Short Documentary - Directed by NATHANIEL KRAMER (USA)

A LONG HAUL is a documentary depicting the struggles of a charter boat captain whose seasonal summer business has fallen prey to a bad economy, high fuel prices, loss of customers and depleted fish populations. He is forced to moonlight as a captain on a broken down commercial fishing trawler to make ends meet. If successful working for the trawler's owner, the captain will be able to run the boat during the winter when there is no charter business at all. Desperate to climb out from under a heap of personal debt and under pressure from the owner to get the boat fishing and make money, the captain sets sail for a three day offshore trip to net squid. At the captain's side is his loyal first mate, and a 13 year old boy from a wealthy family working for the captain as a summer job..The boat has not been fished in months and is has become saddled with mechanical problems which compound the pressure on the crew to catch squid. Over the next three days, the crew will face sleep deprivation, rough seas, mechanical problems and the difficult task of finding and catching squid.

Documentary - Directed by Kevin Tomlinson (USA)  |  Official Site »

Where have all the flowers gone?

In 1988-twenty years after Woodstock-Seattle filmmaker Kevin Tomlinson asked himself that question. What he discovered back then, through in-depth interviews at a 4 day 'healing gathering' which drew 500 back to the land hippies, was that small counterculture communities of sixties dropouts were intact and surviving in the back country. In fact, they were thriving in the eighties, living off the rich, rural land of Washington state and refining sixties "hippie" concepts-completely independent of a culture that had all but forgotten and marginalized them. His footage sat untouched for 20 years.

In 2008, in the tradition of 'Seven Up,' Tomlinson revived these old tapes and was deeply moved. What these outsiders were talking about in the eighties: sustainability, simplicity, family, love for the earth, self-reliance, and community responsibility—seemed to be blossoming with incredible force, 20 years later, into the mainstream.He decided to seek out his subjects again. The intimate and personal journey that followed offers profound, moving insights into one of the most iconic social movements of our time-and speaks to all of us. The pioneering lifestyles of these aging hippies and their now-thriving families, firmly insulated from global economic shocks, today looks wiser than ever.

Documentary - Directed by Sean Cassidy (USA)

In 2004, two American teachers began the first of a series of trips to Burma. At first, they were typical tourists, visiting ruins, eating exotic foods, and enjoying an amazingly beautiful country. The military junta of Burma, which they call Myanmar, carefully manages and monitors the experiences of foreign tourists. Hidden from view is a network that keeps tourists on track and citizens fearful of each other. Through a series of encounters with local people, filmmakers Patricia Keith and Sean Cassidy learned how to explore beyond the tourist fare the junta promotes. Seemingly casual comments open their senses and then their hearts in a search for more understanding of how the people of Burma have survived for decades in a state of national ruin and individual deprivation, where much is not as it seems.

Narrative - Directed by Gary Lundgren (USA)  |  Official Site »

An exceedingly likeable Junior College student, Calvin Marshall (Alex Frost) is chasing a lifelong dream to become a professional baseball player. He's got the drive, determination, ambition, heart and dedication. One small problem; he hasn't got the athletic ability to make it happen. But, Calvin believes that if he doesn't give up, he will eventually succeed. As he pursues his dream, Calvin is thwarted by the sympathetic but misguided intentions of the college baseball coach (Steve Zahn) who refuses to cut the talent-challenged ballplayer from his team roster, even though he knows Calvin will never get to play in a single game. At the same time, Calvin is encouraged by his burgeoning romance with a new arrival on campus, Tori Jensen (Michelle Lombardo), a beautiful volleyball player who possesses all the exceptional athletic skills that Calvin somehow lacks. However, a little white lie on Calvin's part could end his new relationship before it's even really begun.

Documentary - Directed by Mark Celletti (USA)

'Canoe Way: The Sacred Journey' documents the annual Tribal Journey event by Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest Coastal. Families and youth reconnect with the past and each other. Ancient songs, dances, regalia, ceremonies, and language were almost lost and are coming back.

Short Narrative - Directed by Joseph Albanese (USA)  |  Official Site »

Arthur Poe (Cris D'Annunzio) is a sadistic killer who likes to torture his victims. In 1993, he was captured and subsequently convicted by the state of Virginia for several gruesome murders. Poe received a sentence of death. Years later and days before his execution, the newly elected governor granted Poe clemency based on a testimony given by a forensic psychologist during Poe's murder trial. The testimony convinced the governor that Poe deserves psychiatric care rather than death. Many are outraged by the governor's act of leniency. A reporter (Maury Morgan) takes on Poe in an interview seeking to shed light on the emotionally charged topic. What she learns can never be forgotten or forgiven.

Short Narrative - Directed by Jennifer Williams (USA)

One night over a game of Scrabble, Tanya, with her newly sober girlfriend by her side, attempts to achieve a détente with her alcoholic mother. However, Tanya's mother undermines this effort, which exhumes long buried resentments in Tanya. As the mother and daughter clash escalates, Tanya's girlfriend finds herself an unwitting pawn in another kind of game where revenge and family power collide. In this new game, the three women are forced to see themselves and their choices more vividly.

