| FILM | DIRECTOR | COUNTRY | LENGTH | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Behind the Screen | Odessa Reilly | United States | 10 minutes | |
 Behind the Screen examines the film industry’s significant gender imbalance when it comes to women being hired for crew roles. Of the 100 top-grossing films in 2018, women accounted for only 16% of the directors, writers, producers, editors, and cinematographers. As a teenage girl living in Los Angeles, I was disappointed to discover such a disparity. In this documentary, I interview different people in the industry to find out why the numbers are so low and to figure out what, if anything, can be done to address this gender gap. Film Block: Student Made Documentaries | ||||
| Economic Inequality in Education | Gabriel Nelson | United States | 17 minutes | |
A group of Vermont teens embark on a year-long exploration of economic inequality and its effect on education through interviews with educators who struggled to get where they are, with experts helping students overcome adversity, and with high-profile leaders, such as Senator Bernie Sanders, to create this thought-provoking documentary. Film Block: Student Made Documentaries | ||||
| Families Creating Together: Rhythm of Our Story | Harrison Osborne | United States | 8 minutes | |
 Performing artist and teacher Cornell Coley brings children and families from across Boston’s inner city neighborhoods together, and teaches them about creative expression through drumming, rhythm and dancing. For one mother and daughter living in a tough neighborhood, the Families Creating Together workshop provides a safe space to be together and create music. Film Block: Student Made Documentaries | ||||
| Homes Instead | Mason Wicks-Lim | United States | 19 minutes | |
 This documentary covers my experience witnessing at a private prison, in Homestead Florida, which made millions of dollars a day off of imprisoning kids my age and even younger. These kids were seeking asylum in the US, but as it turned out they were instead imprisoned against their will, against our ethics, and even against our laws. The documentary also talks about a certain kind of activism called “Bearing Witness” and how it helped close the Homestead Facility. I created this documentary to educate people, but also to impact people emotionally. hope this documentary will move people to help stop for-profit prisons and fix our broken immigration system.
Film Block: Student Made Documentaries | ||||
| Kung Fu Joe | Violet Wright | United States | 7 minutes | |
 Violet Wright a senior at Oakland Catholic High School loves to watch movies and make them. Doria Focareta is a funky young filmmaker with big dreams of creating content she can love just as much as the content she consumes. The two have come together to create this short student made documentary about a local in their city, Kung Fu Joe. Film Block: Student Made Documentaries | ||||
| Last Dance at the Cocoanut Grove | Charles Shi | United States | 10 minutes | |
 This documentary tells the story of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire of 1942 from a perspective of triumph and tragedy. It explores how 492 patrons lost their lives due to improper fire codes and regulations. However, as a result, medical and fire safety innovations arose for the benefit of millions. Film Block: Student Made Documentaries | ||||
| Microplastic Madness | Atsuko Quirk | United States | 76 minutes | |
“Microplastic Madness – Brooklyn kids take on plastic pollution” is an inspirational and optimistic take on the local and global plastic pollution crisis as told through a refreshing urban youth point of view with a powerful take action message. Fifth graders from PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn – a community on the frontline of Climate Change that was severely impacted by Superstorm Sandy- spent 2 years investigating plastic pollution. Taking on the roles of citizen scientists, community leaders, and advocates, these 10-11 year olds collect local data, lead community outreach, and use their impressive data to inform policy, testifying and rallying at City Hall. They take the deep dive into the root causes of plastic pollution, bridging the connection between plastic, climate change, and environmental justice before turning their focus back to school. There they take action to rid their cafeteria of all single-use plastic, driving forward city-wide action and a scalable, youth-led plastic-free movement. With stop-motion animation, heartfelt kid commentary, and interviews of experts and renowned scientists who are engaged in the most cutting edge research on the harmful effects of microplastics, this alarming, yet charming narrative, conveys an urgent message in user-friendly terms with a take action message to spark youth-led plastic free action in schools everywhere. Showing | ||||
| My Beautiful Stutter | Ryan Gielen | United States | 90 minutes | |
Five kids ages 9 to 18, from all over the United States enter experimental, interactive and arts-based programs at SAY, The Stuttering Association for the Young, based in New York City. After a lifetime of bullying and stigmatization, some have found themselves close to suicide, others enter withdrawn and fearful, exhausted and defeated from fluency training and the pressure to not stutter or remain silent. Over the course of a year of SAY events, workshops and camp, we witness firsthand the incredible transformation that happens when these young people of wildly different backgrounds experience for the first time the revolutionary idea at the heart of SAY: it’s okay to stutter. Showing | ||||
| My Beautiful Stutter (Second Screening) | Ryan Gielen | United States | 90 minutes | |
Five kids ages 9 to 18, from all over the United States enter experimental, interactive and arts-based programs at SAY, The Stuttering Association for the Young, based in New York City. After a lifetime of bullying and stigmatization, some have found themselves close to suicide, others enter withdrawn and fearful, exhausted and defeated from fluency training and the pressure to not stutter or remain silent. Over the course of a year of SAY events, workshops and camp, we witness firsthand the incredible transformation that happens when these young people of wildly different backgrounds experience for the first time the revolutionary idea at the heart of SAY: it’s okay to stutter. Showing | ||||
| New Homeland | Barbara Kopple | United States | 93 minutes | |
Every summer since 1914, Camp Pathfinder, a summer camp located on a small island in the wilderness of Canada’s Algonquin Park, invites a community of boys and young men from all across Canada and the United States to spend a few weeks in the backcountry learning how to camp, hike, canoe and fish. Two years ago Camp Director Mike Sladden, heartbroken by the tragic images from the growing global refugee crisis but inspired by Canada’s growing intake of asylum seekers, had an idea. What if he could find a way to bring a group of displaced boys from war-torn Syria and Iraq, who recently settled in Canada, to spend the summer at Pathfinder? If the camp experience could have such a profound effect on generations of boys already, imagine what it would be like for these refugee boys. Directed by two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple, in collaboration with NowThis, NEW HOMELAND offers a unique and intimate perspective into the experience of building a new home after fleeing the traumas of war. Showing | ||||
| Stronger than Steel | Jacob Pincus | United States | 7 minutes | |
Three days after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, thousands of people in Pittsburgh came together to protest the hate and violence in the country. “Stronger than Steel” explores that even after tragedy, there is hope in this divided nation. Film Block: Student Made Documentaries | ||||
| Under Pressure | Four Rivers Class of 2019 | United States | 47 minutes | |
As their for-credit senior class project, student filmmakers from the Four Rivers Charter School in Greenfield, MA produced Under Pressure, a documentary film that investigates the 2018 gas disaster in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts, explores safety issues in the nation’s gas distribution system and challenges the value of gas and other fossil fuels in an era of accelerating climate change. Showing | ||||
| Why We Fish | Ronan Robinson | United States | 2 minutes | |
 This film explores the meaning of fishing and why people spend most of their lives in pursuit of fish. Film Block: Student Made Documentaries | ||||
