BIRTHING JUSTICE

Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 1 hr 26 min
Directed by: Monique N. Matthews

America’s medical inequities has turned giving birth into a battlefield for too many Black women and their babies. BIRTHING JUSTICE flips that narrative, centering the expertise and lived experiences of Black women and their advocates as they fix a broken system and transform the future, one birth at a time.

DARLA IN SPACE

Genre: Sci-Fi, Comedy
Running Time: 1hr 34 min
Directed by: Susie Moon, Eric Laplante

Darla Peterson lives with her mother and runs her business, Kitty Kasket, out of the garage. She works hard and keeps her nose clean, so how did she end up with a $349,000.22 tax debt? Leona Peterson's nose is less clean. She suggests they hunt carburetors in the neighborhood and sell off the valuable platinum found within. With this plan, they'd have the debt paid off in two weeks. Darla is frustrated with her mother's insane notions, but she tries to make the best of her work day cleaning the warehouse overseen by Arnot Pickens. Arnot Pickens is an absentee boss at best. His work seems to be guarding a shipping container and not answering the telephone which perpetually rings. Poking around the place, Darla topples upon the discovery of a lifetime, locked tight inside the shipping container: a sentient kombucha scoby, and it can talk! Or at least, Darla can hear this scoby, whose name is Mother, loud and clear. This is not the topper in the list of Mother's unusual qualities, however. Darla discovers Mother's ability to grant mind-blowing orgasms. If Darla will help Mother fulfill her dream of going to space, Mother will help Darla with her debt. As quick as that, Darla puts her plan in motion: All she needs is to find 350 people to orgasm, or "Menage", with Mother at $1,000 a pop and the debt is paid. Totally straightfoward.

HAIL MARY

Genre: Horror, Drama
Running Time: 1 hr 40 min
Directed by: HAIL MARY: Rosemary Rodriguez

HAIL MARY is a genre-bending retelling of the Mary and Joseph story that begs the question – who are the real monsters? Maria is a 17-year-old girl from Belize who finds herself mysteriously pregnant. We find her walking, following the north star, to safety across the US/Mexican border. She’s trying to escape a deadly virus and being chased by the right-hand man of the devil (Baal). Along the way she meets Jose, a mediocre carpenter who happens to have helped build a tunnel under the Rio Grande for the Cartels. As they join forces with Gabrielle (the Angel Gabriel), the cartels and US Border Patrol join the chase. This subliminally subversive monster movie might just have unexpected fans cheering for an undocumented pregnant migrant to make it safely across the US Border. Plays with THE WOLF'S LAMENT (3 min) by Scott Cardona, the story of what happens when a new neighbor moves into the woods and disrupts the wolf's week.

IT'S BASIC

Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 1 hr 17 min
Directed by: Marc Levin

IT'S BASIC looks at several Basic Income pilot programs launched in the US that test the effects of giving everyday people an extra $500 to $1,000 monthly, with no strings attached. The film presents an unbiased account of the benefits, criticisms, and outcomes of giving money to people in need. It explores a simple idea: Can unconditional cash payments be the most effective way to stem poverty in America? This concept has been up for discussion many times throughout history and we highlight recent events that explain why it is happening now. Multi-award-winning Director Marc Levin is at the helm, with commentary by Michael Tubbs, and interviews with program recipients and participating mayors across the country, the real-life challenges of trying to get by are at the heart of the film.

METHOD SAMPLING: HOW TO BUILD THE FUTURE TOGETHER

Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 56 min
Directed by: Josh Nesmith, Matt Boman

Method Sampling is the principle used by an Oakland, CA globetrotting orchestra which fuses hip-hop and classical music to magical effect. JooWan Kim, its Korean born composer, believes that any paradigm shifting change only happens by sampling and reframing differences and sparking innovation. To test his hypothesis, he meets a disabled choreographer who revolutionized modern dance, a self-taught Black mycologist who wrote the first books on Cordyceps cultivation, and a tiny house builder with a shipbuilding background who looks at houses as inverted boats. In addition, he meets the Italian Critical Theorist, Fabio Vighi, to explore how Method Sampling may allow society to overcome the challenges it faces today.

MOLLI AND MAX IN THE FUTURE

Genre: Sci-Fi, Romance, Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr 32 min
Directed by: Michael Lukk Litwak

MOLLI AND MAX IN THE FUTURE is a Sci-Fi Romantic Comedy about a man and woman whose orbits repeatedly collide over the course of 12 years, 4 planets, 3 dimensions and one space-cult.

NUMB

Genre: Drama
Running Time: 1 hr 31 min
Directed by: Cai O'Leary

Having lost her own mother to suicide at a young age, Jess, a young single mother suffering with postpartum depression, now finds herself in a similar position. She lives in a small town with her older brother, working an aimless 9-5 job in a cafe, without dreams and without hope of any of this changing.

SHUDDERBUGS

Genre: Thriller, Drama
Running Time: 1hr 46 min
Directed by: Johanna Putnam

Sam returns to her childhood home in the wake of her mother’s mysterious death, spiraling down a rabbit hole of grief, suspicion and isolation.

