Shorts Program: Tear it Down – Dismantling White Supremacy

This is a featured presentation of our Tear it Down: Dismantling White Supremacy program area.

We Can’t Breathe {Online Premiere}
Directors: Miranda Winters & Rocky Romano
Documentary Short, 2020 [USA] English, 9 minutes
After the killing of George Floyd, a queer black woman in Los Angeles is determined to capture the spirit of a mass social movement, so she hits the streets, camera in hand.

Standing Above the Clouds
Director: Jalena Keane-Lee
Documentary Short, 2020 [USA] English, 15 minutes
Standing Above the Clouds follows Native Hawaiian mother-daughter activists as they stand to protect their sacred mountain Mauna Kea from the building of the world’s largest telescope. The film follows the stories of each of the women through a crucial journey of self and collective empowerment, while facing the complexities of raising their daughters and families through this time and putting their bodies on the line to protect their revered and divine mountain, Mauna Kea.

I’m Free Now, You Are Free 
Director: Ash Goh Hua
Documentary Short, 2020 [USA] English, 15 minutes
I’m Free Now, You Are Free is a short documentary about the reunion and repair between Mike Africa Jr and his mother Debbie Africa—a formerly incarcerated political prisoner of the MOVE9.

All That You Can’t Leave Behind
Director and Writer: Ufuoma Essi
Experimental Short, 2019 [UK] English 14 minutes
All That You Can’t Leave Behind is an experimental appropriated video archive film that explores the relationship between black women’s collective experience with music, history and the act of reclamation.

Oil & Water
Director: Anjali Nayar
Documentary Short, 2020 [Canada] English, 14 minutes
Women of Northern Kenya navigate the opportunities and challenges of a massive oil discovery; as the promises fail to materialize they must face the complicated web that stands in their way: greed, politics and the patriarchal fabric of their world.

Tangled Roots
Director: Samantha Knowles
Documentary Short, 2020 [USA] English, 19 minutes
Tangled Roots follows Attica Scott, the only black woman in the Kentucky state legislature, as she fights to dismantle a system of discrimination against black people penalized for something seemingly innocuous – their hair.