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- An Iranian American trans man travels back in time to an LGBTQ+ archive to understand his sexuality. He encounters his past and present selves during an erotic journey of self-discovery.
- Clemence returns home after dropping out of college with a newly diagnosed mental illness.
- Zaynab, a thirtysomething lesbian Pakistani Muslim in Chicago, takes care of her sweet, TV-obsessed mother. As Zaynab falls for Alma, a bold, very bright Mexican woman, she searches for her identity in life, love, and wrestling.
- Two strangers get hooked on worms and slither into the primordial ooze.
- A mystical teen noir that follows a young girl's disappearance in the rural Midwest and its effect on teens and parents.
- Jo, a white trans woman craving an increasingly elusive intimacy, Carter, a queer Black man at odds with his conservative upbringing, and Emerie, a Latina trans woman stuck in an incompatible relationship, all converge from different parts of Chicago for a magical New Year's Eve night. As hangovers fade, and the three friends face awkward hook-ups, nervous dates, and the unlikely pursuit of lasting love, at least they have each other.
- Code-Switched is a comedy-drama series that follows the interconnected lives of five South Asian-American Chicagoans and friends trying to blaze their own trails in a world of high-expectations, fleeting relationships, and gentrified workplaces.
- Billie #hatesherjob and quits mere months before getting married. She meets a ragtag group of women also looking for employment, and finds herself juggling her upcoming wedding with launching a new tech start-up.
- Chelli Look, a leather bag artist, faces overwhelming grief after the murder of her sister. Chelli's journey towards healing forces her to rediscover who she is as an artist, leading to a revelation that takes her in a new direction.
- Ordinary people confront complicated matters of social justice, technology, and culture in a unique near-future world with interconnected narratives.
- Despite a language barrier, a friendly Indian grandmother connects with her reserved Polish neighbor while gardening in their backyards.
- A webseries gone viral following 4 gay Latino grads that are also witches slaying white supremacy.
- A queer girl named Trinity huffs the contents of a magic aerosol can and develops the ability to talk to the dead.
- Set in a near-future techno-dystopia, a suicidal shut-in orders pills from a mysterious online company in a last-ditch attempt to fulfill their wildest fantasies.
- A young man goes on a time-bending journey of psychological self-discovery.
- The Orange Story is a narrative short film that tells the story of an elderly Japanese American man who must sell all his belongings and report to a temporary detention center during WWII from where he will be forcibly removed to an undisclosed location. The film also uses archival radio, film, and photographic sources to complement this narrative, providing a strong historical context for the story.
- Self-Deportation tells the story of an Asian American woman who crosses over into a surreal world after a series of strange encounters on the subway. Caught in an endless loop of subway cars and mysterious hallways, she becomes lost in the fantastical landscape of 'Real America' -- dreamlike environments populated by various American archetypes: a peppy cheerleader, a fast-talking politician, an heroic firefighter, etc. Her final act of 'self-deportation' -- both literal and figurative -- raises questions about our notions of home and belonging.
- Short
- Starting with teenagers at Dairy Queen and ending with boomers at book club, Nancy and her adult daughter Allison must find the courage to fiercely protect each other from their respective bullies.
- Hidden Histories is a touring program of five short narrative films about Japanese American incarceration during WWII. Each film tells a personal story dramatizing a different period of this history, starting from Executive Order 9066 (which authorized the confinement sites) to the present-day legacy for younger generations. Hidden Histories commemorates an important chapter in our nation's history, and pays tribute to the 120,000 Americans who suffered the indignity and untold losses of this unjustified incarceration. These stories also serve as a cautionary tale. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed into law by President Reagan, declared that Japanese American incarceration was "motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." Despite this forceful statement, our nation is at risk of repeating these grave mistakes. Hidden Histories provides a much-needed reminder of the profound cost of abandoning our ideals of an inclusive society and equal protection under the law.
- ShortA gender-fluid Latine performance artist and a neurotic Asian American therapist are led by a series of uncanny circumstances into a world of chakras, spirits, and cult leader fanaticism.
