Showcase of the best FILMS in the world today.
Audience Award Winners:
Best Feature Film: ON THE LINE: THE RICHARD WILLIAMS STORY
Political Feature: WE’RE NOT GOING BACK!
Cinematography: CLIMATE DIARIES: HEATHER’S STORY
Environmental Short: THE TEMPTATION OF TREES
Urban Short Film: CHINATOWN AUXILIARY
Student Film: I’M THE VET
Society Doc: INDESTRUCTIBLE
Human Interest Short: CONVERSATIONS WITH MY SELF
War Short: UKRAINE WAR – THE EYES OF REFUGEES
Sound & Music: BACK TO OUR ROOTS
Short Form Short Film: DEAR AMERICA
Sports Feature: GURGLE: PULLING WATER
Recreation Film: NEVER GIVE UP: AKINORI IN MOORESVILLE
Long Form Short Film: BEYOND THE ROPES
Sports Short: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE ADVERSITY
Watch the Audience Feedback Video for each film:
ON THE LINE: THE RICHARD WILLIAMS STORY, 93min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Stuart McClave
In this emotional reckoning featuring never-before-seen interviews and home videos from the 1980s through now, Richard Williams – the son of a cotton picker and the father and coach of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams – retraces his family’s journey from the poverty-stricken streets of Shreveport, Louisiana to the grass courts of Wimbledon, fighting back against systems of racial oppression and violence and breaking every rule of the lily-white tennis establishment to forever change the sport.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
WE’RE NOT GOING BACK!, 79min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Pamela Torrance
Pro-choice documentary film to promote awareness of what’s at stake before and now that Roe v Wade has been overturned.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
CLIMATE DIARIES: HEATHER’S STORY, 8min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Ali Scattergood, Berit Anderson
Go underwater with one of the only female geoduck divers in the Suquamish tribe as she explores the personal, spiritual and economic impacts of the climate emergency on the Salish Sea.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THE TEMPTATION OF TREES, 43min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Andrea Sparrow
New Studies reveal that growing our existing forested lands to capture carbon, preserve biodiversity and protect water, animals and people is one of the best tools we have for fighting climate change and rebuilding a thriving planet. Experts with a deep understanding of forests, carbon and timber share the science and methods we can use to take a step toward a greener, healthier future.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
CHINATOWN AUXILIARY, 26min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Zijun Cathy You
A group of Chinese grandpas and grandmas have been patrolling the streets of Manhattan Chinatown for several decades as NYPD volunteer police. They fought to find belonging in this unwelcoming foreign country. This NYPD uniform is their way of protecting the few blocks of their newfound home and family in it. From the savage tribulation back in the 70s to the “Asian Hate” era during the COVID-19 pandemic, their stories remind us of the hope this country represented to the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. It’s never too late to stand together.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
I’M THE VET, 23min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Cameron Babcock
An inside look at the reality of an ICU Veterinarian, Dr. Lindsay Eisenhour, as she battles the difficulties of pet healthcare while holding onto her passion for treating animals at Neel Veterinary Hospital in Oklahoma City, OK. We see and feel the difficult experiences that Dr. Eisenhour endures inside the hospital and the miracles that she experiences with her patients and their owners.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
INDESTRUCTIBLE, 29min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Jennifer D’Arcy Dial Santoro
If you loved Under the Banner of Heaven, then you’ll love Indestructible.
It wasn’t just the inoperable brain tumor and hydrocephalus that challenged young Emily Tucker. Her family’s membership in a polygamous group in Utah made getting the care she needed a challenge. She and her family defied the odds, and got her to where she is now—a medical professional and activist for hydrocephalus, and an indestructible survivor.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
CONVERSATIONS WITH MY SELF, 20min., Turkey, Documentary
Directed by Sabina Shanti Kariat
Karagöz puppetry is a traditional Turkish type of shadow puppetry that dates back to the Ottoman empire in regions which are now modern day Turkey and Syria. In this project, we contemporized the craft of karagöz by representing new identities from the present in Turkey, specifically the identities of Syrian refugees. I co-created this film with a cohort of Syrian-Turkish youth who wrote their own monologues and animated them in the style of karagöz puppetry, visualizing different sides of their complex identities.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
UKRAINE WAR – THE EYES OF REFUGEES, 37min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Olivia M. Pfaff
Following the lives of the Ukrainian war refugees, from the Russian war on Ukraine. It features the lives of the refugee children and their response to war. Interviews with parents and other adults. filmed on location in Ukraine and Siret Romina.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
BACK TO OUR ROOTS, 11min, Panama, Documentary
Directed by Martin Cervino, Vernny Arguello
Set in the paradisiacal Cahuita, by the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, Back to our Roots invites you to discover how the Calypso, a musical rhythm with African roots, became the voice and symbol of protest of African-American people that straggles against the inequalities throughout history.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
DEAR AMERICA, 7min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Mary Louis
Dear America digs deeper into the physiology of homeless African American’s in America.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
GURGLE: PULLING WATER, 57min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Richard Van Kleeck
A documentary featuring courage, teamwork, adventure, and life lessons explored through the lens of the sport of rowing. Featuring Tori Murden McClure, the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic; archeologist, author, and rower John Hale; the amazing story of Oksana Masters, the world’s most decorated paralympic athlete; and a host of other interesting characters that inhabit the world of rowing. Directed by Richard Van Kleeck.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
NEVER GIVE UP: AKINORI IN MOORESVILLE, 13min, USA, Documentary
Directed by Royce Akifumi Wilmot
24 years since first attending a NASCAR race, Akinori Ogata chases his dream of one day racing in the Daytona 500. Moving his family halfway across the world in the process, he races locally in the lower series of NASCAR, working for his big break. His sons have graduated high school, and they and his wife have moved back to Japan. Alone in his small race shop, he prepares his limited late model stock car for the biggest local race of the year.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
BEYOND THE ROPES, 38min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Jalen Robinson
BEYOND THE ROPES: The 40+ Double Dutch Club Documentary showcases how taking a “break from adulting” to jump double dutch, hula hoop and play old childhood games can be an exciting, affordable way to tone, burn calories and improve physical, mental and spiritual health while encouraging and inspiring women in an often overlooked age group to relive positive childhood memories and create new ones!
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE ADVERSITY, 19min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Jay C. Williams
Past, Present, Future Adversity “Arrival”, new director of San Jose State University track and field and cross country Charles Ryan arrives in San Jose State University, as the program’s first African American director of track & field. After the program’s recent reinstatement after a +40 year gap between the era of Speed City including athletes such as Ray Norton, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos. Coach has been tasked with rebuilding program with a new coaching staff, an entirely new athletic department, and no track and field facility.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
Documentary Film Festival. Los Angeles & Toronto 