2023 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE BY DAY

Able. (adj.) means having the power, skill, means, or opportunity to do something. In August 2022, Meg Fisher set out to be the first paracyclist to complete the LeadBoat Challenge - racing two of the world’s toughest bike courses back-to-back covering 250 miles and over 21,000 ft of elevation gain in the high mountains of Colorado. We all have scars and challenges. Some people wear theirs more visibly. Through her advocacy on and off the bike, Meg Fisher shows us how able we all are.

All We Carry follows a young Honduran family as they flee persecution—migrating in cargo trains across Mexico, claiming asylum at the US border, and enduring separation in detention before being released in Seattle. There, a local synagogue sponsors the family for two years while they await the final decision on their asylum case. As the family tries to settle into their new home, we witness their everyday moments—both sorrowful and joyful—along the way.

Ashkasha is a living being guided by curiosity, causing her to lose her head and get trapped in the depths, where she is submerged during a journey of discovery.

The romantic reunion of Ben Santhanaraj and Suzanne Hopper is thwarted when their holiday plans become a work-from-home vacation. The couple’s romantic trip turns unconventional as they embark on a hilarious yet amorous journey across Sri Lanka.

Alienated by friends and family for her lack of ambition, 29-year-old Misha finds a dangerous acceptance in a bright 18-year-old athlete who mistakes her for a fellow student.

After a body altering accident, a woman must find a way forward in her new reality.

The Debutante is a Black girl coming-of-age story about an intergenerational group of women and girls revitalizing a long-lost tradition — the debutante ball. The film follows Canton, Ohios first group of Black debutantes in a decade as they prepare for the event: learning to waltz, taking etiquette classes, and securing escorts. The debutante ball has long been the ultimate manifestation of middle class respectability politics: a presentation to society in line with all that society dictates and deems acceptable in appearance and behavior. But that was then. Now a new generation of young Black women must decide just how much of that past to embrace as they chart a new future. Will these girls reject or embrace these traditional blueprints for advancement? Must they truly act and look a certain way to realize dreams of being the first to go to college, or to become doctors and successful business owners? This film is an excavation of the ways Black women and girls have historically performed, and presently perform for the world while trying to learn and understand who they are, where they came from and where theyre going. Its a story about the joys of childhood, the excitement of transition, and how to create your own magic. Its a film about becoming your authentic self.

Do It To Me If You Want is a fraught comedy series about the gray area of desire - what we *think*, versus what we *say*, versus what we *do* - as experienced by four college students navigating their sophomore year. Episode 1: Kent and Alexandra unexpectedly run into each other on the lawn of a college frat party. Who stays, who goes?

Episode: Every time You Say Something is Your Spirit Animal, You Have to Give Every Native American Person You Know Twenty Five Dollars. From spirit animals to pow wows, we explain that If youre going to keep using sayings and phrases inspired by Native culture, were gonna start charging you!

After being brutally dumped, 17-year-old Sydnie discovers she is pregnant. Seeing this as an opportunity to get her ex back and give her life direction, she decides to keep the baby. She soon realizes that this won’t be the quick fix she had hoped for and finds herself caught in a complicated love triangle and totally lost.

Following the death of her brother, filmmaker Robie Flores returns to her hometown Eagle Pass on the Texas/Mexico border, wanting to turn back time. She collides with unruly experiences of adolescence – quinceañeras, Rio Grande river excursions, teen makeovers and beyond – that invite her to soak up the details of the home her brother adored and she ignored. What emerges is a playful dance between a personal and collective coming-of-age portrait of kids on the border and Robie herself as she rediscovers the possibilities of joy in the aftermath of grief.

TBD

Genesis P-Orridge lived her art and died three times for it. Persecuted by Queen Elizabeth, a disciple of Burroughs, Leary, Nepalese monks and African witch doctors; Gen influenced and revolutionized music, art and gender - all without most of the world even knowing. At least not the full-story.

When Tita, an elderly fieldworker, reluctantly hires an AI humanoid to fill in for her picking strawberries, she attracts the engineers attention because their humanoids cannot do her back-breaking work.

When her only daughter goes off to university, an empty-nest mother gets stuck taking care of her daughters heartbroken ex-boyfriend, whom she cant stand.

Bobbie is determined to lose her virginity on the day of her 17th birthday, but she will lose more than that. Serious, humorous, and intimate, THREE BIRTHDAYS follows a left-leaning, academic family in 1970 as each of its members wrestles with the contradictions of the Sexual Revolution in the era of the Vietnam War. When Bobbie discovers her mother’s infidelity and acts out furiously, she sets off a chain of confrontations that forces her father and mother to face their own insecurities as accomplished middle-class intellectuals. On each of their birthdays, hopes are dashed, and secrets revealed. Culminating on a day of national reckoning, the film sits right in the middle of that uncomfortable place where the personal and the political collide.

We Are Guardians follows Indigenous forest guardian Marçal Guajajara and activist Puyr Tembé as they fight to protect their territories from deforestation, an illegal logger who has no choice but to cut the forest down, and a large landowner at the mercy of thousands of invaders and extractive industry. Through intimate, character focused storytelling, the film brings the issues to the forefront — from the science of the Amazon Rainforest and its pivotal role in our global climate stability to the economic drivers of deforestation. The film weaves together politics, history, economics, science, and consciousness, providing an in-depth exploration of this incredibly complex and critical situation — the origins and the impact of which ripple out far beyond the boundaries of the Amazon itself. Directed by Indigenous activist Edivan Guajajara and environmental filmmakers Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman; produced by Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens and executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Sometimes, finding your tribe requires a bit of magic. For attendees of a live action role-playing (LARP) camp in upstate New York, the deeply accepting environment has given neurodivergent, queer, and self-proclaimed nerdy teenagers the space and community for self-discovery that they have never found anywhere else. As the campers immerse themselves in this imaginative world, they discover inner strength, heal from past traumas, and emerge as the heroes they are meant to be, both in the fantasy realm and in real life.

Rayelle Martin works as a commercial cleaner in Gary, Indiana. Shes mischievous, playful, and skilled at adapting to her surroundings. One day while at work, Ray is approached by Dr. Neeraj Patel, a therapist who hires her to work as his housekeeper. Who’s going to say no to extra money? Not Ray. Dr. Patel then presents her with another offer she cant refuse: a second job cleaning his mistress’s home. At first Ray is just an observer, but then, after growing tired of being a witness, she impulsively tells one small lie: that she can speak to the dead. As Ray attempts to gain ownership over her own identity, she finds herself in an odd new position of power.

Following the death of his famous twin, Josh must navigate the funeral amid a whirlwind of challenges: a viral botched eulogy, a surprise pregnancy, a literal manhunt, and a life-altering job opportunity. As the rest of the world mourns, Josh and his eccentric family cruise through the chaos with humor, heart, and a healthy dose of Jewish guilt.