DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

A CAMBODIAN SPRING
Director: Chris Kelly
Producers: Chris Kelly, Bob Moore, Edwina Forkin, Christopher Hird
2017 | 121 mins | Cambodia
Trailer

A Cambodian Spring” is an intimate and unique portrait of three people caught up in the chaotic and often violent development that is shaping modern-day Cambodia. Shot over six years, the film charts the growing wave of land-rights protests that led to the ‘Cambodian spring’ and the tragic events that followed. This film is about the complexities – both political and personal, of fighting for what you believe in.

A PLASTIC OCEAN
Director: Craig Leeson
Producers: Adam Leipzig, Jo Ruston
2016 | 102 mins | USA, Hong Kong
Trailer

A PLASTIC OCEAN begins when journalist Craig Leeson, searching for the elusive blue whale, discovers plastic waste in what should be pristine ocean. In this adventure documentary, Craig teams up with free diver Tanya Streeter and an international team of scientists and researchers, and they travel to twenty locations around the world over the next four years to explore the fragile state of our oceans, uncover alarming truths about plastic pollution, and reveal working solutions that can be put into immediate effect.

BIG SONIA
Director: Leah Warshawski, Todd Soliday
Producers: Leah Warshawski
2016 | 93 mins | USA
Trailer

For years, Sonia Warshawski (90) has been an inspirational public speaker at schools and prisons, where her stories of surviving the Holocaust as a teenager have inspired countless people who once felt their own traumas would leave them broken forever. But when Sonia is served an eviction notice for her iconic tailor shop (in a dead mall), she’s confronted with an agonizing decision: either open up a new shop, or retire. For a woman who admits she stays busy “to keep the dark parts away”, facing retirement dredges up fears she’d long forgot she had, and her horrific past resurfaces. BIG SONIA explores what it means to be a survivor and how this affects families and generations. Will you let your trauma define you? Or will your past make you stronger?

CITY OF GHOSTS follows the journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently” – a handful of anonymous activists who banded together after their homeland was taken over by ISIS in 2014. This is the story of a group of citizen journalists as they face the realities of life undercover, on the run, and in exile, risking their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.

Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas

Director: Joakim Demmer
Producers: Margarete Jangård (Sweden); Co-Producer: Heino Deckert, Ma.ja.de Produktions (Germany); Co-Producer: John Webster , JW Documentaries (Finland)

2017 | 80 mins | Ethiopia

Farmland – the new green gold. Hoping for export revenues, Ethiopia’s government leases millions of hectares of farmland to foreign investors. But the dream of prosperity has a dark side where the World Bank plays a very questionable role…Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas investigates land grabbing and its impact on people’s lives. Pursuing the truth, we meet investors, development bureaucrats, persecuted journalists, struggling environmentalists and evicted farmers deprived of their land.

Nowhere to Hide

Plastic China

Yi-Jie, an 11-year-old girl, works alongside her parents in a recycling facility while dreaming of attending school. Kun, the facility’s ambitious foreman, dreams of a better life. Through the eyes and hands of those who handle its refuse, an examination of global consumption and culture.

SEED

Director:Jon Betz, Taggart Siegel
Producers: Marisa Tomei, Marc Turtletaub, Phil Fairclough

2016 | 94 mins, 58 mins broadcast & educational version available | Mainland US, Hawaii, India, Mexico, Namibia, Ecuador

Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds. Worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. SEED: The Untold Story follows passionate seed keepers protecting our 12,000 year-old food legacy. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. As biotech chemical companies control the majority of our seeds, farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers fight a David and Goliath battle to defend the future of our food. In a harrowing and heartening story, these reluctant heroes rekindle a lost connection to our most treasured resource and revive a culture connected to seeds. SEED features Vandana Shiva, Dr. Jane Goodall, Andrew Kimbrell, Winona Laduke and Raj Patel.

Strike A Rock

Director: Aliki Saragas
Producers: Aliki Saragas, Liani Maasdorp, Anita Khanna

2017 | 87 mins | South Africa

In a deeply personal journey, Strike A Rock follows Primrose Sonti and Thumeka Magwangqana, two grandmothers and best-friends living in Nkaneng, Marikana, an informal-settlement in rural South-Africa that sprung up around a mine operated by Lonmin Plc. This was the company at the heart of the 2012 Marikana massacre, when 37 striking-mineworkers were killed by police.

When Primrose’s ambition lands her a seat in Parliament,she must leave Marikana. Thumeka, left behind, faces her fears and challenges Lonmin in a landmark complaint against them.Can they take on these goliath-enemies, and also maintain a friendship threatening to break under this pressure?

