2020

The Undocumented Lawyer
Official Selection
United States
Runtime:
19 minutes
2 seconds
Director:
Chris Temple, Zach Ingrasci

Lizbeth Mateo is an attorney in Los Angeles—one who started a law practice, hired four employees, and took an oath to uphold the U.S. constitution. She also has no legal options to stay in the country. Lizbeth is undocumented.

Since crossing the border at age 14, Lizbeth hasn’t let her immigration status hold her back. Frustrated by an unjust system, she’s drawing from her own experiences to fight for immigrant rights in the streets and in the courts.

Her latest client is Edith Espinal, a woman avoiding deportation by taking sanctuary in a church. As the months turn to years, Lizbeth is running out of legal options to help. Lizbeth returns to her activist roots and teaches Edith to fight back—because sometimes you need to ignore the law in order to change it.

Born Still
Official Selection
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
14 minutes
30 seconds
Director:
Brenna Malloy

Left behind in the wake of the Civil War, the women of the homefront have a battle of their own that deems itself equally as desperate, challenging and bloody as the soldiers on the front lines.

The Place That Makes Us
Official Selection
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
10 minutes
Director:
Karla Murthy

Among the industrial ruins of America, a new generation is rebuilding home.

When the steel mills shut down in Youngstown Ohio, it shattered a way of life. Over half the population left. Thousands of empty blighted homes were left behind, eroding the social fabric of this once mighty industrial base. Like many post industrial towns, persistent joblessness, crime and poverty plague the city.

Filmed over the course of 2 1/2 years, this film weaves the lives of a new generation of residents who have grown up in a world of post industrial decline. Unlike their parents generation, haunted and traumatized by watching their way of life crumble around them, this generation is able to envision a new future, and they are working to make a life for themselves in their hometown.

This film is an inspiring testimony to the modest but profound resilience and dedication it takes to transform a community. A crucial story to be heard at a time of extreme inequality, divisiveness, upheaval and uncertainty, "The Place That Makes Us" is a meditation on the meaning of home in America today.  

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