Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project : FESTIVAL 2025: JULY 26

While it’s true today’s 11-year-olds will one day run the world, middle-schoolers in San Jose, CA are taking their summer break to get a head start. Immersed in their own space race, a diverse group of ambitious students enter the Zero Robotics ISS (International Space Station) Competition.
Their mission: compete with teams across the country to write the most strategic code for surveying satellites, which will help map out a GPS system to successfully orbit Mars in the future, opening the door to infinite opportunities and exploration on the Red Planet.

Wake Up, Leonard w/There Are Mermaids in LA

Part comedy, part self-help nightmare, WAKE UP, LEONARD follows one man”s quest for wellness while failing miserably to stay on his vibe. This is the story of a broken-hearted seeker with a tenuous grasp on his mental health, but an admirable faith in the Universe. Will Leonard learn how to not only love his higher self, but his lower self too? This improvised feature was shot during the pandemic and explores themes of mental wellness, queer love, and self acceptance.

Vulveeta

Riot grrrl band VULVEETA didn’t break up on the best of terms. In fact, lead singer Grrrilda Beausoleil disappeared 20 years ago, just as they were about to ”go big.” Now, she has to convince the band she’s ready to rock and overcome the band’s demons. They’ll need to figure out how to integrate Gordon, who’s transitioned since the band’s heyday. Meanwhile, their formerly two-year-old drummer, Killer Child, is eager to chart a new course in her 20s. Most importantly, how will the band be able to draw a crowd in the digital age, in a time far removed from the 1990s marketing methods of wheat paste and stickers?

The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez

The path to enlightenment begins at the world’s deadliest wave, the Banzai Pipeline. Gerry Lopez, AKA Mr. Pipeline, is one of surfing’s most enigmatic heroes—a Zen Buddhist on land who built his early career on aggressive surfing. He is a radical; as he is Zen. He is one of the most influential surfers and surfboard shapers of all time, transcending categorization and pioneering surfing to new frontiers.

The Territory w/ ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught)

The Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous Surveillance Team defends their land against a network of Brazilian farmers intent on colonizing their protected territory. Their fight for survival forces Bitate and Neidinha – a young Indigenous leader and his female mentor – to find new ways to protect the rainforest from the encroaching invaders. Through intimate access to both the Indigenous community and the opposing farmers network, the film brings audiences directly into the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

The Mirror Game

Childhood friends Rose and Abe both find themselves in Las Vegas on the same weekend, but when Rose asks Abe for a life-changing favor, the evening takes a turn for the unexpected, and the two spend the night trying to beat the odds.

The Lake at the Bottom of the World

An international team of scientists explores a subglacial lake buried 3,600 feet beneath the Antarctic ice to reveal hidden truths about our planet’s dynamic past. As they struggle against the ferocity of the ice and wind, they consider how our relationship with nature – and with one another — will impact humanity’s future and the future of all life on our rapidly changing planet.

The House We Lived In

A decade in the making, a young filmmaker confronts addiction, family, and memory as he chronicles his father‘s journey to recover lost memories following a traumatic brain injury. Using experimental approaches with projected installations, he attempts to find those missing memories in hopes of finding the dad he used to know. As memories return in the form of dreams the family struggles with acceptance of this new version of their father.

The Falconer

Inspired by true events, two best friends, Tariq, an Omani teenager and Cai, a privileged Westerner, conspire to steal animals from the zoo and sell them on the black market to raise money for Tariq’s sister’s divorce from an abusive marriage. They are forced to wrestle with morally complex choices that reveal the vast distance between their worlds.

The Chisels Are Calling

John Monteleone is one of the world’s greatest guitar builders, and a living artist on permanent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Featuring musical tributes and interviews with Mark Knopfler, Ben Harper, David Grisman, Woody Mann, Julian Lage and others, the film covers the multi-faceted artist whose guitars are known not only for their incredible sound, but also for their visually striking and innovative designs.

Butterfly in the Sky

Reading Rainbow introduced millions of kids to the wonder and importance of books. Not only did the series insist on having kids speak to kids about their favorite stories, but Reading Rainbow introduced the world to one of the most adored television hosts of all time in LeVar Burton. Thanks to his direct, non-patronizing and, most importantly, kind delivery, Burton became a conduit to learning for children of every background—an entrancing guide to subjects unknown. In this wonderfully nostalgic look back at the origin story of Reading Rainbow, you’re invited to learn about the foundation of a show that for 25 years dedicated itself to not only bringing literature into children’s lives but delving behind the pages to the people, places, and things each new story explored.

The Big Bend

Two families meet for a reunion in the unknowable reaches of the West Texas desert where they explore the visually-striking landscape and reflect on their good lives. When a child goes missing on a hike, a father confronts his mortality and a wife decides to reexamine her marriage. THE BIG BEND follows the survival of these two families in a hauntingly dangerous environment, creating an unforgettable portrait of friendship, parenthood, and marriage.

Route One North w/ The Errand

Sisters Sarah and Bee set off to track down their long-absent father after their mother refuses to give 16-year-old Bee permission to marry her military boyfriend.

On These Grounds

A video goes viral, showing a white police officer in South Carolina pull a Black teenager from her school desk and throw her across the floor. Healer-Activist Vivian Anderson uproots her life in New York City to support the girl and dismantle the system behind the assault at Spring Valley, including facing the police officer.

Of Medicine and Miracles

At the age of six, Emily Whitehead was diagnosed with leukemia and the lives of her and her parents were suddenly thrust into uncertainty. Through bracingly honest interviews and home videos, Of Medicine and Miracles details her family’s experience bouncing from hospital to hospital, trying to stay hopeful amidst hopelessness, and their fateful correspondence with Dr. Carl June, whose research could hold the key to her survival. But time is of the essence.

Northern Shade

Justin McLaughlin, a disenchanted Army vet working a menial job and avoiding his past, is forced to emerge from isolation when his younger brother is recruited by an extremist militia. Working with a private investigator named Frankie, Justin will have to decide how much of his past in the Army he’s willing to bring back to the surface to extract his brother from the clutches of the paramilitary conman Billy.