Miller and Son
21 minutes, USA, 2019
Director: Asher Jelinsky
A transwoman mechanic living in rural America tries to find a livable compromise between running her family’s auto shop during the day and expressing her femininity at night. When confronted with an unforeseen event, the balance of her daytime and nighttime worlds becomes jeopardized.
Water Flows Together
11 minutes, USA, 2020
Directors: Palmer Morse, Taylor Graham, Matt Mikkelsen
Water Flows Together elevates the importance of acknowledging Indigenous land in outdoor recreation through the voice of Colleen Cooley, one of the few female Diné (Navajo) river guides on the San Juan River. In sharing Colleen’s perspective, we are given a glimpse into native views on issues of water resource management, which are often missing from larger discussions of western water challenges.
Shelter in Place
15 minutes, USA, 2020
Director: Kelsie Moore
Isolation is nothing new for immigrants who have sought sanctuary inside churches around the United States. As the world adjusts to social distancing and virtual communication, Vicky Chavez, now in her third year living inside a Utah church, relies on zoom calls with other asylum-seekers in sanctuary churches.
Tutwiler
34 minutes, USA, 2019
Director: Elaine McMillion Sheldon
In this unique portrait of motherhood, women who give birth while incarcerated at one of America’s most notorious prisons struggle to stay connected with their children on the outside. The mothers turn to a group of doulas for support through pregnancy, labor and separation from their newborns; and they help each other cope with loss and guilt. This rare, intimate look behind the walls of a women’s prison raises questions about how our nation is handling the growing crisis of incarcerated mothers—and the children who must start their lives without them.
Hermanas
5 minutes, USA, 2019
Director: Lauren Zubia Calsada
Have you ever had the odds of traditional thinking stacked against you? Each time you act against those limiting mindsets, you are rightfully taking up space and driving change. The film Hermanas follows the story of sisters, Gemma and Ale, who challenge tradition everyday through cycling and mariachi. By occupying these two spaces, even when it is difficult, the sisters are keenly aware that their taking up space is an important factor in diversifying the male-dominated cultures. In Hermanas, the two badass sisters will inspire you to find strength and follow your passions, even when the odds are stacked against you.
Ours to Tell
17 minutes, USA, 2019
Director: Rayka Zehtabchi
Without shame and without fear “Ours to Tell” depicts four people who share their stories and walk in their truth. By owning the lives they choose what unfolds is an unfiltered and poetic demonstration of how the right to access abortion acts as a dynamic turning point in an individual’s journey to freedom and self love. Each with different perspectives and experiences, the film’s subjects — Brittany, Hannah, Nick and Ylonda — take us inside their worlds, their families, their souls and boldly illustrate the beauty and power of bodily autonomy. As we watch, listen and love each storyteller we also bear witness to a chilling reality: The fundamental freedom to own our body and future has never been more uncertain than it is today.
Baddiewinkle
5 minutes, USA, 2016
Director: Danielle Levitt
Helen Van Winkle is 87 years old. On some days, she likes to wear floral dresses and drop earrings. On others, she’ll wear a sweatshirt plastered with a hyperrealistic print of Justin Bieber over green-rose-patterned leggings and a clutch of gold chains and tattoo chokers. It’s this second “her” — as “Baddie Winkle” — that has earned this octogenarian 2.9 million Instagram followers, the allegiances of Nicole Richie and Miley Cyrus (the latter of whom befriended Winkle at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards), and a fandom of supporters and gawkers who can’t get enough of the cognitive dissonance of a woman who looks like your grandmother wearing the kinds of things you feel too old to wear.
But for Winkle, the idea that you should dress for your age is completely bunk: “I don’t feel old. I have never felt old. I think you can dress any way you want to.” Baddie Winkle has helped Helen Van Winkle not only get over the loss of her husband and son, but also reclaim her sense of self. “Baddie Winkle has helped me a lot — in spirit, anyway. The lessons that I have learned is live and let live,” she says. “I would love to be a role model for older people. You’re only here once in your lifetime, so have fun.”
