Shorts 8 – Against the Current

This program of short films spotlights individuals and communities who challenge the forces that seek to marginalize, divide, or define them. Through stories of activism, memory, creativity, and collective care, these documentaries trace currents of resistance across America, from protests on the courthouse steps and reckonings with segregation’s legacy to prison-based artistic collaboration, community-built institutions, and a grassroots movement that transformed personal struggle into hope for millions. Together, these films reveal the power of ordinary people to push back, speak out, and reshape the world around them.

Bigger Than Luigi

A film by Miléna Mikael-Debass

Outside the courthouse where Luigi Mangione stands accused of murdering a health insurance CEO, a diverse group of protesters rally. These demonstrators’ personal stories reflect deep fractures in class and power in America.

2026 | 16 mins | US | Color | Documentary, Social, Portrait

Same Water

A film by Martine Granby

Drawing from institutional and personal archives, this film revisits a colored-only riverside recreation space that existed alongside a celebrated whites-only water park in Silver Springs, Florida, exposing the layered histories of segregation and unequal access to nature and leisure in Jim Crow America.

2025 | 22 mins | US | B&W, Color | Documentary, Social, Historical, Experimental

Dear Beloved

A film by Jared Callahan

A creative cohort of queer and transgender artists build community across prison walls by publishing incarcerated-produced comic books.

2026 | 12 mins | US | Color | Documentary, Portrait, Social, Art

We Make

A film by Brian Foster, Ethan Payne

We Make is a short documentary about Siggers High School, an all-black secondary school—partly built by local community members—in Shannon, Mississippi that operated from the early 1940’s until 1970.

2026 | 22 mins | US | Color | Documentary, Historical

To Write Love

A film by Owen Dubeck

In February 2006, 19‑year‑old Renee Yohe was at the edge of death; with drugs in her system and a self‑inflicted wound on her arm, she was denied entrance into a Florida rehab facility, leaving her friends to spend five days looking after her while she detoxed. Renee ultimately decided to write about her experience in a MySpace post at a time when it was taboo to talk about self‑harm. Her writing traveled around the world, reaching millions who had no other outlet to express how they were feeling, and—powered largely by the punk rock scene and then the music scene at large—the story grew beyond anyone’s expectations into a global movement that helped save thousands of people’s lives.

2026 | 21 mins | US | Color | Documentary, Social