Francesco Cocco
15 min | 2019 | Spain | East Coast Premiere
Alicia puts make-up on her face after yet another special night. The intimacy of her world is broken by the doorbell ringing. On the other side of the door there's Ida, her mother, with some flowers as a birthday gift and her face strained by the gravity of what she's about to confess.
Mostafa Rostampour and Atefeh Rezayan
10 min | 2019 | Iran | US Premiere
The story of Tahereh, a victim of a premature marriage has just heard of the wedding arrangements being made for her younger sister. Tahereh is obsessed to protect her from the fate she is living.
Luc Godonou Dossou
15 min | 2019 | Switzerland | US Premiere
Inside the cockfighting pits in Thailand, in Philippines and the ones in Guadeloupe, Aod, Edgar and Dolores are preparing their roosters for an upcoming fight in front of a public of bettors and aficionados. For the Thais, the Filipinos and the Guadeloupeans, this ritualized sport runs through their veins meanwhile it is a tradition that seems meant to disappear.
Ronja Hemm
38 min | 2019 | Germany/Nepal
Nepal is facing a generational change. Two daughters of a Tamang family are preparing to study abroad. Their hopes for a better life are high, but the price is immeasurable. They must leave behind what is most treasured, their family. A beautiful intimate window into the lives of women still living traditionally and the younger women who are encouraged by their mothers to reach for more.
Jianna Maarten
25 min | 2019 | US | East Coast Premiere
A beautifully captured story of a young boy in a Mexican border town who hustles any way he can to help his family but learns some very cruel realities when the girl he likes gets 'disappeared'. Based on true stories from La Frontera.
Paul Marques Duarte
25 min | 2018 | France | East Coast Premiere
When Adèle, an english teacher, spontaneously lets a young 15 years old migrant, illegally board a ferry for England with her class, she is far from grasping the importance of her gesture and its consequences on this overnight trip.
Morad Mostafa
23 min | 2020 | Egypt | US Premiere
Halima, a Sudanese henna painter goes to Basma's, a young Egyptian bride to prepare her for her wedding. Under the eyes of her daughter Ward, the encounter between the two women grows from complicity to suddenly unveiled tensions.
Mahmood Pouyandeh
14 min | 2019 | Iran | US Premiere
A young mother is invited to a birthday party in the affluent area of northern Tehran with the traditional and religious trends that live alone with her 10 years old son. In the middle of a birthday party, the mother noticed behaviors from her son who had not met before, and the mother had to leave the party.
María Guerra
13 min | 2018 | Spain
A comedy in the Spanish tradition…after the sudden death of Alvaro, Julia "his widow", watches over him in their home when she is surprised by an unpleasant visitor, Susana, Alvaro’s first wife who has come with the legitimate intention of saying goodbye to him.
Alejandra Wills
13 min | 2019 | Colombia | New England Premiere
A story of sadness and tragedy that has taken a toll on many peasants in the Colombian countryside after being caught up in the on-going conflicts that have plagued the country. This film follows a peasant woman and a young man, an unlikely relationship considering how their paths have crossed.
Pedro del Río
15 min | 2019 | Spain | US Premiere
A homeless woman finds a set of keys, tries to find out which apartment they belong they will open and takes on a new identity.
Joanna Bielinski
23 min | 2019 | Germany | East Coast Premiere
A tale of domestic abuse, life begins to spiral out of control after the birth of their son. Rea’s depression escalates as well as her abuse against Oliver. Their life in shambles, his job is in jeopardy, Rea fakes a suicide attempt and when the police are called to the apartment, the evidence is determined by outdated gender roles.
Charlie Manton
25 min | 2019 | UK | US Premiere
Traveling to witness the execution of her son’s murderer, a mother is torn between retaliation and reconnecting with her estranged daughter.
Richard Reens
21 min| 2020 | US/Canada/South Africa | East Coast Premiere
A genocide survivor transcends overwhelming odds to become a master chimpanzee linguist. As the world’s chimpanzee population dwindles in the wild, one-man risks everything to care for a group of mistreated animals rescued by Jane Goodall’s Chimp Eden Sanctuary in South Africa. Stany Nyandwi, a survivor of the Burundi genocide, overcomes insurmountable odds to become one of the only humans to master the complicated ‘pant hoot’ chimp language. Recognizing that it’s not just a chimpanzee/human struggle, he’s taken it upon himself to reconnect with our closest relatives on this planet. Love knows no man-made boundaries in this universal story about understanding.
Gabriel Amaral
23 min | 2019 | Brazil | East Coast Premiere
When Nego discovers that the cacao farm he lives and works on is going to be sold, he must face not only the loss of his home and job, but also the daily contact he has with the land he cherishes so much.
Dan Sullivan
40 min | 2019 | Japan/UK/US
This is a story about a teacher documented by a group of teacher-filmmakers, a Boston-based crew. Ten years ago, Tetsuya Miyamoto had a dream to change the world through puzzles. In his classroom in Yokohama, KenKen was born. Enter a world where puzzles matter. From Tokyo to New York, from the classroom to the puzzle page to the tournament floor, this film takes you into the brain of the inventor and the players, all while the machines of business and technology crash into Miyamoto's philosophies of artistry and humanity. Miyamoto believes each handcrafted puzzle tells a story, and if you look hard enough between the rows, columns and cages of KenKen, you can find the story of the sensei who started a global phenomenon.
Georgi M. Unkovski
19 min | 2019 | Macedonia | East Coast Premiere
After an unsuccessful attempt to renew his car registration, Dejan falls in a bureaucratic trap that tests his determination to be a responsible father.
Dekel Berenson
15 min | 2018 | Nepal/UK
Nestled between a beautiful lake and the Himalayas, Ashmina, 13, lives with her family at the outskirts of Pokhara Nepal, paragliding capital of the world. The remote and traditional town is also a busy tourist destination where the locals are profoundly affected by the swarms of tourists who visit it daily. Forced to skip school, Ashmina helps her family make ends meet by working at the landing field, packing the parachutes of foreign pilots in return of small change.
Awards: Best Short Film award at Krakow Film Festival and Best Live Action Short at Jerusalem Film Festival, qualifying the film for Academy Awards consideration.
Edgar García
30 min | 2019 | Puerto Rico | US Premiere
Weeks after Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico, a lonely middle-aged man finds himself obsessing with his squatter neighbor, a young closeted and tormented athlete who insistently pursues his attention. The movie deals with fragility issues of living in a forgotten paradise, in the world's oldest colony, still half-torn, half-supported, with half-citizens, half-gods, and half-demons.
Mattis Ohana Goksøyr
10 min | 2019 | Norway | New England Premiere
Danish Amir and Norwegian Sarah connect on a dance floor in central Oslo. He ends up going home with her, but, halfway into bed, he discovers that she is Jewish. Shocked, he reveals his Palestinian background and begins to make his exit.