Thank You For The Rain

Director: Julia Dahr
Producer: Hugh Hartford

2017 | 90 mins | Kenya, Norway, France

Languages: English
Subtitles: English

Five years ago Kisilu, a Kenyan farmer, started to use his camera to capture the life of his family, his village and the damages of climate change. When a violent storm throws him and a Norwegian filmmaker together we see him transform from a father, to a community leader and activist on the global stage.

THE BLOOD IS AT THE DOORSTEP

Director: Erik Ljung
Producers: Erik Ljung

2017 | 91 mins | USA

Languages: English
Subtitles: English

On April 30, 2014, Dontre Hamilton, a black, unarmed man diagnosed with schizophrenia, was shot 14 times and killed by a Milwaukee police officer responding to a wellness check in Red Arrow Park.

Filmed over the course of three years in the direct aftermath of Dontre’s death, this intimate verite documentary follows his family as they channel their grief into community organizing in an attempt to reset the narrative. Offering a painfully realistic glimpse inside a movement born out of tragedy in what the Hollywood Reporter calls “An urgent report from the front lines of an American crisis.”

THE OPPOSITION
Director: Hollie Fifer
Producers: Rebecca Barry, Madeleine Hetherton
2016 | 76 mins | Papua New Guinea

The Opposition asks how we can ethically build sustainable business in developing countries. The story is told through Joe Moses, leader of the Paga Hill settlement, who must save his 3,000 people before they are evicted. Battling it out in the courts, Joe may find his community replaced with a five star hotel and marina.

THE WORKER’S CUP

Director: Adam Sobel
Producers: Ramzy Haddad, Rosie Garthwaite

2017 | 89 mins | Qatar

The Workers Cup is set inside the labor camps of Qatar, where the World Cup is being built on the backs of 1.6 million migrant workers. The film follows a team of laborers living a real-life version of fantasy football. By day they sweat to build the World Cup; by night they compete in a “workers welfare” football tournament, playing in the same stadiums that will one day host the world’s greatest players.

We join one team of men from Nepal, India, Ghana, and Kenya whose only common ground is their love for football. Each match offers them a mome

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

$30 TO ANTARCTICA

Director: Joey Chu
Producers: Kelly Mckay, Joey Chu
2017 | 18 mins | Hong Kong, Antarctica

$30 To Antarctica follows the story of Ka Foon Chau, who grew up an impoverished child, and retired a renowned doctor. Raised in 1960s Hong Kong, Chau faced the bias of her elders who attempted to discourage her interest in the academics. Through a small gesture of support she received from a teacher, Chau built a life and career that moved beyond the restrictive boundaries set by her parents’ generation. She is now ready to fulfill a childhood dream – to see Antarctica.

ANASTASIA LIN: THE CROWN
Director: Kacey Cox
Producers: Kacey Cox
2016 | 20 mins | Canada, Hong Kong, Switzerland, United States

After being crowned Miss World Canada 2015, China-born actress and human rights activist Anastasia Lin discovers that local authorities have threatened her father in an effort to silence her criticisms of the Chinese government. And when China is named host of the 2016 Miss World Finals, Anastasia must confront the possibility that she’ll be banned from competing unless she complies.

HOTEL U.S.A.
Director: Andrea Meller
Producers: Andrea Meller & Marisa Pearl
2016 | 11 mins | USA

A roadside motel in Newark New Jersey harbors refugees during their first night in America. “Hotel U.S.A.” captures a group of newcomers during their first moments in the country, exploring the sense of loss and hope that pervades the refugee experience.

QUIPU: CALLS FOR JUSTICE
Director: Maria Ignacia Court & Rosemarie Lerner
Producers: Sandra Tabares-Duque, Rosemarie Lerner, Maria I Court
2017 | 21 mins | Peru

Esperanza and Teodula are calling for justice in rural Peru, they are part of 300,000 people sterilised without consent more than 18 years ago. The Quipu Project is their phone line that allows the affected across the country to share their shocking testimonies and ensure those responsible are punished.

THE MAURITANIA RAILWAY: BACKBONE OF THE SAHARA
Director: Macgregor
Producers: Macgregor
2017 | 12 mins | Spain

The Mauritania Railway is a 704-kilometer line linking the iron-mining center of Zouerat with the port of Nouadhibou. Atop a hopper car, we journey through vast Saharan landscapes with the people who rely on the train for their survival.

THE WORLD IS ROUND SO THAT NOBODY CAN HIDE IN THE CORNERS – PART 1: REFUGE
Director: Leandro Goddinho
Producers: Leandro Goddinho
2017 | 13 mins | Germany

The journey of an African gay refugee seeking asylum in Germany.

