A young queer woman in the American south comes to terms with her sexuality, shattering her deep-rooted religious beliefs and cultural stereotypes within her conservative community, family and self.
2020
Official Selection
Documentary Short
United States
Runtime:
20 minutes
19 seconds
Director:
Rachel Bickert, Emily Tapanes
REIFF 2020
Official Selection
Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
32 minutes
Director:
Zach Schlapkohl, Jacob Kiesling, & Ethan Cartwright
REIFF 2020
A mockumentary about rehabilitated zombies (or necro-sapiens, to be politically correct) facing the adversities that come with living in a time when they aren't yet considered socially equal to homo-sapiens (aka, human beings).
Official Selection
United States
Runtime:
19 minutes
2 seconds
Director:
Chris Temple, Zach Ingrasci
REIFF 2020
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.
Official Selection
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
14 minutes
30 seconds
Director:
Brenna Malloy
REIFF 2020
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.
2021
Best Narrative Feature, Best of the Fest
Narrative Feature
Germany
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
20 minutes
56 seconds
Director:
Katharina Ludwig
REIFF 2021
Actress Charlotte is struggling with her craft and even more with herself. She has messed up yet another audition and even her self-written apple tree monologue seems to be working against her. Frustrated by the realities of an artistic career and her fear of failing, Charlotte escapes on a camping trip to sunny Croatia with her boyfriend Georg. But the trip’s dynamic changes when their plans of a fun-filled couples vacation misfire: While Georg spends his time at a music festival in the hope of scoring a DJ gig, Charlotte is left stranded in the middle of nowhere. She embarks on a journey of her own, encountering happy campers Benno, a self-proclaimed shaman, and mysterious dropout Tami, to whom Charlotte feels an attraction. Both of them quickly become close companions on Charlotte's journey of self-discovery.
Best Narrative Short
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
10 minutes
29 seconds
Director:
Drake Shannon
REIFF 2021
Past and present are blurred by a horrifying transgression as a female soldier faces the aftermath of a military patrol in the Middle East. RAW exposes military sexual trauma through the eyes of a soldier struggling to readjust to everyday life.
Best Animated Film
Animation
United States
Runtime:
5 minutes
15 seconds
Director:
Jo Meuris
REIFF 2021
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who fell in love with a beautiful horse named Aurora...
Expressively animated in a naive drawing-style that evokes children’s drawings and the texture of storybook illustrations, Aurora is a bittersweet story about love, friendship, and growing up.
Best Experimental Film
Experimental
Turkey
Runtime:
5 minutes
23 seconds
Director:
Ceylan Özgün Özçelik
REIFF 2021
A woman, released from prison, drifts between nightmare and reality.
Best Documentary Short
Documentary Short
United States
Runtime:
30 minutes
9 seconds
Director:
Melissa Armstrong, Jason Pidgeon
REIFF 2021
A film crew follows Amber for one day. During that day, she rescues 19 dogs. Some are dumped on the roadside and left to survive on their own. Others are living in unhealthy conditions at the unregulated and pitifully funded shelters. Watch as one woman saves these homeless animals from certain death.
Amber’s Halfway Home is an exploration of the conditions at government-funded shelters and the consequences of ignoring our country’s homeless animals. But, it’s also a celebration of a woman battling for change in her Southern community, a warrior who saved 2000 dogs in one year.
Best Documentary
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
54 minutes
10 seconds
Director:
Chris Spencer
REIFF 2021
For years, members of the city leadership discredited findings of racial bias while continuously increasing the police budget. Advocating for raising taxes instead of laying off officers, the Vergennes Police Chief singled out a domestic violence victim in front of a packed hall to instill fear. After the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, discussions of police oversight turned personal, forcing the mayor and three city council members to resign; the city was left with no functioning government.
In the end, The Price of Safety stitches together a discussion about the issues facing Vermont’s smallest city through interviews with residents, scholars of race and policing, and elected officials. As conversations surrounding policing and racism evolve nationally, we watch a community reckon with a vital question: what does it mean to be safe?