Documentary - Directed by Evangeline Griego (USA)

GOD WILLING is a powerful exploration of a 35-year-old American religious sect known as "The Church". It also outlines the struggles of families whose children turn away from them to become "Brothers" and "Sisters" in the group, renouncing their past lives and the world - often, without ever turning back.

Short Narrative - Directed by Edward Roy (USA)

One Man's American Dream is another man's nightmare come true. Ahmad, an Iraqi immigrant who drives taxi in New York City, picks up a mysterious box from a close friend. Then, while driving Manhattan, picks up an American Business man on his way to the airport. Ahmad overhears this man's phone conversation that reveals his good fortune of acquiring a military supply contract. Ahmad hatches a plan and without warning kidnaps his passenger on the way to the airport. With his passenger locked in the back of the Taxi Ahmad seems to fit all the cultural stereotypes of a Muslim from the Arab world. And yet, through these bizarre circumstances, he reveals that he is no stereotype but a man who's dreams are common to us all.

Short Narrative - Directed by Nathan Lee (USA)  |  Official Site »

Inspector 42 is one of the brightest shirt-safety inspectors at Haggerty & Sons Shirt Company. He is responsible for inspecting shirts and placing his 'Inspected by 42' tag in the pocket of each accepted shirt, marking it for approval of safety standards. After miss-counting his morning quota, Inspector 42 decides to let a number of unsafe shirts through to shipping to save face with his boss, Mr. Haggerty, and his girlfriend, Seamstress 61. These dangerous shirts soon come apart, causing a number of horrific accidents.

Short Narrative - Directed by Kristina Romero (USA)  |  Official Site »

Inspired by a true story, this short film follows a state approved tour bus traveling through the North Korean countryside carrying two Western reporters and their North Korean guide. The Western journalists manage to outwit their guide and obtain banned footage. They believe they're about to make history until a North Korean Captain boards the bus to find out if any crimes have been committed, leaving all characters to define for themselves the meaning of wrong and right.

Documentary - Directed by Lou Buttino (USA)

Jane Pohl, a shy, awkward schoolgirl rescues an Army horse who was so rebellious he was going to be shot. She turns the horse into a champion, and in the process is herself transformed. He becomes the winningest horse of the late 1940s; and she is labeled "the greatest American rider" of that era. Together they break down barriers preventing women from riding in the Olympics. They did this in the first sport ever where women competed against men without gender concessions.

Short Narrative - Directed by Ken Pak (Canada)

There was only one person who understood the hell William Kemp went through... and when history repeats, William will be the one who will have to understand.

Short Narrative - Directed by Alec Whittle (USA)

Forced to make a choice between his family or his musical aspirations, Benny begins a downward spiral of self-destruction, and must ultimately come face-to-face with the consequences of his failed relationships…one of which threatens the life of his best friend.

Narrative - Directed by BECKY PRESTON (United Kingdom)  |  Official Site »

After a tragic accident John (Phillip James) begins an obsessive crusade to bring his comatose sister back to the waking world. In his sleep he walks the afterlife where she is trapped and soon John finds himself playing a game for her soul, a game that can't be won, against the only opponent who can never be beaten, Death (Orlando Seale). At the heart of this dark, parallel world Death taunts and seduces them with their deepest desires. With everything to play for, John will stop at nothing, even when he finds himself back at the site of the accident once more.

Short Narrative - Directed by Ora Yashar (USA)

It's 1974 and Caroline Jamieson, a political columnist at the Los Angeles Times, has just been fired from her job. To make matters worst, that evening Caroline must attend the sixtieth birthday of her father, George, a prominent novelist. Throughout the night, Caroline is ridiculed by siblings, has strange encounters with party guests, and is constantly prided by her father as she struggles to break the news to him. Will Caroline find the strength to come clean, despite the consequences?

Short Narrative - Directed by JorDan Fuller (USA)

After picking up his son from a Mexican orphanage, Miles and Carlos hit the road towards the States. Unable to speak each other's language, their new beginning is quickly wrecked as a gang of street kids strands them in the desert over night. Finding themselves blood related strangers, they must now deal with their estranged relationship while facing the past and any possibilities of a future together.

Narrative - Directed by Jason Williams (USA)  |  Official Site »

Robert and Alison Logan were married less than a year when Alison boarded American Airlines Flight 77 on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Later that morning, Robert watched in horror as televised news reports told him that Alison's fight had been hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. Eight years later, Robert has pulled his life back together and relocated to the Midwest. Still haunted by the memory of Alison, he has married Rachel, a clinical psychiatrist, and they share an idyllic life with Rachel's daughter Carly.