Integrate v. [ˈˈin-tə-ˌgrāt]
1. combine (one thing) with another to form a whole.
2. bring into equal participation in a social group or institution.
Refuge n. [ˈref.juːdʒ]
(a place that gives) protection or shelter from danger, trouble, unhappiness.

VIRTUAL REALITY/ 360

AFTER SOLITARY

Cassandra Herrman, Lauren Mucciolo
Producers: Nonny de la Pena and Raney Aronson
2017 | 9 mins | USA

“After Solitary” is a groundbreaking virtual reality experience that places the viewer physically and emotionally inside an otherwise inaccessible world. Marrying cutting edge photogrammetry technology that places users inside of two photorealistic 3D scanned environments, including a solitary confinement cell, with videogrammetry capture that allows users to meet former inmate Kenny Moore, the experience pushes the boundaries of immersive storytelling, while exploring what virtual reality can bring to journalism.

FLOATING WALK –  GANGNAM KANGAROO
Director: Sojung Bahng
Producers: Sojung Bahng
2017 | 14 mins | Korea

A young Korean woman, living in Australia, goes on a journey of self-confrontation to trace the root of her unclear but painful emotion; then realizes that historical and political traumas, such as Korean war, have greatly affected the lives of her family members as well as her identity.

IS THIS LOVE? 
Director: Felix Gaedtke, Gayatri Parameswaran
Producers: Catarina Gomes, Nisha Vasudevan, Namaah Kumar
2016 | 7 mins | India

Kya Yahi Pyar Hai (Is this Love?) – India’s first VR experience about intimate partner violence (IPV) – invites you step into the shoes of a young Indian woman. Feel Anuja’s dilemmas as she wades through the ups and downs of her relationship with Manoj. Produced by NowHere Media for the media NGO Love Matters India, Kya Yahi Pyar Hai breaks the taboo around intimate partner violence by using virtual reality/360° in public installations to narrate a powerful story and connect with young people.

ONE: A STATE WITHOUT

Emily Cooper, GJ Echternkamp, Liz Rowley
2017 | 10 mins | USA

The clock is ticking down and the walls are closing in on the doors of the last abortion clinic in Kentucky. Operation Save America’s leader takes us through the “gates of hell” into this religiously heated battle. Journey with us to the front-lines and ask yourself, is this the beginning of a real-life ‘The Hand Maid’s Tale?’

SANCTUARIES OF SILENCE
Director:Adam Loften, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
Producers: Adam Loften, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
2017 | 7 mins | USA

Silence just might be on the verge of extinction and acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton believes that even the most remote corners of the globe are impacted by noise pollution. In “Sanctuaries of Silence,” join Hempton on an immersive listening journey into Olympic National Park, one of the quietest places in North America.

TESTIMONY

Zohar Kfir
Producers: Zohar Kfir
2017 | 40 mins | USA

Testimony is an interactive documentary for virtual reality that shares the stories of five survivors of sexual assault and their journey to healing. Beyond just a film, Testimony is an advocacy platform to allow the public to bear witness to those who have been silenced. The Brock Turner case, Bill Cosby’s sexual assaults and Bill O’Reilly’s harassment of women are three recent examples that have helped create the perfect storm of public outcry over sexual assault and issues around consent. Despite persistent victim-shaming and the discounting of their experiences, survivors are increasingly coming forward, empowering one another to become agents of change and hope. Testimony is an interactive investigation that aims to tackle the obstacles women and men still need to overcome in order to report assault and confront the legal system. The goal of Testimony is to inspire those who have been silenced to speak out, while building courage amongst survivors. Witness these powerful testimonies and help us shatter the silence.

IMPACT VIDEO: INNOVATION

A RIDE TO REMEMBER
Director: Orlando von Einsiedel
Producers: Sinéad O’Mara, John Dwight, Greg Rutter
2017 | 10 mins | Sweden

For the past three years, researchers in Sweden have been experimenting with a stationary bike that takes dementia patients on virtual trips down memory lane. The bike is surrounded by a Google Street View display, allowing the “biker” to pedal down any street. Elder care centers in Northern Europe have been using it to give memory-loss patients the opportunity to return to their old neighborhoods. Remarkably, revisiting familiar locations from the past brings up forgotten memories and allows patients to share stories that their families didn’t even know. It turns out that sometimes, what is lost can be found again.

WOMEN SMASH CATHOLIC TABOOS IN THE PHILIPPINES
Director: Irene Baque
Producers: Claudine Spera
2017 | 9 mins | Philippines, UK

The stigma surrounding sex education and family planning in the Philippines is such that 65% of women do not use contraceptives. Five years ago, Congress passed a reproductive health law guaranteeing universal access to family planning, but misinformation remains rife. We follow three campaigners working in communities to challenge the myths, and help girls and women plan their families and take control of their future.

