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
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
10 minutes
Director:
Karla Murthy
REIFF 2020
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.
Official Selection
Australia
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
25 minutes
Director:
Selina Miles
REIFF 2020
In 1970s New York, photographer Martha Cooper captured the some of the first images of graffiti appearing on the city’s subway carriages. Decades later, she realises she’s become an unexpected icon of the street art world. Now, at age 75, must navigate her way through this vastly
2021
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?
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.
Official Selection
Animation
United States
Runtime:
12 minutes
30 seconds
Director:
Randall Dottin, Luisa Dantas
REIFF 2021
MINE is an animated web-series that poignantly explores the timely theme of community versus individual survival, through the eyes of a teenager. Set in the near-future, this powerful series transports us to BEAU VODA, a hard-fought utopian world where every aspect of life is powered by a miraculous healing water source. In the pilot episode, teenager BLAZE reluctantly steps into the esteemed role of Water Bearer with the help of their precocious sister MIA. But when the magical water is tampered with, they discover that their idealistic community may not be as magnanimous as they think.