Eons ago, indigenous mythical goddesses gathered around Africa's oldest and most cosmic tree, the Baobab. Their mystical granddaughters carry on that tradition with the mission to transform conflict through the spirit of Ubuntu (togetherness) by harnessing ancient wisdom, magical powers and cool indigenous music. The young goddesses unite to solve mysteries, tackle terror, eliminate poaching, divert climate change, and heal plagues, which are all too common in the world. The Zizwe series uses cultural diversity as a unifying strength.

A dying man and his nurse have one last conversation. It changes her life forever.

A woman risks everything to try and protect an asylum seeker in a totalitarian society in which all borders are militarized.

Every year thousands of migrants travel along the Balkan Route to find shelter in Europe. They constantly trying to cross the Croatia border. This is what they call The Game: Who gets to Europe wins.

A short animated documentary featuring a Chinese immigrant mother recounting her life growing up during the tumultuous 1950’s communist China to her American son during the COVID-19 pandemic. Faded memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution are brilliantly rendered using groundbreaking technology, while drawing striking connections to the spate of violence towards the Asian community in America.

A US marine wounded in combat returns from Afghanistan to confront the defense contractor who manufactured the weapon that disfigured him.

Kathy receives a text from her daughter that there is a shooter at her school, then the line goes dark. Kathy will spend the next few hours desperately trying to contact her daughter, or she may never see her again.

A man struggling with addiction and isolation finds hope in a kindred spirit.

Kate Gray struggles with a full-time career as a therapist, raising four young children, past personal traumas, and marriage. She spirals down through the “gray area” of addiction and anxiety.

KONRAD (85) has plenty of reasons for being grumpy. His wife died recently and now his only daughter is planning to adopt her girlfriend's kids to Konrad's disapproval.​ THURBA (12) has a very different set of problems. In order to avoid deportation she must jump from the second floor and run away during an investigation. Konrad hears something from the basement in the middle of the night and arming himself with a nail gun fires into the dark, wounding little Thurba. Somehow this girl touches long lost feelings from his own past. Thurba proposes a deal...

It's an afternoon like any other when a man leaves home for a short jog through his neighborhood. Little does he know that his jog will become a race for his life.

Helsinki, spring 1975: Author Jeanette Aspen arrives at the Lapinlahti hospital, one of the oldest mental hospitals in the world, to meet her only child, psychiatrist Karin Aspen, 36 years after sending her to Sweden as a war child at the start of the Winter War in 1939 while she herself travelled to Spain to begin a new life. The encounter sparks the drama between mother and daughter, now complete strangers to each other. The architectural beauty of the mental hospital serves as an eye-witness to the events where long locked up emotions between the women splash out.

The stories of loss and persistent survival are just under the surface in the community of an all-Armenian apartment complex. When the adults are at work, seven-year old Khatchig’s disastrous attempts to impress his neighborhood crush will have far-reaching repercussions. Featuring Nora Armani SRFF Founding Artistic Director.

Donnie, lives on his own in a very remote area by the sea. He creates sculptures from ocean waste in his makeshift workshop, until one day the tide changes and he inspires a “New Normal”.

Women are increasingly choosing to not have children. Not because they can’t. They simply choose to do other things instead. Denatality is making one town disappear. The Government is setting pressing measures, not just psychological ones. Bianca and Vittoria are at the opposite ends of their fertility cycle. Their acquaintance forces them to choose, in an instant, the direction of their future: any choice will result in a radical change of their destiny.

In a world where words cost money, a woman saves up for her first word in the hope of standing up to her abuser.

Vaughn is a street performer. On the way home, he gets stopped and frisked by two undercover police officers, one of whom throws him down the ground. Ray is curios to what know what happened.

Surrounded by her loving family on her birthday, an event occurs that shapes Mira's life forever.

Gia and her best friend Lila survived a rough childhood in a neighborhood where every kid has a sad story to tell. Now, as teenagers, Gia struggles to use her gift of writing to reclaim what the world has brutally taken away.

When a young First Nations client dies after being committed to police custody, social worker Stevie struggles to keep the troubled people she encounters away from the system she no longer trusts. Opening her East End Toronto home as a safe haven for 'at risk' people. They are George, an ex-con and chronic gambler, Tracy, a down and out musician, and Mina, a battered wife. Stevie tries to mend some broken lives, but she masks her own issues by burying herself in theirs. “I’d say get a life,” says her paramedic boyfriend Ben, “but you already have more than one!” When she defends Mina against her abusive husband Karl, Stevie is confronted with the real dangers of crossing professional boundaries.

