borderlands on unceded occupied Kumeyaay territory that examines the San Diego region as a site of perpetual resistance by local communities and ecosystems in the face of escalating social inequality, environmental pollution, police surveillance, militarization and U.S. imperialism.
Sombras Nada Mas (Only Shadows)
Directed by Diego Munoz Holguin
Synopsis
Sombras Nada Mas (Only Shadows), is a true story about my own post-traumatic growth experience growing up in the most dangerous city in the world. The story focuses on how my mother’s strength and light helped me to overcome the trauma and fear of being held at gunpoint and robbed at a young age. This experience taught me the courage needed to face all of life’s challenges, and through it, I hope to inspire others to face and overcome their own “shadows.”
Lo Que Queda (What Remains)
Directed by Germán López Tirado
Synopsis
lo que queda (what remains) is an experimental documentary about the memory of a mother lost too soon. through a blend of interviews, the filmmaker’s family archive, and both 16mm and digital footage, the film is a cinematic meditation on what’s left behind.
Documentary Shorts Block - MX
10AM - 12PM
Imfoculta
Limbo De Savia
Directed by Mercedes De los Milagros
Synopsis
Documentary that investigates the realities of women in senectud over 55 years old with different contexts residing in Puebla. In conversation they rediscover their past, decisions and consequences, unfinished dreams, motivations of motherhood and how they deal with the individualism of old age. Socioeconomic and cultural gaps converge, we know how they inhabit their life and changing and growing bodies.
Zelzin, Footprints That Inspire
Directed by Zelzin Aketzalli Weeks, Adam Pawlikiewicz
Synopsis
Footprints that Inspire follows Zelzin Aketzalli, the first person from Mexico to complete the Triple Crown of Hiking, as she circumnavigates her home mountain, the Iztaccíhuatl volcano. Raised in a violent neighborhood in Mexico City, Zelzin turned adversity into strength and found purpose by hiking some of the world's most iconic trails.
This intimate and visually powerful short film not only documents her return to the mountain that shaped her, but also reveals the challenges that come with being a pioneer. Zelzin shares the weight and clarity of walking for a dream few believe in.
A portrait of resilience, connection with nature, and the struggle to forge paths where there are none, Footprints that Inspire is an invitation to follow our passions, even when no one else has been there.
In coastal New England, where pond after pond of aquaculture stretches as far as the eye can see, seafood is not just a meal but a way of life. Shucking Tradition follows a cohort of forward-thinking, hard-working New England women who bring new energy and perspectives to aquaculture or oyster farming, an industry layered with history. While balancing challenging work-life dynamics, they avoid drawing attention to their gender while subtly upending ingrained stereotypes. Exhibiting flexibility and a strong work ethic has enabled them to prove themselves in this tradition-bound maritime profession. To introduce outsiders to the art and science of oyster farming, this short film is structured as a 'primer' on oyster farming. While presenting a wave of women reshaping the age-old New England oyster farming industry, the film highlights changing dynamics within this historically male-dominated world. These passionate oyster farmers avoid drawing attention to their gender, knowing that their strong work ethic matters most and is more critical to the industry's future than raw physical strength.
To introduce outsiders to the art and science of oyster farming through the story of these pioneering women, the film's larger arc is something of a 'primer' on oyster farming, where, as the film unfolds, we are educated on the process of oyster farming and slowly come to appreciate the frustrations and joys these women experience in their chosen field. Early in the film, I establish the women as characters, one by one. Then, borrowing an approach from Errol Morris, I mix footage relating to one woman with the narration of another to establish commonalities and differences among the different oyster farmers. I bring a visually poetic style to the film, drawing on my photographer's eye with a mastery of lenses, light, angles, and composition born of my work as a long-time photojournalist. Ambient sound, encompassing everything from the ocean's quietude to the hum of machines and the banter among oyster farmers, is crucial audio that drives the story forward.
Shucking Tradition
Directed by David Helfer Wells
Synopsis
Directed by Jim Koenigsaecker, Tom Hayes
Synopsis
Voyage of the Handala is an independent, documentary film about an international group of peace activists and aid workers sailing from Europe to Gaza to raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinians and break the Israeli blockade of Gaza to deliver aid, health care and hope. The Handala, an old Norwegian fishing boat, was named for the political cartoon by Naji al-Ali depicting a defiant Palestinian boy.
International Shorts Block A - USA
1PM - 3PM
Oasis Cinema 9
Grind
Directed by Mark Apicella
Synopsis
When John, an aspiring sneaker designer in East Los Angeles, gets the opportunity of his life to be featured in his idol’s pop-up shop, his best friend and business partner tries to pull him down his own divergent path as he promises John’s shoe design to a gang.
Shoot, Shovel and Shut Up
Directed by Tràn Hoàng Calvin
Synopsis
The Clifford family hopes to start a new life by selling their dilapidated, impoverished farm. But when the discovery of an endangered bird on the property threatens to collapse the sale, the son Andy must decide whether to make the bird's presence known or to shoot, shovel, and shut up.
STAY
Directed by Aden Gonzalez
Synopsis
STAY is a short narrative film about love, family, and resilience within a Mexican household facing an unspoken threat. Through intimate moments and rising tension, the film captures the emotional reality of living between hope and fear, where home is both a sanctuary and a fragile promise.
Inspired by real events.
Eye For An Eye
Directed by Ashley Bowers
Synopsis
A scavenger in a post-apocalyptic combine attempts to flea their tyrannical leader's control, but will her sister (their leader) let her?
6 Minutes and 45 Seconds
Directed by Hannah Marie Benavides
Synopsis
Karla, a young teenage girl unsure of what the future holds, must reveal a secret that has been weighing her down to her first love, Miguel.
