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In the midst of a brutal revolution, an Iranian woman taken to an otherworldly prison with only her dismembered eye as a method of sight transforms into a symbol of hope and resistance against a totalitarian regime in a harrowing journey of defiance.
Co-Writer/Director: Ariya Akhavan
Co-Writer/Producer: Anjini Taneja Azhar
Executive Producer: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Alambic Production
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After being arrested in an FBI sting and labeled a domestic terrorist amidst the Ferguson protests, a once-promising student, father, artist, and activist leader comes home to his life and family after 6 years of federal incarceration. With over a decade of intimate footage, this film bears witness as Olajuwon questions the tactics and label of “Black Identity Extremist” used to put him away and learns to reconcile his tumultuous past with his hopeful future.
Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director/Producer: Bobby Herrera
Producer: Aaron Bowden
Producer: Damon Davis
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In 1952, a prominent Soviet scientist was arrested and pressured to sign a confession to save his family. Later, the Soviet regime executed him for telling the truth by openly criticizing the director of the science academy who adamantly promoted pseudo-science.
Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director/Producer: W. Y. Geng
Producer: Becca (Suh-Hee) Han
Cinematographer: Ming Jue Hu
Art Director: Eleanora Figueroa Steiner
Editor: Anya Khusnatdinova
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When a food delivery driver is kidnapped during a dropoff, his teenage daughter must enter the mysterious mansion and save him from the darkness within.
Writer/Director: Joey Long
Producer: Ashley M. George
Producer: Nik Dodani
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Upon adoption, filmmaker Elizabeth Jacobs was the only baby out of her fellow adoptees to not receive a single piece of information about her family background. Now, twenty one years later, she returns to Cambodia for the first time since childhood in order to uncover the truth about her adoption, as she is determined to find out why, and why her.
Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director: Elizabeth Jacobs
Producer: Breanna Lynn
Assistant Director: Phoebe J Yung
Director of Photography: Britney Bautista
Sound Technician: Shorif Suhel
Cinematographer: Corey Clark
Sound Technician: Noah Penkrat
Cinematographer: Shalyn Delhaes
Gaffer: David Fernandez
Executive Producer: Darsh Thakker
Executive Producer: Avi Zephyra
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From unknown migrants to international pop-stars - we will explore how various refugee artists have risen above and triumphed over the disparate and desperate circumstances of their lives.
Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director: David Henry Gerson
Producer: Odessa Rae
Executive Producer: Katherine LeFrak
Executive Producer: Ondi Timoner
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A single father finds out his teenage daughter just got her first period so he goes into an adventure through an endless sanitary towel shelf to try to help her the best way he can.
Project type: Fiction Short
Director/Writer/Producer: Gabriela Lima
Producer: Kevin Aguirre
Co-Producer/Production Manager: Ana Luiza Leite
Editor: Rafael Franco
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In a bar in Beijing, a man and woman share an unexpected connection that reveals a deeper, hidden bond between them.
Project type: Fiction Short
Director/Writer: Stephanie Cheng
Producer: Petrus van Staden
Co-Producer: Clarissa Zhang
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An impromptu late-night house tour for an unsuspecting landlord spirals into chaos and terror. What starts as a seemingly innocent showing with a mysterious woman takes a sinister turn.
Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Nick Kostelnak
Producer: Justin Grohowski
Executive Producer: John Kostelnak
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When a supernaturally gifted 60 year old performer (Ken'ichi) is fired and humiliated by his acting manager, he quits his Hollywood career to work at an old school Japanese restaurant. Through wisdom and tough love from his elderly boss (Nene), Ken'ichi rediscovers his internal magic, leading to the surrealist performance of a lifetime on an unexpected stage: the hibachi grill.
Director/Producer: Ko Massiah
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Mitchell (Lamorne Morris) races full speed into the desert in his 77' Lincoln Town Car with his best friend Steve (Kyle Shevrin) riding shotgun, a leather-bound book of the dead at their feet and a trunk full of problems.
Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director/Producer: Shea E. Butler
Producer: Fiona Hardingham
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A documentary film that explores beauty pageant culture through the lens of a former contestant.
Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director/Producer: Mandi Reno-Matarrese
Producers: Joseph and Phillip Matarrese
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A young trans successful businesswoman is not having the same luck with dating men. When she starts a dance class to learn how to waltz and finds a new friend and course partner she doesn't want to get her hopes too high, but it is not easy for someone as romantic as she is.
Project type: Fiction Feature
Producer: Ava Davis
Director: Hillary R. Heath
Producer: Madison Hatfield
Cinematographer: Abijeet Achar
Editor/Producer: Nicole Kemper
Associate Producer: Jamie Dion
Associate Producer: Clarinda D'Cruz
Associate Producer: Jason Gonsalves
Production Designer: Crystal Jin Kim
Costume Designer: Alan Yeong-Marcello
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A Jewish woman takes shelter in the closet of a Polish couple in 1943. A child is soon born and their lives are irrevocably changed.
Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Michael Masarof
Producer: Sharon Barnes
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When a depressed young writer in the late 19th century is restricted by her well-intentioned physician husband to a summer of bed rest in a remote country estate, her isolation — and marriage — sets in motion her descent into madness.
Project type: Fiction Feature
Writer/Director/Producer: Kevin Pontuti
Producer/Lead Actor: Alexandra Loreth
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A documentary short exposing an unsettling truth: The United States no longer welcomes the “tired, poor, huddled masses” we’re telling to “get in line” for the American dream. There is no line anymore, not for them.
Project type: Nonfiction Short
Director: Sharon Boeckle
Executive Producer: Matt Cameron
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This Crooked World is a deliciously playful thriller that follows two women and the nefarious characters pursuing them across the US-Mexico border. It draws inspiration from Fargo, Snatch, and Thelma & Louise.
Project type: Fiction Feature
Producer: Lisa Donmall-Reeve
Producer: Tom Wilton
Director: Maria McIndoo
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On the night of their wedding anniversary, a bohemian theatre actress and a beatnik inspired writer confront the strife of their relationship, dreams and the city they once loved.
Project type: Fiction Feature
Director/Writer/Producer: Hassan Said
Producer: Masha Karpoukhina
Writer: Lourdes Figueroa
Cinematographer: Peggy Peralta
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Pearlette, Tammy and Terry are Three (Extra)Ordinary Women of color who collectively have overcome poverty, abuse, systemic racism, and political occupation. The film will explore their life stories and how the parallels between the Palestinian occupation and Jim Crow in the United States have equally disenfranchised people of color. Braving their biggest physical obstacle yet – climbing to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro– will show women of color can accomplish anything.
Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director: Cionin Lorenzo
Executive Producer: Pearlette J Ramos
Director of Photography: Nick Kalisz
Cinematographer: Steve Vanderheide
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An anthology film exploring contemporary Black existence across the diaspora: a collegiate football star scrambles to save his career after a devastating injury; a Ghanaian single mother desperately evades deportation after being unjustly fired from her job; the lead of an up-and-coming sitcom must decide between financial prosperity and fighting for better on-screen representation.
Director ("Red")/Executive Producer/Creator: Elijah Davis
Director ("Black"): Allison A. Waite
Director ("Black"): Tyler Ocasio Holmes