Yéego Diné Asdzáá Climb Training
7 minutes, USA, 2018
Director: Deidra Peaches
There are not many initiatives to reacquaint younger Diné people back with the landscape. Yéego captures the journey of female Diné and POC as they acquaint themselves with the history of various landscapes.
A Woman Captured
59 minutes, Hungary, 2018
Director: Bernadett Tuza-Ritter
Can freedom be more frightening than enslavement?
A European woman has been kept by a family as a domestic slave for 10 years. Marish has been exploited and abused by a woman for whom she toils as a housekeeper— entirely unpaid performing all manner of back-breaking household duties seven days a week in exchange only for meals, cigarettes and a couch to sleep on. She even has to hand over the money she earns from an extra job as a cleaner in a factory. She is forbidden to do anything without permission. Marsh’s 18-year-old daughter ran away a couple of years ago unable to bear her circumstances any longer, but Marish lives with too much fear in her heart to leave. She dreams of seeing her daughter again. A women captured is a raw and intimate portrayal of the psychology behind enslavement. Director Bernadett Tuza-Ritter offers an evocative study of a woman so debased and disregarded that even she has lost sight of her own life. Drawing courage from the filmmaker’s presence, she decides to escape the unbearable oppression and become a free woman.
Defenders of Justice: Fighting Racism and Patriarchy in Brazil
17 minutes, Brazil, 2018
Director: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
In “Defenders of Justice,” we meet Lucia Xavier, who is part of a movement of powerful women activists who are reframing reproductive rights as an issue of women’s rights and racial justice, as she and others work to address security threats against activists fighting for reproductive rights. We also meet Daniele Duarte, an Afro-Brazilian lesbian activist who participates in protests and marches against the rise of the extremist president Jair Bolsonaro. Lucia, Daniele, and others are part of a vibrant and intersectional feminist movement in Brazil, mobilizing what some are calling a “Feminist Spring” in Brazil as the Supreme Court considers decriminalizing abortion.
My Life, Interrupted
10 minutes, USA, 2018
Director: Alana Devich Cyril
‘My Life, Interrupted’ is a poignant and hilarious award winning film short by first time filmmaker Alana Devich Cyril. The film portrays her real life struggle as a queer Black biracial femme fighting for her life against terminal cancer, and navigating death, with joy as her sword and shield. My Life, Interrupted was an official selection at Outfest LA 2018, Reel Sisters Film Festival NYC 2018, Portland Film Festival 2018 and the Langston Hughes Film Festival in Seattle 2018. The film also won the audience choice award at the Queer Women of Color Film Festival 2018 and best documentary short at the Gary International Black Film Festival 2018.
How One Woman Is Changing Plus-Size Visibility
6 minutes, USA, 2017
Director: Laura Delarato
Take a walk down a billboard-filled street, pick up a magazine, turn on the TV, or watch a movie, and witness one of the most elaborate vanishing acts of all time: In the United States, 67% of women wear a size 14 and above, but these women make up less than 2% of the images we see in media. And when they are seen, it’s rarely a fair portrait — they’re almost never portrayed as sexy. Studies suggest that seeing body diversity more often can actually make people more likely to consider larger bodies more aspirational and attractive. So Laura created a photo project to show New Yorkers how sexy plus-size women can be — by presenting them with steamy, intimate scenarios featuring one sexy plus-size woman. In the video, Laura Delarato projects the aforementioned photos on New York City buildings in major intersections and talk to the people on the street about what they think.
Fake babies, real love: the women who care for lifelike baby dolls
9 minutes, UK & USA, 2019
Director: Tom Silverstone
A growing number of collectors are cuddling, changing and caring for ‘reborns’ – individually crafted baby dolls that can cost up to $20,000. For some, it’s about rekindling their baby-rearing years. For others, it’s about dealing with their own inability to birth real human babies. Despite the finger-pointing from outsiders, it’s a subculture that’s thriving globally.