Page 19 - 2025 WHFF Program

Saturday, July 26 through Saturday, August 2, 2025
FE A TURE DOCUMENT ARIES

Lost Wolves of Yellowstone Oceania: Journey to the Center Prime Minister
Thomas Winston • USA • 2024 • 92 min. Natalie Zimmerman • Kiribati, USA • 2024 • 75 min. Michelle Walshe, Lindsay Utz • USA • 2025 • 101 min.
On January 12, 1995 wolves returned to Yellowstone, A mother and her adult son in Kiribati grapple with A view inside the life of former New Zealand Prime
50 years after their extirpation. Mollie Beattie, the climate change and the predicted loss of their home Minister Jacinda Ardern, capturing her through five
first female director of the US Fish and Wildlife islands as they strive to maintain their culture, free- tumultuous years in power and beyond as she rede-
Service, carried the first Canadian born wolf into The dom and independence after decades of colonizing fined leadership on the world stage.
Park’s experimental acclimation enclosure, Alpha encounters. Jacinda Ardern’s outlook is summarized by a quote
Female Wolf No. 5. From that day forward, their lives from her childhood hero, Sir Ernest Shackleton:
would be forever connected. “Optimism is true moral courage.” She reluctantly
took on what she called “the worst job in politics” as
Leader of the Opposition. Then as prime minister,
Ardern went on to lead with humanity, compas-
sion, and common sense. She didn’t hesitate to
implement nationwide gun law reforms following a
devastating mass shooting and guided her country
through the pandemic by relying on science — even
at the expense of her own popularity.

Out of Plain Sight
Loving John Rosanna Xia, Daniel Straub • USA • 2024 • 94 min.
Not far from Catalina Island, aboard one of the
Robert Rooy • USA • 2025 • 76 min. most-advanced research ships in the world, David
John Godinet is an irrepressible Pacific Islander and Valentine discovered a corroded barrel on the
ultra-runner living with his husband Peter in rural seafloor that gave him chills. The full environmental
Maryland. He’s outrun abuse as a teenager and horror sharpens into greater clarity once he calls Los
discrimination as an adult, but now has a new ad- Angeles Times journalist Rosanna Xia, who pieces
versary: ALS. But ALS isn’t so much the subject as it together a shocking revelation.
is a catalyst -- life lived with a ticking clock. Nothing
is simple -- not the love of friends, husband, family SPONSORED BY: Rebel with a Clause
or even oneself. But John has a survival strategy: Brandt Johnson • USA • 2025 • 86 min.
humor and even hilarity! One fall day, Ellen Jovin set up a folding table on a
Manhattan sidewalk with a homemade sign that
said “Grammar Table.” Right away, passersby began
excitedly asking questions, telling stories, and filing
complaints. What happened next is the stuff of
grammar legend. Ellen and her filmmaker husband,
Brandt Johnson, took the table on the road, visiting
all 50 states as Brandt shot the grammar action.
People from every imaginable background visited
the table to share a laugh, settle disputes, and talk
about their grammar insecurities. But this story
transcends grammar. It’s the story of an epic quest
in a divided time to bring us closer together.
Phillip Dutton: Leap of Faith
My Sweet Land Tracy Egan • USA • 2024 • 53 min.
Sareen Hairabedian • USA, France, Jordan, Ireland • Equestrian Phillip Dutton overcomes humble roots
2024 • 86 min. on an Australian cattle farm, inauspicious begin-
Growing up in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh),11- nings in the US, and a life-changing riding accident
to become a seven-time Olympian in the sport of
year-old Vrej dreams of becoming a dentist in his Eventing; but does the aging legend have enough
picture-postcard village with its roaming ducks and left to qualify for his eighth Games at the age of 60?
golden bees. His sweet land, however, is strewn with
mines from previous wars, shaping a country that
remains unrecognized to the world. Vrej’s life takes
a sudden turn when war erupts, forcing him to flee
with his family. He spends his days in exile impa-
tiently waiting for victory, but reality takes a different PURCHASE YOUR Room For Us? Confronting
turn; Armenians lose the war. Upon returning to
his surviving village, he confronts the devastation, 2025 PASSES & Nantucket’s Housing Crisis
new power dynamics, and education that prepares
children for near-future battles. Vrej must learn the PACKAGES Patrick Kennedy, Jasper Craven • USA • 2025 • 85 min.
rules of war… But can he carry a nation’s hopes on Where do you go when the average home price is $4.5
his young shoulders? The film is a testament to the On sale now at: Million, the cheapest freestanding house costs $1.8 Mil-
people of Artsakh, where hope and trauma had lion, and you’re 30 miles out to sea? Despite significant
shaped their resilience across generations. investments in affordable housing and the efforts of
woodsholefilmfestival.org a committed group of housing advocates, the unique
pressures of living on a vacation island that caters to
billionaires and millionaires has many locals asking:
“Does Nantucket have room for us?”
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