Showcase of the best FILMS in the world today.
Audience Award Winners:
Best Feature Film: Mi CUBA
Best Short Form Short Film: BLOOD, SWEAT & FEARS: THE COMMUNITY OF JUST SCARE ME
Best Long Form Short Film: 12 PARTS PER MILLION
Best Story: SILENT FALLOUT
Best Cinematography: INVISIBLE CAGE
Best Direction: SEE YOU
Best Human Interest Film: ROOMMATES
Best Environmental Film: MITTI (Discovering Ikigai)
BLOOD, SWEAT & FEARS: THE COMMUNITY OF JUST SCARE ME, 6min., USA
Directed by Jamie Gagnon
A short documentary on the film collective, Just Scare Me, where every other two months, you sign up to make a short horror film or you pay the group a $100.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
ROOMMATES, 9min., USA
Directed by J Brooke, Beatrice Alda
After completing lengthy prison terms (for murder and arson, respectively), two women forge a strong bond within a nursing home catering to the formerly incarcerated. Creating a positive present tense in the wake of complicated pasts, these survivors cling to simplicity, routine, and each other.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
SEE YOU, 49min., Denmark
Directed by Helle Fuglsang
See You is an artistic look into a refugee camp. Mimeartist Helle Fuglsang spent 4 weeks in Lesbos, capturing 19 almost word-less scenes giving you an intimate and poetic look into the strengths and struggles of everyday life behind the fence.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
12 PARTS PER MILLION, 38min., USA
Directed by Chet Thomas, Ted Barnhill
Doping in athletics is nothing new. Cases regularly make headlines calling attention to issues of fair play and how to keep sport clean.
In 1972, the International Olympic Committee attempted to level the playing field for competitors by introducing drug testing at the Games. That same year, Rick DeMont, a US swimming phenom from Southern California, won the 400-meter freestyle event at the Munich Olympics. Less than 48 hours later, legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell announced the shocking news that Olympic officials had stripped DeMont of his gold medal and excluded him from further competition after a post-race doping test revealed trace amounts – 12 parts per million – of ephedrine, a banned substance, and the main ingredient in an asthma prescription Rick had properly disclosed weeks earlier on his Olympic medical intake form. He and his family unsuccessfully appealed the International Olympic Committee’s decision and Rick went home heartbroken.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
INVISIBLE CAGE, 15min., China
Directed by Zhiqian Zhang
This study focuses on exploring the issue of “learned helplessness” among rural women in Gansu, China. Through interviews with women of different age groups, we aim to investigate their psychological journey from initially making efforts to their current state of accepting their circumstances or giving up. We approach this exploration from various angles, including their family dynamics, geographical environment, economic factors (employment opportunities), educational opportunities, societal ethics, and personal experiences.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
SILENT FALLOUT, 76min., Japan
Directed by Hideaki Ito
A documentary film by a Japanese director about the world’s biggest environmental problem!
The U.S. government dropped 101 atomic bombs on the American continent as an experiment, resulting in radioactive contamination of the continent.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
MITTI (Discovering Ikigai), 30min., Canada
Directed by Sangita Iyer
Mitti (Discovering Ikigai) is a story of young woman of colour in Canada who chose organic farming as her career choice. Through her story the film highlights the Japanese concept of Ikigai to inspire others, especially youth, to find their passion and purpose in life. The film also highlights environmental and sustainability challenges the world is facing and how ancient cultures considered Mother Earth with gratitude instead of a commodity. The film also attempts to break stereotypes we have about how/what a farmer looks like. The film poster has been conceived and created by at 12 year art enthusiast who seems to have discovered her Ikigai.
http://www.mettlefilms.com/https://www.instagram.com/mettlefilms
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
Mi CUBA, 70min., Cuba
Directed by Sonia Mercedes Machado-Hines
Dive into the captivating story of a former soldier from Fidel Castro’s regime, who begins to question the very ideology he once fiercely defended. From the streets of Cuba, he embarks on an unexpected journey of self-discovery, immersing himself in the world of literature and penning a tribute to the iconic Cuban filmmaker, Humberto Solás. But the manuscript becomes more than just words—it becomes his ticket to a perilous defection.
http://www.blackplusplus.net/https://www.instagram.com/blackplusplus
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
Documentary Film Festival. Los Angeles & Toronto 