Short Stories 1

A kaleidoscopic lens on our world today and life in these times.

Total running time: 101 minutes

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Maziyar Khatam
Canada, 2021, 3 minutes, narrative
When a man is accidentally jostled on the mean streets of Toronto, justice must be served.

The Girl with the Accent

Nadia Durry
United Arab Emirates, 2021, 10 minutes, narrative
Through home recordings and archival footage, an Ethiopian woman recounts her experience as a young refugee and how she came to understand her position as a Black girl in America.

The Headhunter's Daughter

Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Philippines, 2021, 15 minutes, narrative
Leaving her family home, Lynn traverses the harrowing roads of the Cordilleran highlands, a remote region of the Philippines, to try her luck in the city as a country singer. Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize.

Invisible Eyes

Jung Seung-hee
S. Korea, 2021, 9 minutes, animation
Three children, at play in the forest, encounter the insouciant power and dark mystery of nature.

Umah

Shoayb Khattab
United Arab Emirates, 2021, 8 minutes, documentary
A story of community and sardines.

Precious Hair & Beauty

John Ogunmuyiwa
UK, 2021, 11 minutes, narrative
From the window of a U.K. African hair salon, an impromptu community of hairdressers and customers observe the quotidian comings and goings of the world outside on what turns into a rather unusual day.

Once I Passed

Martin Gerigk
Germany, 2022, 10 minutes, animation
Based on Whitman's, ''Once I Passed Through a Populous City,'' this audiovisual collage pays homage to a moment in time with a man in an anonymous city. Originally published in 1860 as an account of a romantic relationship with an unknown woman, an early version in Whitman's own hand was discovered in 1925, in which he writes not about a woman but about an affair with a man. To this day, only the altered version is printed in most anthologies.

Listen to the Beat of Our Images

Écoutez le battement de nos images
Audrey Jean-Baptiste & Maxime Jean-Baptiste
French Guiana/France, 2021, 15 minutes, documentary
A beguiling essay that reframes archival footage celebrating France's 1968 establishment of its space station in Kourou, French Guiana. Additional images and voices are brought into the film by an imaginary narrator, created through contemporary field research with the village inhabitants. Their perspectives illuminate how colonialism disregarded the area's majority people of color population.

Sons of Toledo

Monty Cole
USA, 2021, 20 minutes, narrative
After receiving the early morning news of his younger brother's murder, a mourning barber pushes through the muddy waters of grief to find the courage to do the impossible.