LUCY
Director: Michael Schmidt-Olsen
Producer:
2017 | 6 mins | Ghana

Lucy lives in the village of Taraganga, located in the Garu-Tempane district of northern Ghana. In recent years, Lucy has experienced increasing challenges due to the climate. There is less rainfall during the rainy season, and the actual rain periods are also declining. This is a major problem as most of the people in Northern Ghana are dependent on rain for farming and ordinary water supply. In addition, many families face major challenges with poverty and disease that help reduce their capacity to adapt to climate change. Fortunately, CARE has been able to help Lucy and her village through their climate adaptation project ALP – Adaptation Learning Program.

RISE UP
Director: Lee Hirsch
Producers: Leslie Norville, Matthew O’Shea
2017 | 3 mins | USA

RISE High: Kia Reid is a high school senior struggling to balance a difficult home life and a taxing academic career, which was derailed by her and her siblings entry into the foster-care system of Los Angeles, CA. Da Vinci RISE High is a school that serves students who have become disconnected from the traditional school system because of circumstances like homelessness and foster-care placement. Kia’s inspiring journey towards graduation, assisted by the staff and administration of this groundbreaking school, is a true triumph.

WALKING WITH REALITY
Director: Michelle Rebaleati
Producer:
2017 | 3 mins | USA

Evan W. Gadda is a student at the University of Nevada, Reno studying Musical Theatre. The team at @One Digital Media within the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center was able to bring a virtual reality experience to him with the hopes to bring this to more people.

IMPACT VIDEO: CREATIVE IMPACT

WALKING WITH REALITY
Director: Michelle Rebaleati
Producer:
2017 | 3 mins | USA

Evan W. Gadda is a student at the University of Nevada, Reno studying Musical Theatre. The team at @One Digital Media within the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center was able to bring a virtual reality experience to him with the hopes to bring this to more people.

73 QUESTIONS
Director: Leah Nichols
Producer: Leah Nichols
2017 | 10 mins | USA

A 73-question interview with Steve Jones about being on the streets of San Francisco.

A CHANCE TO SEE AGAIN
Director: Brent Stirton & Robert Wilson
Producer: Pam Huling
2016 | 6 mins | Namibia, Mbala

This short film profiles Dr. Helena Ndume, an internationally renowned Namibian ophthalmologist who has performed sight-restoring surgeries upon 35,000 Namibians, completely free of charge.

THE GATHERING
Director: Micki Dickoff
Producer: Micki Dickoff
2016 | 24 mins | USA

“The Gathering” tells the story of Witness to Innocence, the largest organization of death row exonerees in the United States. These innocent men and women, some spending decades on death row for murders they didn’t commit, come together once a year to share their thoughts and feelings, fears and dreams with the only people who really understand what they experienced. Their stories are heartbreaking, shocking and anger-provoking. The exonerees at this 10th annual Gathering empower each other, speaking out about a broken justice system that makes many mistakes and compels them to be warriors against the death penalty.

THROW
Director: Darren Durlach
Producer: Jody Weldon, Coffin Machtmahr, Alexander Glass
2016 | 10 mins | USA

The first installment of Invisible Thread, an ongoing Early Light Media passion project series, Throw, presented by YoYoExpert.com tells the story of an outsider from East Baltimore, an area challenged by gang violence and poverty. Often misunderstood, Coffin Nachtmahr found acceptance among a subculture of “throwers” and it turns out, he’s a virtuoso. He now helps others find a creative and social outlet by sharing the very toy that inspired him.

ABBEVILLE – LYNCHING IN AMERICA
Director: Juan Mejia
Producer: Equal Justice Initiative, Human Pictures
2017 | 7 mins | USA

The extraordinary journey of a family overcoming a century of silence to expose the truth. Produced with the Equal Justice initiative, this is a film about the importance of commemorating, remembering and disrupting history. As Bryan Stevenson states, we won’t be able to move forward until we acknowledge our history and address it.

WHERE MUSLIMS AND JEWS WORSHIP TOGETHER
Director: Dan Hayes
Producer: Chandler Tuttle, Brandon Stewart, Elliot Kotek, Robert Chapman-Smith, Dustin Oakley, Laura Howd, Kmele Foster, Clay Broga, Michael O’Shea
2017 | 7 mins | USA

When an imam invited a Jewish congregation to worship in his mosque, many of his members left in protest. But the initial controversy has since given way to an inspiring example of tolerance and compassion.