- ZWISCHEN Lori Felker ZWISCHEN ("between" in German) exists on the thin line between opposing forces. Dirt moves over light to a hand-drawn soundtrack of noise and space. 3min, 2006. BLOKD Martin Mulcahy Through the voices and tools of his great grandfather, an early avant-garde filmmaker, a man explores the world as if we are living inside a movie set. 5min, 2016. YO NO SOY ESA Diana Delgado Pineda On an ordinary winter afternoon, a mother does laundry and her daughter puts her clothes away. What could happen when Mom isn't looking? 6min, 2014. ANT HOUSE Valia O'Donnell The house of a family torn by domestic strife is eaten by termites as a manifestation of the tension within. 2min, 2016. GIANTS ARE SLEEPING Amanda Gutierrez The identity, transformation, and ownership of one Chicago electrical substation, exploring the relationship between human memory and architecture. 11 minutes, 2014. SELFIE Valia O'Donnell A multi-media animation contrasting tourism in Rome with the experience of a Bangladeshi immigrant selling selfie sticks. 1min, 2015. CHOSEN PEOPLE Qihui Wu An experimental documentary depicting the daily activities of the Israel of God Church on the south side of Chicago. 18 min, 2016. GRANDMA and ME DANCING WITH HIBARI Elliott Chu Elliott's grandma is awakened to dance with her favorite Japanese singer. 2min, 2016. HAIL MARY Emily Esperanza An exercise in holding space (vulnerability). 16 min, 2016. SPARROW DUET Steve Socki Animated abstract shapes and gestures dance together in patterns suggesting ritualistic, bird-like action. 4min, 2014.
- Make Out Party is a no-budget, high-style comedy of errors that follows three vibrant characters though a day of misadventure as they set out to attend hostess Mary Woah's Make Out Party. Meet Madame X, a leather-clad Venus with too many lovers; Band-Aid Box, a dapper-femme do-gooder just trying to make it through their day; and Bambi, a peppy Satanist-witch with no time for catcalls. Will they make it to gap-toothed-pin-up-queen Mary Woah's Make Out Party? From meanie alien greaser gangs, to a pair of tough roller-skaters, a conniving librarian and a disgruntled waitress, our heroes sure have their work cut out for them. In the end, Make Out Party reminds us that we are all wild wonderful wackos who deserve a French kiss.
- When an event or artifact is relegated to "prehistory," it becomes decontexualized and exists in a sort of cultural waste bin. Many early sci-fi films have encountered a similar fate, and their depictions of "the future" strike us today as outdated, naive, and unintentionally humorous. In Prehistorized, these old films are reimagined and re-presented out of their original context, colliding with the gaze of the 21st-century viewer, whose cultural perspective and milieu will one day itself become outdated, naive, and unintentionally humorous, perhaps even relegated to some future civilization's "prehistory."
- In this hybrid documentary, history comes alive when an Iranian-American trans man time-travels on a dizzying quest to unravel his own sexual desires.
- A millennial, coming of age story that centers around two sisters returning to the suburbs of Chicago ten months after their father's sudden death. Upon arrival, they discover that their mother's hoarding has reached a concerning level, and the sisters begin the emotional task of cleaning out the home. The disrepair of their childhood residence is a metaphor for their mother's deteriorating mental state, but the sisters embark on a cathartic weekend of dusting off wounds and reconciliation.
- A Korean immigrant goes to a local casino after receiving a voucher in the mail for free slot play and lunch. Is this just harmless fun, or the beginning of a gambling problem?
- In this collection of six shorts, filmmakers gaze at themselves and their world, attempting to make sense of what they see reflected back. From gripping drama to heart-warming comedy, Our Right to Gaze: Black Film Identities features timely stories from Black artists that take us outside of the ordinary. Full Spectrum Features (Chicago), Northwest Film Forum (Seattle), The Luminal Theater (NYC), and Circle Collective (NYC) seek to champion Our Right to Gaze as a means of addressing systemic inequity within the film industry, through the disruption of existing film distribution models and attitudes towards artist services and support. The program is also designed to support the participating filmmakers first and foremost - structured so that they receive adequate compensation for their work, have the option to participate in a mentorship cohort, and have the collective support of the cross-country coalition of media partners. Through a mission-driven desire to highlight unseen voices and present a program that steps outside of impersonal plug-and-play virtual distribution models, the collection will rely on the film exhibition and distribution expertise of the participating organizations to engage a broad constituency of exhibitors and mentors via grassroots outreach, personal relationships, and direct conversation with the artists. The six shorts included in the project are as follows: "A Hollywood Party" Directed by Toryn Seabrooks An aspiring TV host encounters her lifelong idol at a Hollywood party but is mortified after the superstar accidentally spits on her lip mid-conversation. "Auntie Zariyah" Directed by Zora Bikangaga Zach crashes with an auntie he's never met before and soon finds out that Auntie Zariyah is a 12-year old influencer. "The Black Banshee" Directed by John D. Hay Jr. Produced by Kyla Sylvers Convinced by her friends and boyfriend to enjoy a night out after losing her job, Yvie begins to question her own mind when the visions she's been having start to have dangerous consequences. "Love in Submission" Directed by Lande Yoosuf Produced by Antu Yacob Worlds collide when two different Muslim women meet each other for the first time through a mutual third party. "Nowhere" Directed by Lin Que Ayoung A middle-aged Latina flees her controlling husband for a night of unadulterated freedom. "The Pandemic Chronicles" Directed by Ya'Ke A three-part anthology series about love, loss and grief during quarantine.
- A high school student must make a decision when his environment pressures him into violence against his true identity.