Shorts Program 4: View Askew

In a hotel room, a woman in her 60s shares a surprising and provocative story of longing and unlikely connection.nAn artist and VFX instructor connects with her grandmother, Margie, in a documentary short on collecting, art-making, and obsessiveness as a way to enhance our realities.nA lyrical portrait of a long ferry ride where overheard conversations, pensive glances, and fragments of lives in transit come into view, as passengers cross from one riverbank to the other.nProlific background actor Jill Goldston takes center stage in this unique portrait.nLeaves, mycelium, and roots playfully examine how humans experience the world, and the (supposedly) silent watchers consider what language those swift blurs of human might possibly understand.nOn a remote island off the coast of Iceland, teenagers Birta and Selma take it upon themselves to counteract humanity’s damaging impact on nature; exchanging night-time parties for nocturnal puffin rescues, in a coming-of-age story for young adults and puffins alike.

Shorts Program 2: Unbreakable Spirits

With thousands of miles and a war between them, two sisters are determined to stay connected to each other before it’s too late.nThe Silent Witness is a documentary about Tomiko Morimoto West’s horrifying experience as a 13-year-old girl in Hiroshima when the first atomic bomb dropped. The film details how she survived, what she witnessed, and how she was affected.nBubjan tells the story of Parwiz Zafari, a former member of the Iranian parliament who worked toward making Iran a progressive, modern, and free society – until the Islamic Republic swept it all away in 1979, and he was forced to leave behind everything he knew.nSummer 2021, as Kabul falls to the Taliban, members of the Under-18 Afghan National Women’s Football Team attempt a daring evacuation from their homeland.