SUMMER OF VIOLENCE

Genre: Romance, Drama
Running Time: 1 hr 44 min
Directed by: Nicki Micheaux

In 1993, a college grad feels the wrath of her father when she refuses law school to focus on her poetry. Disowned, she moves to Denver and uses her creativity to speak out against the gang violence. When those close to her die, she finds herself in deep and spirals out of control. Reconciling with her family she self-acceptance, and within her a passion to live and honor those that can’t.

THE ACTIVATED MAN

Genre: Thriller, Drama
Running Time: 1 hr 55 min
Directed by: Nicholas Gyeney

As Ors Gabriel struggles with the grief and pain from losing his best friend and beloved dog, Louie, to cancer, the shock from the trauma brings on strange visions only Ors can see. While he questions whether his mind has fractured or if it's actually real, a mysterious rise in murder-suicides takes hold of the city, and Ors becomes haunted by images of a shadowy figure known to many as ‘The Fedora Man’. Through torments and terror, Ors uncovers dark secrets from his past, forcing him to embrace who he really is, and what he is meant to do. But, with escalating visions of ‘The Fedora Man’, Ors must face his fears as he spirals downwards, testing the very limits of his sanity.

THE CONSPIRACY

Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 1 hr 30 min
Directed by: Maxim Pozdorovkin

This startling animated documentary addresses an insidious, centuries-old conspiracy theory that continues to rear its ugly head today: the idea that Jews have a secret international plot to control the world. Filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin ("Our New President") and a host of talented voice actors including Mayim Bialik, Liev Schreiber, Jason Alexander, and Ben Shenkman connects the dots of hate and fear to walk us through almost 250 years of anti-Semitic ideology, focusing on how times of uncertainty give rise to anxieties in marginalized populations.

THE HIDDEN POWER OF PURPOSE

Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 1hr 9 min
Directed by: Elliot V. Kotek

The Hidden Power of Purpose," narrated by Debbie Allen, bridges inspiring stories of individuals who have found purpose in their lives with the insights of leading scientists whose work affirms that living with purpose improves health and longevity.

THE LAST ASSASSIN

Genre: Action
Running Time: 1 hr 27 min
Directed by: Yinghuai Qian

The story of an assassin who stops killing because of his goodness, but is used by others in a conspiracy that results in irreparable killings, after which he sees through human nature and returns to the Ghost Assassin Alliance.

THE PROBLEM WITH PEOPLE

Genre: Comedy
Running Time: 1 hour 41 min
Directed by: Chris Cottam

Two distant cousins who’ve never met - one in NYC, the other in the smallest town there is in Ireland - come together to finally put an end to a generations-long family feud. It doesn’t go well. The Problem With People, set in beautifully lush Irish countryside, is a heartwarming comedy about family, world peace ... and sheep.

THIS IS YOUR SONG

Genre: Romance, Drama
Running Time: 2 hr 5 min
Directed by: Hassan Said

Set in contemporary San Francisco, Jules, a dedicated bohemian theatre actress struggles and confronts what seems to be an unhappy stifled marriage, a dead end theatre industry, and a city that is outgrowing her. Jules realizes she needs to escape her current life. On a beautiful winter night of their seven year anniversary, James, her husband, an inspired beatnik writer, surprises Jules with a well prepared romantic dinner, yet Jules had forgotten all about it. Later on that cold evening, James hands Jules a letter that is addressed from New York, she realizes it has been opened. Jules reads it anxiously and discovers that she has been accepted into an off-Broadway show and they look forward to having her in the Spring. As the night progresses, their marriage unravels secrets they both kept from each other. James confesses about a one-night stand admitting infidelity. Jules' response is unexpectedly forgiving and gentle. The truth of how they feel for each other spills out intensely through quarrel after quarrel revealing a false reality of their union. Jules and James realize that their marriage has become a place unrecognizable to what they had always imagined as their future together is put to the test. Will their love in the end conquer all?

WOMEN IN FIRE

Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 1 hr 5 min
Directed by: Deborah Attoinese

WOMEN IN FIRE, they rappel out of helicopters into burning hell to protect our forests, our wildlife, our future. But who protects them? This is the story of Abby Bolt, a former Rodeo Queen and single mom who climbed the ranks to Battalion Chief of an elite team of firefighters for the U.S. Forest Service. In 2012, this incredibly brave 22-year-veteran was sexually assaulted and raped by a fellow firefighter. But the assault didn’t stop there. She subsequently filed a police report and found she was now a pariah within her own ranks. Unsupported. Unappreciated. And unsafe. WOMEN IN FIRE is the story of this one woman's battle against a monolithic foe. It begins to reveal the drastic dysfunction and gender discrimination that exists within the U.S. Forest Service, an organization whose firefighting members must rely on teamwork, support, and unconditional dependability to survive. To females in the U.S. Forest Service, the fight doesn’t end with the fire.