Short Films

In the Southern Illinois region of Little Egypt, a sound recordist walks through the fields where once stood Pyramid Courts - the housing projects that formed the heart of the Black community of his hometown, Cairo.

In this two-part tour through the streets of Lebanon, a colorful Palestinian cab driver offers offhand insight into the region’s fraught political and social climate through boisterous serenades and excitable outbursts.

An oneiric journey through Alex's life as a former guerrilla leads to a reckoning with the devil inside of him. His only cure is ayahuasca,  sacred plant used by the indigenous community where he comes from. As both a perpetrator and victim, Alex exemplifies the complexity of the Colombian conflict and the difficulties of simply moving on.  

This collection of eight early films by Brazilian artist and filmmaker Ana Vaz proposes a critical reflection on the relationship between colonialism, modernity and the impending ecological disaster. At the core of the collection is a cycle of works that explore the colonial and post-colonial exchange between Europe and the Americas.

Feminist filmmaker Victoria Schultz captures the memory of her own past, trying to become a writer while becoming entangled in erotic and frightening encounters with an older man. A #MeToo film that stretches back to one woman's memory growing up in the 1950s.

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.

In a remote Haitian village there is a dance with slaves and masters: the whipping zombie ritual. To trance-inducing music played by rara bands, men whip and fight until they die and are reborn in the infinite cycle.

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.

Zipporah was a girl when her family was among the eighty Inuit to be sent to the high arctic by the Canadian government. Through haunting interviews, archival footage and experimental animation, Resolute tells a story familiar to thousands of indigenous families in Canada and beyond.

Reality for the kids who live in Sderot, an Israeli town that neighbors the Gaza strip, is a constant reminder that they are in the midst of a deadly conflict. Kids of the Rocket Siren melds verite, interviews and archival to document the kids who have grown up with rocket shelters, sirens and deadly blasts.

This simple vérité film takes viewers on a journey to the backwoods of Southern Georgia. The kids are never far from home and live, like their grandfathers before them, out in the sticks with traditions routed in nature the forefront of their existences.

An engaging cinematic portrait of one of Canada’s most eccentric prime ministers, Mackenzie King, who led a secret life conducting séances and speaking with the dead.

An immersive, visually stunning portrait of a childhood on the margins of society by Emmy-nominated director Aaron Schock, La Laguna documents the remarkable journey undertaken by a Mayan adolescent as he tries to navigates the changing world around him in the endangered rainforests of southern Mexico.

A gripping and timely snapshot that provides a glimpse into the plight of Syrian refugees, 50 Feet from Syria uncovers the humanitarian efforts of a Syrian-American orthopedic surgeon who travels to the Turkish border to volunteer to operate on victims of the civil war.

2015 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject, Joanna is a tender and heartbreaking portrait of a young wife and mother facing terminal cancer who, wishing to leave something behind for her eight-year-old son, begins writing an online journal that resonates with and becomes embraced by millions of devoted readers.

2014 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject, Prison Terminal is an extraordinary chronicle of death and dignity behind bars, an incredibly moving story of a terminally ill prisoner's final days and the hospice volunteers (prisoners themselves) who care for him. Issues surrounding America's aging prison population and the profound impact hospice programs can have on the lives of the incarcerated are explored in this remarkable film.

2014 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject, Karama Has No Walls is a gripping, eye-witness account of a tragic day that changed the course of the revolution in Yemen; when pro-government snipers opened fired on a peaceful gathering of protesters, sparking national outrage and ultimately leading to the end of 33 years of autocratic rule.