A heartwarming story about an old-school Sicilian father trying to negotiate his way into heaven, where the only way in is to first go back and repair his relationship with his reluctant son, reunite his feuding family back in Sicily, and help everyone find love in places they never imagined. Starring Burt Young (Rocky), Nick Mancuso (Ticket to Heaven), Rossella Brescia (Italian TV star and Italy’s Prima Ballerina), Charley Chiarelli (Sicilian “Spalding Grey”), Loreena McKennitt (Multi-Platinum Recording Artist) and Tomaso Sanelli (Cicada 3301, Titans)

A brutal portrayal of coercion, violence, loss and hope, set during lockdown, this film explores whether we can ever trust the surface of things. Starring Maxine Peake and Lex Shrapnel.

While staying overnight, Jane visits a small-town motel’s covert clinic. But when her boyfriend wakes up to find her gone a police officer’s arrival threatens to expose their underground operation.

After Angie escapes the horrifying world of sex trafficking, she struggles to heal from the atrocities she’s endured as she mourns her stolen innocence. Eventually, she must confront her shame and fear to save the girls she left behind.

Writer-director Sophie Deraspe’s incisive liberal adaptation of the Greek tragedy by Sophocles is the daring story of one young woman’s commitment to her family, even if it means sacrificing herself.

Newcomer Nahéma Ricci gives a stunning, luminous performance as Antigone, an Algerian-born teenager living in Montreal with her immigrant family. Her world is shaken when her oldest brother is wrongfully gunned down by police during the arrest of her other brother who, if convicted, faces deportation. She invents a fearless, dangerous plan to free him, but can it succeed?

As Antigone’s predicament intensifies and the consequences of her actions spiral out of control, the film deftly incorporates urgent and explosive contemporary questions of immigration and belonging, social media and identity, and the power of idealism.

Gamal is a new immigrant who washes dishes at a diner in suburban New Jersey. Fritzie is a retired teacher and a recent widow. Both are lonely people experiencing uncharted emotional territory. Despite differences in age, race, religion and class, Gamal and Frieda forge an unlikely relationship that explores our universal need for connection and laughter. English and Arabic with English subtitles.

This is the story of a young prostitute robbed and thrown out of the car. She is talking on her phone. Her pimp is threatening her, he wants money! The road is desolate. An orange scheduled bus comes from far away. She gets on the bus. It is an inner journey, and the bus represents her inner self. Italian with English subtitles.

Eric, a Mexican journalist, who has stopped writing because he is threatened, decides to return to do a story that may cost him his life.

After years of accepting the status quo Jane Dunlap reaches her tipping point. Set in 1971 Northern California, "Corked" is inspired by the true story of her struggle to break into the male dominated wine industry.

In near-term future America, the word “citizen” has come to define a narrower portion of the population, and elite corruption goes unchecked. A luxury condo in Brooklyn begins the day staged for an open house to lure wealthy buyers, but by night becomes a brief refuge for a family targeted by immigration enforcement.

Yesterday, a man was murdered in a street, in Cleveland. According to the initial findings of the investigation, several men have been arrested by the police, and among them, a potential witness whose identity is still unknown. He has been taken into custody, before being heard...

Forty-year-old Redwan feels rejected just because he looks like "he is not from here". To ease his daily existential pain, he periodically kidnaps someone, who may have shown a sign of contempt towards him, to ruin their evening. Claire, a woman in her thirties, is Redwan's next victim. During the course of the evening, she tries to convince Redwan it is his own imagination that is to blame for his situation. French with English subtitles.

Saverio discovers that his beloved mother, Rosa, is suffering from Alzheimer's syndrome. He accidentally finds love letters that his father wrote to her. Saverio reads them to his mother, and sees her dormant emotions resurface unexpectedly. Through reminiscences, together they temporarily "defeat" Alzheimer's rediscovering the true meaning of love. Italian with English subtitles.

Monologues of immigrant women tell the various immigrant experiences of women who find themsleves in a foreign country away from their loved ones. This was a play presented on Zoom with actors from 5 cities and three contients, possible only because it was presented on Zoom due to the pandemic.

Jay, an editor at an astronomy magazine, is filming the rare celestial event, the Venus Transit. As the event is about to take place, Jay receives a call from his estranged father, Madhu, telling him that his grandmother is on her deathbed in India. This leads to a meaningful encounter between father and son at an airport restaurant.

