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OK Boomer
Against the Current
Sex Sells
Unbreathable: The Fight for Healthy Air
Son of a Sweeper
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SRFF 2021

Native American teen activist Daunnette Moniz-Reyome (age 17) shares her family’s journey to retain the sacred rituals and values of their culture in the wake of centuries of loss from disease, war and government policies.

Against the Current

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.

Angie: Lost Girls

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.

Antigone

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.

Baladi (My Country)

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.

Ballerina

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Judith Ehrlich tells the story of a mass movement of war resisters who choose conscience over killing. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. visits Joan Baez in Santa Rita Prison and links the racial justice and peace movements in an impassioned speech. The film chronicles a youth-led movement of draft resisters who ended the draft and helped end the brutal war

The Boys Who Said NO!

Three migrants leave home in their teens to embark on a years-long journey to Spain. Crossing the Sahara Desert by foot, spending months to years living in the forests of Morocco, and finally making the dangerous crossing to the Spanish mainland, these three distinct immigration stories have one thing in common: their incredible optimism in the face of inconceivable adversity.

¡Boza!

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.

Corked

Under Paris' glittering Eiffel Tower, undocumented Senegalese migrants sell miniature souvenirs of the monument, to support their families back home. Far from their loved ones and hounded by the police, each day is a struggle through darkness in the City of Lights. Wolof with English subtitles.

Dafa Metti (Difficult)

Unhoused and formerly unhoused Black women and girls speak on Black women's intersectional experiences with homelessness, misogynoir, colorism, foster care, sexual and domestic abuse, trafficking and educational disruption. Featuring Skid Row poet and feminist activist Suzette Shaw.

Defining Ourselves, For Ourselves

Short documentary about life in Artsakh after the 2nd war began in the fall of 2020. Indigenous Armenians returned to their homes which are unrecognizable from the bombardment. They’re now rebuilding with hopes for peace while reliving the intergenerational trauma from the previous wars, talk about how the world sees but ignores their prosecution.
Armenian with English subtitle

The Desire to Live

On the US/Mexico border, an undocumented mother’s quest to save her son relies on a troubled American Vet, building a wall out of junk, whose duty is to keep her out.

DUSTWUN

A new mother has spent longer than expected with her baby daughter due to the Covid lockdown - but now she must confront the post-pandemic return to work. A docu-drama filmed 100% remotely during the coronavirus lockdown.

An Endless Summer

As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the world, we set out to create a film in partnership with 20 producers from around the world. We gathered over 50 incredible positive stories. As they began unforlding, we quickly realized that this film was not just about positivity, but about the humanity in people; the everyday heroes amongst us. Chinese, English, French, Italian, Persian, and Spanish with English subtitles.

Everyday Heroes

When will the "last" time be the last time? Four months after its Juneteenth 2020 release, Chris Oledude's single George Floyd has now been re-presented in the video entitled George Floyd: Say Their Names.

George Floyd: Say Their Names

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.

Gets Good Light

This 15-minute documentary spotlights the efforts of urban farmers Arthur and Nancy Culbert whose mission is to eliminate hunger within their own community by growing organic produce. They partner with a neighborhood school giving students the opportunity to plant and harvest vegetables and fruit for those in need.

Growing for Good

The story of an architect woman, Tsoghik Arabyan, in the Soviet Union, in Armenia, in the 1950s. Armenian with English subtitles.

The House That Built Tsoghik

Two young women in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, struggle to fulfill their dreams of obtaining an education while also serving a vital role in earning a living for their families. The survival of children in indigenous Chiapian Mexico is both fragile and resonant with community. English and Spanish with English subtitles.

How We See Water

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.

I MARRIED MY MOTHER

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.

iMigrant Woman

An endearing short by 16 year old newcomer Julia Ward. As big sister to Spencer, a tween with special needs, she asks Hollywood's elite how to include more characters like her brother in film and why it is important.

In.clu.sion

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

My Mexican Bretzel

New York City is the largest and most ethnically diverse metropolis in the United States yet its public schools remain among the nation’s most racially segregated. Fed up with the status quo, teenage activists and best friends Alex and Marcus lead a movement to integrate the city's high schools demanding social change while interrogating the society that puts them in the position of having to do so.

OK Boomer

Led by Lindsey Deaton, co-founder and first Artistic Director of the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles, choristers, many of whom have no musical training, come together to hone their craft and find their voices. Some have the added challenge of coping with changes in their vocal range brought about by hormones they take for the transition. The stakes are high as they prepare for their concert debut.

Out Loud

In early 2016, the Jordanian government announced that it would pursue a unique refugee hosting model in hopes to transform its largest refugee camp, Zaatari, into a self-sufficient and sustainable semi-permanent city. The investigators embed themselves into the Zaatari community to spend time with entrepreneurs who fled crisis and decided to start a new business. English and Arabic with English subtitles.