Short Film - Directed by Drew Goldsmith (USA)

For centuries, individuals with disabilities were viewed through the denigrating lens of pity. It is even believed that the term "handicapped" derives from the idiom, "hand-in-cap," connoting begging for money in a way that manifests shame. In striking contrast, business and industry have for centuries promoted their services in the most glowing of ways, aiming to evoke positive feelings of happiness, pride, and prosperity. But disability fundraising purposely aimed to arouse feelings of pity, guilt, and fear. Therefore, following other civil-rights movement of the 1960s and 70s, the disability-rights movement evolved in the 1980s and 90s, and disabled individuals directly confronted the denigrating tactics used in pity-based fundraising. For example, in his 1981 New York Times op-ed, Evan Kemp, Jr., chair of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, reproved disability charities, concluding that "[no one's] desire for a cure... can ever justify reinforcing a stigma against disabled people." Consequently, fundraising for most every disability around the world moved away from pity-based promotion and moved forward toward promotions that solicit respect and support for disabled people.

Short Narrative - Directed by Nathan & Thomas Affolter (USA)  |  Official Site »

"Plant Girl" is a story of growth, truth and hope. Lily is finding it very quiet and lonely since her mother left. Lily's father, Chuck, is trying to manage being the only parent to a child he doesn't really know. With only her imagination and the backyard to keep her company, Lily discovers a small ear growing on a plant in the garden. After tending and caring for it, the plant grows into a full-bloomed plant girl, and becomes her best, if only, friend.

Student Film - Directed by Timothy McCormack (USA)  |  Official Site »

This is a true story - a story of hope. Told in the first person, this story begins when our child-hero, Ralina Miller, is called to face some of the darkest shadows of humanity. It begins with thoughts of suicide from a 12-year old girl, stemming from a horrendous series of unthinkable events. From despair to hope we see this real-life-hero transform over a twenty-year time span into a quiet inspirational figure.

Short Documentary - Directed by Yvette O'Neill (USA)

Sadako Sasaki was three when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Hospitalized with leukemia, she tried to make 1000 origami cranes that, according to legend, would make her dream come true - to survive. She died before her project was completed and her classmates folded the rest so she could be buried with one thousand cranes. This is her story.

Documentary - Directed by Karen McDiarmid (Canada)  |  Official Site »

Shining Spirit: The Musical Journey of Jamyang Yeshi, filmed in Tibet, India and Canada between 2006 - 2009, documents a recording project that brings together the family of Jamyang Yeshi, through music and the use of multi-tracking recording technology. With the help of Western friends, Jamyang, in exile in Canada, and his brother, Tsundue, in exile in the U.S., join voices with the family they left behind in Tibet. For the first time in a decade, they sing together once again. Shining Spirit is a testament to the power of music, the resilience of the Tibetan culture, and the enduring bond of a family separated by politics and geography.

Documentary - Directed by Ari Levinson (USA)

Upon awakening on the morning of an important interview, Herman Brumby suspects that something is amiss, and it’s even stranger than the hole in his bathroom ceiling. In director Ari Levinson's debut film, an unexpected visitor changes the course of Herman Brumby's life.

Narrative - Directed by David Russo (USA)  |  Official Site »

When Dory's life seems like it's going down the drain, a strange "new life" takes shape inside him and he learns that sometimes you don't have to find meaning, it grows in you.

Short Narrative - Directed by Peter Besson (USA)  |  Official Site »

Last night Rhett Somers, so far scraping by on good luck or just plain old ignorance, met the love of his life. He's sure of it. She doesn't know. Now the only thing left to do is convince her that she's the one. Not an easy feat considering how they met.

Short Narrative - Directed by Dustin Woodard (USA)  |  Official Site »

Will isn't looking forward to spending the summer living with his disabled cousin, James, who became physically handicapped after a devastating car accident. Will's discomfort around his cousin doesn't last long as the two quickly become friends, as James is still a funny, intelligent guy who likes to have fun. After stumbling upon mysterious abilities that Will's cousin has kept hidden from others, Will decides to investigate the James that no one else sees. Unfortunately for Will, he will soon learn that some secrets are better left undiscovered as his focus will shift from following James to surviving James.

Short Documentary - Directed by DMark Bonn (USA)  |  Official Site »

When the country needed every man, she answered the call.

They weren't formally recognized, received no military benefits - many Americans don't even know that they exist - yet today, women's place in this country might be very different if Vi Cowden, and the 1,073 other women like her, hadn't been willing to do the job they did. And they did it because their country needed them. A story of triumph and inspiration over adversity, Vi and her fellow Women Airforce Service Pilots (W.A.S.P.) were not only crucial to the war effort during World War II, they also changed the course of Women's history.

Vi was among the first women in the United States to fly military planes. She ferried fighter planes (including her favorite, the P-51 Mustang) from the factories to the air bases where they were desperately needed. She flew enough trips with the WASP to have circumnavigated the world 55 times.