Cultural Studies

What started as a 7-week nutrition program for women seeking healthier diets, has become a Latina-led movement to enact change in their own communities. Known as Kitchenistas, these women are showing how healthy food traditions can lead to physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing as well as big change in the home, at schools, within city hall, and in the healthcare system.

The Two Sights (An Dà Shealladh) explores the disappearing tradition of second sight in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. As we listen to locals' accounts of haunting experiences—phantom horses, ghost voices and other supernatural phenomena—Bonnetta connects their testimonies with striking 16mm images and a carefully-curated sonic montage of the physical and aural environment of these enchanted islands.

Filmmaker Maxine Trump turns the camera on herself and her close circle of family and friends as she confronts the idea of not having kids, and explores the cultural pressures and harsh criticism childfree women regularly experience.

Red Chef Revival is a unique and intimate documentary that follows three trailblazing chefs on a cross country journey to redefine and reclaim Indigenous cuisine. Using food as their access point, these chefs discover a new path to reconciliation, while working with ingredients you won't find in any cookbooks, like bison heart, beaver tail, moose nose, seal and cougar. 

Un Film Dramatique is a lively portrait of the first class to attend the newly constructed Dora Maar middle school, filmed over the course of four years. The group of 21 middle schoolers discuss the drama of their daily lives and experiment with cameras and equipment. They are the film’s subjects, and also its makers.

Desalambrando examines the history of Puerto Rico’s squatter movement, also known as rescates de terrenos and its current relevance in a post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico.

The Call is an inside look at the turbulent jury selection process in Italy. In Italy, citizens can be summoned at a day’s notice for potential jury duty. 60 common citizens are randomly selected by a computer and notified by the police in person to appear in court—by the end of the day, 6 people are selected to be jurors.

A retired teacher in Serbian province, devotedly monitors elections believing that all individuals could and should make a difference in building democracy.

HÍBRIDOS, THE SPIRITS OF BRAZIL is an ethnomusicological journey into the sacred culture of Brazil, from Roman Catholic to Ubanda and candomblé--mixures of African traditions with Catholicism.

Pulling from real events and court documents in the wake of the 2015 Paris terror attacks, Also Known As Jihadi follows a young man's journey to radicalism not through his actions, but through his surroundings. 

Owned: A Tale of Two Americas is a fever dream vision into the dark history behind the US housing economy. Tracking its overtly racist beginnings to its unbridled commoditization, the film exposes a foundational story few Americans understand as their own.

I’ve Got a Little Problem chronicles internationally renowned photographer and poet Ren Hang’s struggle with Chinese censorship, painful public scrutiny, and manic depression, that eventually sent his life spiraling out of control.

Keep Talking follows four Alaska Native women fighting to save Kodiak Alutiiq, an endangered language now spoken by less than 40 remaining fluent Native Elders.

Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema from UCLA documents the lives and work of a small critically acclaimed group of black filmmakers and media artists known as the Los Angeles Rebellion, the first collective of minority filmmakers that aimed to reimagine the production process to represent, reflect on, and enrich the day to day lives of people in their own communities.

Survivors Rowe documents the tragic stories of three men who were victims of Ralph Rowe, an Anglican priest who molested over 500 children, and the courageous journey they undertake to arrive at a place of healing and forgiveness.

Bashir Ramathan worked as a laborer until losing his sight. Destitute and depressed, boxing saved Bashir, now an advocate for the rights of people living with disabilities around Uganda. This uplifting short documentary will remind audiences that if there’s something you want to achieve in life, nothing should stop you.