Soy Yo
Directed by Lauren Nicole Ballesteros
Synopsis
A day in the life of a feisty free-spirited artist who helps her awkward teenage granddaughter find her inner "chingona" magic and live a life of no regret.
International Shorts Block - MX
1PM - 5PM
Imfoculta
Directed by Brandon Bernard Torres-Weiner
Synopsis
After Tito’s father is deported to Mexico, he discovers a magical kite and journeys with his mother and sister to a fantastical world in hopes of reuniting their family. Blending magical realism, music, and puppetry, The Magic Kite is a heartfelt story about love, hope, and healing in the face of family separation.
EL Lloron
Directed by Rodrigo Moreno-Fernandez
Synopsis
FELIPE is a professional mourner. He is compensated for lamenting and comforting grieving families during funerals.
Directed by Brett Wietecha
Synopsis
Fleeing Venezuela’s economic collapse, two brothers struggle for survival on a militia-operated coca farm. With their lives on the line, the younger brother gambles on a last ditch effort to rescue themselves and bring the girl he has fallen for.
In Nacozari de García, Sonora, 13-year-old Mónica is perfecting her rodeo skills. With the support of her family and teammates, Mónica will represent her state in national competitions, adding more buckles to her trophy collection.
Directed by Colectivo Taller Ambulante de Cine Documental Martinez
God Looked Out Over the Plains to Settle
Synopsis
BOOK OF SKIN
Surreal and provocative, artist-filmmaker Neil Kendricks experimental short film, "Book of Skin" reimagines the myth of Pygmalion with a gender-bending twist as an artist's fantasies and nightmares expressed in her drawings suddenly appear as shape-shifting, phantasmagoric images on the body of an artist's model during a life-drawing session. Inspired by the filmmaker's observations teaching life-drawing classes, this unusual short film sets the bar high with the challenge of creating something that most viewers have never seen before: "Book of Skin" features actor-artists creating real drawings in real time while portraying fictional characters on camera in a scripted narrative. The film offers an intoxicating mixture of "cinema verite," documentary style camerawork and surrealism.
Directed by Neil Kendricks
Synopsis
The Grandparents
Directed by Maria Cano
Synopsis
A touching tribute that beautifully encapsulates the essence of my grandparents' daily life, accompanied by a tender poem narrated by their loved ones, which reflects on the timeless cycle of life.
Directed by Regina Grijalva Velázquez, Aurora Duarte Estrella
Synopsis
When a teenage girl and a black cat find themselves living on the streets, they have to get past their differences to get out of a dangerous situation.
Through the voice and experiences of the director's mother, Albis Mares (Santo Domingo Petapa, Oaxaca, 1960), the short film revisits anecdotes of displacement, migration, and other themes, with the intention of exploring the dimensions of the concept of "home."
It is an approach to evoking memory and the parts of it that remain in the intangible world, as well as the possibility of materializing certain things—in this case, an oven built in the patio of their house in Agua Prieta that they use to bake bread.
Let There Be A Home
Directed by Oscar Fabian Jimenez Mares
Synopsis
Directed by Francesco Taboada
Synopsis
Sergio Méndez Arceo, un obispo muy cercano al Vaticano, tiene un encuentro con un obrero encarcelado que lo transformará para siempre. En el México de los años setenta, don Sergio abraza la teología de la liberación e inicia uno de los experimentos sociales más polémicos del cristianismo involucrando psicoanálisis, comunismo, indigenismo, lucha armada, derechos humanos, revolución y espiritualidad. Su atrevimiento le valdrá la condena de la Inquisición y la persecución de las dictaduras latinoamericanas. Una historia que había permanecido oculta hasta ahora.
International Shorts Block B - USA
3PM - 5PM
GOK
Florida's Forgotten Fort
Directed by H James Gilmore
Synopsis
FLORIDA'S FORGOTTEN FORT tells the story of North America's first sanctioned free Black community, an important chapter of colonial history buried by a legacy of racism and indifference. Through interviews, reenactments and archival footage, this documentary short chronicles the legacy of Fort Mose-- the final destination of the first underground railroad, where those escaping the horrors of British chattel slavery ran south to La Florida.
Directed by Miguel Lepe Jr
Synopsis
Framed by today’s immigration debate, a son traces his family’s journey from undocumented newcomers to American citizens, revealing how those labeled a threat have always been a gift to the nation.
Tin Can
Directed by Pat Battistini
Synopsis
J.C. finds himself down on his luck and in search for a new happiness. He eventually finds it near the Mexican border but the price he pays could get him kicked out of the only country he knows.
Toka: The Game Must Go On
Directed by Tohono O'odham Nation's Documentary Film Colective
Synopsis
Rolanda trains a group of Tohono girls in the game of Toka on the Tucson reservation. Through this ancestral tradition, she seeks to keep the memory of her ancestors alive and reconnect with the deeper meaning of her last name. At the same time, Tai, one of her eleven year old students, weaves together through her life experiences what it means to be a Tohono girl, and how Toka embodies part of the strength, wisdom, and spirituality that sustain their community.
6:30PM - 9PM
Film on the Fence
Throughout their shared histories, both horses and the Blackfeet people have been corralled; fenced into pens and reservations, yet centuries of attempted subduction only deepened the bond between them. Borrowed From the Earth traces that enduring connection from the origin story of the horse to the modern-day relay race, exploring how a life-giving relationship, long tested by force, survives as a testament to the power of belonging to one another.
Directed by Zach Johaneson
Synopsis
Directed by Isabel Castro
Synopsis
Selena Quintanilla's journey from performing at local events to becoming the "Queen of Tejano Music" with her family band Selena y Los Dinos, culminating in sold-out stadium tours, is chronicled through personal archive footage.