Home movies and fleeting snippets of sound tell the story of Vivian Barrett, a wealthy Swiss woman, whose WWII pilot-turned-entrepreneur husband changes their lives when he creates a pharmaceutical wonder drug. From the 40s through 60s, from the Alps to Le Mans to New York to Hawaïi, vulnerability, loss, truth, and opulence are explored in a way that only cinema allows. "Powerfully hypnotic" – Cineuropa

Rejoice Resist celebrates Black joy and Black pleasure as the ultimate form of resistance. It highlights the importance of allowing yourself to feel joy especially in the face of adversity. The film, surreal and lighthearted despite its powerful themes, depicts a woman on a quest to discover this truth.

Moza, a 20-year-old South Sudanese migrant wants to sing his rap song to his friends and the African youth undermined by frequent negative news reports which have influenced the wider community and resulted in increased racism, suspicion and lateral violence against African residents. On this day his dreams of finding his voice are sorely tested!

International auditor Alain has arrived to appraise the airport of a small self-proclaimed republic in the Caucasus to greenlight its eventual reopening. Through Edgar, a local boy running a make-shift business in the airport, Alain will risk all to help this isolated territory to open up.Armenian, French, and Russian with English subttles.

Ava has to overcome her prejudice with the help of Tarec, a homeless man who is parked in front of her house.

A young woman returns home from abroad after several years to confront the trauma of sexual assault from her past.The silent witnesses of her trauma still live with the old lies. Are they brave enough for the truth? .

In Beirut, a 10 year old Syrian refugee and an 85 year old man with Alzheimers share the same loneliness with no families on either side, until they meet.

Black is Black is a short film sparking a much-needed conversation about colorism, a large issue within the black community, as well as many other communities. Colorism is the prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.

A apartment rental situation is inversely-affected by a person's race.

In Beirut, five women meet regularly in a beauty salon, a colorful and sensual microcosm of the city where several generations come into contact, talk and confide in each other. Their intimate and liberated conversations revolve around men, sex and motherhood between haircuts and sugar waxing with caramel.

Marcus a recently released Ex con has difficulties integrating back into his ever-changing community. He quickly becomes enticed to return to his old life but meets an older woman who welcomes him to work in a garden where he finds redemption and peace.

Yesterday, a man was murdered in a street, in Cleveland. According to the initial findings of the investigation, several men have been arrested by the police, and among them, a potential witness whose identity is still unknown...

Student Short - Narrative

Monologues of migrant women are juxtaposed to tell the various immigrant experiences of women who find themselves in a foreign country away from their loved ones and as the sole means of providing for them. Presented on Zoom in July 2020 with actors and a creative team from seven cities and three continents, made possible only because it was presented on zoom during the pandemic lockdown.

On the eve of the Lebanese civil war in 1974, three characters’ little stories intertwine to make up the plot of LITTLE WARS. Talal, is the son of a feudal lord, who reluctantly steps into the shoes of a war chief after his father. His love interest Souraya, tries to support him and helps him kidnap a businessman. Finally, Nabil, a photojournalist, is posing as a hero when all

A grieving family struggles with their own demons as they try to come to terms with the death of a parent/husband. As the family of three begins to prepare for a wake, cranks in their personality start to show, reflecting that there is more to the recent death of the family patriarch.

Celebrating their 20th birthdays Yasmine & Leila decide to visit a renowned cinephile and collector, M. Farouk, to discover a newer known Lebanon. The film leads them on a path of memories and the 2 heroines immerse themselves in the universe of film that has over 40 years, contributed to creating the international image of Beirut as a shining star for over 40 years.

Rejoice Resist is a film that celebrates and shows Black Joy and Black pleasure as the ultimate form of resistance. It highlights the importance of allowing yourself to feel joy especially in the face of adversity.

Rabih, a young blind man, lives in a small village in Lebanon. He sings in a choir and edits Braille documents for an income. His life unravels when he tries to apply for a passport and discovers that his identification card, which he has carried his entire life, is fake. Now he must travel across Lebanon in search of his identity.

Ava, a young business woman, has to overcome her prejudice with the help of Tarec, a black homeless man who camps outside her house. This is a film about two very different humans, from very different backgrounds, that come together and experience a change of heart. A powerful message about equality, justice, humanity and a very special friendship that comes out of it.