Virtual Showing
2019 | USA | 95 min | Documentary
Director: Michael Barnett
Producers: Clare Tucker, Alex Schmider
Editor: Michael Mahaffie, Amanda Griffin

Trans athletes have to work harder than their cisgender peers in order to thrive in their field while also having the courage and resilience to face daily harassment and discrimination. The kids in this film have found sports as a way to channel the negativity around them into a positive, to gain a sense of self-worth and validation. This film is their urgent, articulate plea for acceptance.

Virtual Showing
2019 | Belgium | 90 min | Drama
Director: Frederike Migom
Producer: Katleen Goossens
Editor: Clémence Samson

Twelve-year-old Binti and her father, Jovial, are undocumented immigrants from the Congo, who have lived in Belgium since Binti was a baby. She dreams of living a normal life and aspires to be an online influencer, but their lives are upended when the refugee squat they are living in is raided by the Belgian police. While on the run, Binti discovers a secret treehouse where she meets Elias, who is working to save the okapi, the threatened “forest giraffe” native to the Congo. Elias is also struggling to come to terms with his parents’ divorce, his father’s new life in Brazil, and how to relate to his mother’s current suitor. Soon after Binti and Elias’s encounter in the woods, their parents meet, and Binti quickly realizes that a solution to her problems is right in front of her—all she needs to do is convince Elias’s mom and her dad to get married. Through poignant storytelling that all audiences will enjoy, this award-winning film explores weighty issues with humor, empathy, and love.

Virtual Showing
2019 | Germany | 93 min | Documentary
Director: Halina Dyrschka
Executive Producers: Eva Illmer, Halina Dyrschka

Before Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Klee made a name for abstraction in visual art, another artist had already beat them to their discovery. But until very recently, her name was absent from the history books. Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) painted her first abstract canvas in 1906, four years before Wassily Kandinsky, originally thought to be the movement’s pioneer. It would be more than a century before she would receive the same acknowledgement and acclaim as her male peers.

Virtual Showing
2019 | USA | 72 min | Drama
Directors: Michael Parks Randa, Lauren Smitelli

Sage and Anthony face the drama of high school after falling in love at a dance camp over the summer. Best Summer Ever tells the story of summer lovers separated by circumstance . . . or are they?

Virtual Showing
2019 | New Zealand | 95 min | Drama
Director: Hamish Bennett
Producers: Orlando Stewart, Catherine Fitzgerald
Editor: Jason Pengelly

A story of loss, love and hope. Told with great heart, and warm humor, this film shines a light on the plight of a small rural community where the people are the heroes.

Virtual Showing
2018 | USA | 103 min | Documentary
Director: Pamela B. Green
Producers: Pamela B. Green, Cosima Littlewood

Narrated by Jodie Foster, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché is a documentary about the first female filmmaker, Alice Guy-Blaché, which explores the heights of fame and financial success she achieved before she was shut out from the very industry she helped create. Guy-Blaché started her career as a secretary to Léon Gaumont and, at 23, was inspired to make her own film called La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy), one of the first narrative films ever made. After her filmmaking career at Gaumont (1896-1907), she had a second decade-long career in the U.S., where she built and ran her own studio in Fort Lee, N.J.

Pamela B. Green’s energetic film is both a tribute and a detective story, tracing the circumstances by which this extraordinary artist faded from memory and the path toward her reclamation. Narration by Jodie Foster. — New York Film Festival

Official selection: Cannes Film Festival; Telluride Film Festival; New York Film Festival

“A timely contribution to the conversation about the challenges facing women filmmakers… someone who really should be better known by now.” – The Hollywood Reporter