Festival Year: 2019


2019 Garrett Scott Grant
Jon-Sesrie Goff, Diane Hodson, Jasmine Luoma

The 2019 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant has been award to Jon-Sesrie Goff for After Sherman and Diane Hodson and Jasmine Luoma for Million Dollar Block. The recipients will present excerpts from their works in progress on Saturday, April 6, prior to the screening of Easter Snap and Caballerango.

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3 Days 2 Nights
John Breen

In 1974, on a family ski vacation, the plane in which Mark and Andy Godfrey were traveling crashed in the Colorado mountains. The brothers, ages 11 and 8, were the only survivors. Years later, they come together to finally talk about the tragedy and reconcile their losses.

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All Inclusive
Corina Schwingruber Ilić

This surreal short takes us on board a massive cruise ship where guests partake in waterslides and ziplines, competitions and organized dances, moving through the attractions of this floating carnival in prescribed succession.

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Always in Season
Jacqueline Olive

In 2014, teenager Lennon Lacy was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, N.C. The circumstances of his death echo the long horror of lynching in the American South and intersect with the stories of two other communities seeking justice and reconciliation.

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Amazing Grace

Resurrected footage from 1972 captures Aretha Franklin’s electrifying performance with the Southern California Community Choir for the live recording of the late singer’s Amazing Grace, one of the bestselling gospel records of all time.

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The Ambassador’s Wife
Theresa Traore Dahlberg

In this graceful observation, a restless French ambassador’s wife in Burkina Faso dreams of being an opera star, oblivious to her immense privilege.

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American Factory
Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert

More than 2,500 people lost their jobs in 2008 when General Motors closed its plant in Dayton, Ohio, but hopes were raised six years later when a Chinese manufacturer bought the facility with plans to employ American and Chinese workers. With stunning access and cinematography, this film documents the new plant’s opening and the profound cultural collisions and connections that follow.

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The Apollo of Gaza
Nicolas Wadimoff

Blurring the lines of truth and speculation, reality and myth, this investigative journey seeks to unravel the mysteries around an amazing archaeological find by a Gaza fisherman in 2013—a seemingly ancient bronze statue of Apollo—and its puzzling disappearance.

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Araya
Margot Benacerraf

On the coast of the Araya Peninsula in Venezuela, the sun beats down on the sea, sand, and men below. Salt is the central resource of this land where nothing grows, and a community exists by extracting it manually day and night.

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Ask Dr. Ruth
Ryan White

Famed sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer changed the conversation around intimacy with her frank and exuberant advice. Ask Dr. Ruth charts her meteoric rise, and the 90-year-old Holocaust survivor reveals how her incredible life shaped a profound desire to help people find pleasure.

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Breakthrough
Bill Haney

Immunologist James P. Allison, recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine, and medical colleagues reflect on his remarkable career, including the discovery that is revolutionizing cancer treatment.

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Buddy
Heddy Honigmann

The stories of six people and their guide dogs explore the powerful bond between human and canine.

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Caballerango
Juan Pablo González

As family members describe their memories of the events surrounding a young man’s death, long takes quietly observe, through scenes and sounds, a Mexican village experiencing the gradual loss of its traditional ways of life.

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The Changing Same
Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson

To publicly confront the horrific history of his hometown, Marianna, Florida, Lamar Wilson runs the same 13-mile trek that ended in the 1934 lynching of Claude Neal.

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Crafting an Echo
Marco Williams

This window into the creative process captures the tense interplay between famed choreographer Andonis Foniadakis and members of the Martha Graham Dance Company as they struggle to prepare a new piece in time for its world premiere.

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Crannog
Isa Rao

Believing no being should have to die alone, a young woman creates a hospice for animals, where chickens, sheep, and pigs spend their final days in the embrace of her warmth and compassion.

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Decade of Fire
Vivian Vázquez Irizarry, Gretchen Hildebran

Set against the backdrop of contemporary gentrification protests in the South Bronx, this arresting and invigorating film goes deep into the history of this neighborhood depleted by racist political decisions and left to burn.

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Easter Snap
RaMell Ross

In this expressive short film, a group of men in Alabama prepare a hog for butchering. The tender care and ritual nature of this series of steps is captured through textured images and personal conversations.

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