PSYCAP

Produced during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic in NYC, "Quaranteens" follows the experiences of a group of highschoolers as they navigate familial relationships, frontline work, racism, healthcare and economic injustice.

Quaranteens

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.

Rejoice Resist

A Zanzibari woman, Samira, aspires to have a family like all of her friends, but is also determined to pursue a higher education and a career. Throughout seven years of her life society and the respect of traditions, constantly pressure her to choose one over the other. Swahili with English subtitles.

Samira's Dream (Ndoto Ya Samira)

Through emotional interviews and visual storytelling, the film offers a look at an often misinterpreted topic. Kristy Childs is a former sex worker and works alongside Lucy, a survivor. Tatyana is a former victim of sex trafficking and helps survivors. Alice and Imogen are both active sex workers, Alice being the highest-paid prostitute in the United States.

Sex Sells

Two months after the massive explosion that devastated Beirut, Carol Mansour explores the aftermath of the blast, talking to friends and exchanging reflections on what happened and its implications in candid unscripted messages with feelings of helplessness, frustration and overwhelming anger at the political class. Arabic with English subtitles.

Shattered: Beirut 6.07

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.

Should the Wind Drop

This film serves as a collective grief ritual. A journey of reckonings and resilience. Experience a celebration of the power of the human heart amid the aftermath of atrocities in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Both survivors and perpetrators, collectively and individually, source forgiveness and peace from within.

Something to Give

Vimal Kumar is the son of a sweeper, or “untouchable” in India’s cruel caste system. This film profiles his efforts to provide different options and more hope for other children of sweepers through education. We follow him around India as he manages his “Movement for Scavenger Community” and observe his challenges... and his success. English and Hindi with English subtitles.

Son of a Sweeper

K. Gene Simmonds, a high school music teacher, started the Southern California Youth Chorale in 1965, at the height of the hippie zeitgeist not only to bring Americana music to other countries but, also, to expose his students to other cultures and languages. The Southern California Youth Chorale traveled to 27 different countries on four continents over a twelve-year period enriching lives, building lifetime friendships and memories.

Song of the Open Road: The Southern California Youth Chorale

Three decades after the world's most infamous nuclear disaster, illegal hiking adventurers aka "stalkers", extreme sports afficionados, artists and tour companies have begun to explore anew the mysterious, ghostly, post-apocalyptic landscape. They are the underground culture of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

STALKING CHERNOBYL: exploration after apocalypse

The stress of war is so severe and prolonged, it can become toxic. Scientists and humanitarians work to provide hope in what can seem like a pretty hopeless world. Syrian families raise their children in the face of unimaginable violence and oppression, their past defined by terror, their future driven by hope. Neurological and behavioral teams from Harvard, Yale and Hashemite University; young researchers and humanitarian volunteers put science to work for the oppressed and vulnerable.

Terror and Hope: The Science of Resilience

Just about everything we own is delivered by trucks. Truck drivers, once known as the mavericks of the open road, are facing changing working conditions, new privacy regulations, and new forms of monitoring, with the rise of artificial intelligence and the speed of the Amazon economy. The less visible artificial intelligence is built into the cabs of the 1.8 million long haul truck drivers in the US, a clear example of human-machine coalescence.

Truckers

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

The Turn

One the nation’s most critical health laws, the Clean Air Act, with current day stories of environmental injustice and community action, weaves historical milestones. Nearly half of all Americans still live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution, particularly those in poorer communities. Asthma is the number one health issue for children in the U.S today.

Unbreathable: The Fight for Healthy Air

Vivi is completely blind, having lost all her sight in her early twenties. Her play is based on the Harlem Renaissance novel Passing by Nella Larsen which tells the dramatic story of a mixed race woman who passes for white, married to a bigoted husband who doesn't know her true identity until he makes the startling discovery - with fatal results. Vivi relates strongly to the novel as she is not only blind but mixed race so "passes" often in life to better cope with her incredible challenges.

Vivi's Vision

The story of one woman’s personal discovery, empowerment, and triumph in a quest to overcome one of the biggest obstacles of her life. Metra Lundy simulates a walk to freedom by re-tracing the steps of the great American heroine, Harriet Tubman and discovers who she really is.

A Walk In Her Shoes

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? .

When I'm at Home
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SRFF - August Parallel Events - 2021

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.

iMigrant Woman

Two months after the massive explosion that devastated Beirut, Carol Mansour explores the aftermath of the blast, talking to friends and exchanging reflections on what happened and its implications in candid unscripted messages with feelings of helplessness, frustration and overwhelming anger at the political class.

Shattered Beirut 6:07
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