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SRFF 2025 - 12th Edition
Picture an environmentalist for many Americans that prompts an image of someone who’s white, well-educated, and in the middle class. Now, picture the Bronx, a community where new urban environmentalists have risen and are changing the landscape, redefining what “greening” means, including environmental, social, and economic justice.
After years of visiting her grandmother's fisherman village in Galicia and hearing bits of stories deemed too traumatic to talk about, Naomi decides to document the oral histories of her elders during a visit to Spain with her 93-year-old grandmother. Through this short documentary, filmed in both Spain and the US, Naomi details the story of a fisherman family who combated fascism during Franco-era Spain, and paid a price.
A 17-year-old kid from South Chicago, coexists with his selfish foster mother. On September 13, 2004, on his way to school with his best friend they discover something that will change their lives forever.
Dedicated to the 100-year history of Armenian cinema, the film highlights the names of forgotten Armenian women directors who were active during the Soviet Era, and presents new movies made during the years of independence.
It is a film about returning home and the place where every person is forever connected to their childhood memories. Only by accepting their roots and past can one build a future on a solid foundation. The protagonist's journey back home leads to the realization of the triangular relationships between the father, the son, and the deceased grandfather.
Thirteen years after a tragic diving accident that left Soleine paralyzed from the neck down, Les eaux Calmes (Calmer Waters) witnesses her brave decision to become the first quadriplegic woman in Quebec to give birth. Through intimate footage shot over the course of a decade and thought-provoking narration, Soleine's decision to embrace motherhood is what ultimately leads to self-forgiveness and her place in this world.
In a desperate act to heal their broken hearts, two girlfriends vow to give up sex for a year only to discover that true love has no timeline. After her divorce, Luna’s life is unraveling as she struggles to overcome the narcissistic abuse that haunts her mind. With her newly discovered bisexuality, she’s looking for “love” in all the wrong places. Meanwhile, 40-year-old Lily finds herself single again after a broken engagement. These two best friends embark on a journey to heal. But when their perfect matches show up, their commitment to stay abstinent is put to the test, along with their friendship.
Mary Kelly: From Stone to Cloud is an intimate portrait of the Conceptual Feminist artist, chronicling her personal history which led her to leave her hometown in Southern Minnesota and travel the world, becoming invested in the Feminist Movement beginning with the March on Washington in 1963. Since then she has focused her work on Feminist issues including the objectification of women, maternity, and wartime atrocities against women and children.
People from different ethnic backgrounds with "difficult" names by Western standards share their experience with moving through the world with an identity that challenges others to simply just say their name—a meditation on identity, otherness, assimilation, community, and ancestral roots.
TOUFIK, fifty, is a director. He has just learned the day before the filming of his new film that JP, his volunteer cinematographer, will not be able to come to the filming because the latter has just been hired on a paid film shoot. Stunned by this bad news, TOUFIK decides, despite the very little time he has, to find a volunteer cinematographer who has his own camera gear to shoot for ten days.
On the verge of finally breaking into her dream career in Los Angeles, Paige (in a hilariously deadpan performance by Valentina Tammaro) is forced to put everything on hold, move back in with her parents, and undergo a vulvar vestibulectomy, in order to alleviate years of vaginal pain. Paige’s excruciating and hilarious road to recovery makes the health and wellbeing of her lady parts a family affair, as her loving but over-enthusiastic parents learn that saying “vagina” loud and proud is the first step to advocating for women’s health. Based on writer/executive producer Bonnie Gross’s true story, Gross and director Nancy Boyd both pull from their own, horrifically cringe-worthy experiences with vaginal pain and the difficulties women face receiving treatment. Lady Parts is heartfelt, laugh-out-loud funny, and brutally honest, offering audiences a glimpse into an experience many women face, but few talk about, either on or offscreen.
Filmed at Rikers Island jail in NYC, where for the first time, dance and music therapy sessions were recorded live. This film documents creative arts therapy sessions on the island, with individuals detained on Rikers Island as participants. Film features interviews with therapists on the methods and goals, as well as brief statements by 2 participants on the impact. Correctional Health Services, a division of NYC Health+Hospitals, provides the therapy.
Dutch cartographer Carlijn Kingma is an upcoming star worldwide, compared to M.C. Escher and Piranesi. Behind her drawing table, she creates worlds in order to understand the world around us. Carlijn gave filmmaker Ariane Greep permission to follow her from the first day she started drawing her latest project 'The Waterworks of Money', starting on the white canvas and following her to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 where Carlijn was asked to represent the Netherlands and show her drawings about our financial system. She won several prizes; the Master Storyteller prize, and the Dutch Design Award. The Venice Architecture Biennale put her on the international map.
A deep dive into the creative responsibility of writers when faced with catastrophe and genocide. Do they bury their heads in the sand or reach out to the world with their creative gift? The actors and poets include Melissa Leo in a scene performing a poem, Lost Photo. Leo won an Academy Award, Primetime Emmy and the Sundance Independent Spirit Award. Géza Röhrig (Academy Award winning film, Son of Saul, currently starring in Terrence Malick’s latest film as Jesus Christ.) Director/Producer Richard Kroehling (Einstein: How I See the World with William Hurt) is a two-time Emmy Award winner.
Saying goodbye to loved ones at the Beirut airport has become an unfortunate tradition in Lebanon, almost a curse. Lebanese emigrants, driven abroad by decades of turmoil, are more than double those still left in their homeland. After civil protests erupt in Lebanon on October 17th 2019, WE NEVER LEFT follows three young Lebanese expats as they take part in the Lebanese revolution from New York fighting for a better country, each protesting in their own way. As they go through their collective journey, they all individually confront both their relationship with their homeland and their own complicated identities. This is the story of the Lebanese people and revolutions both political and personal.
Based upon a true story, LOVE & VODKA is a romantic dramedy with a heart-felt, dramatic twist about Bobby, a high school film teacher/fledgling screenwriter who recalls the magic of 2018, when he falls in love with Katya, a Ukrainian exchange student. Three years later, Russia attacks Ukraine. Inspired by his love for Katya, her family and Ukraine, Bobby keeps their memories and the hope for their reuniting alive by writing the tales of his surreal adventures there and working to get Katya and her family away from the war to safety. Can he finish the script, save the love-of-his-life AND rescue her family?
Calmer Waters An ode to motherhood despite a disability.

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