When Filipe Leite leaves his adoptive home of Canada, the aspiring journalist sets out on an epic quest to ride from Calgary to his family”s home in Brazil – and later beyond – entirely on horseback. Inspired by Aimé Tschiffely”s 1925 equestrian journey, Filipe”s 8 year odyssey of over 25,000 kms across 12 international borders, sees the young immigrant battle intense heat, drought, speeding transport trucks, nature”s wrath and corrupt border guards on his history-making long ride home.
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.
In the midst of separating from her wife, Jay, a non-binary 40-something photographer, attempts to move across the country to start her life over again. Along the way, she takes a detour to stay with her high school best friend who she used to be secretly in love with, and befriends a charismatic gay man who has long given up on love. Struggling to move forward with the next chapter of her life, Jay grapples with the inevitable cycles of love, loss, and letting go.
Tamara Lanier, is an African-American woman determined to force Harvard University to cede ownership of daguerreotypes of her great-great-great grandfather, an enslaved man named Renty. The images are emblematic of the inhumanity of slavery, the racist science that supported it, and the white supremacy that continues to infect our society today. The film focuses on Lanier, following her lawsuit and the growing activism around it, and features Attorney Benjamin Crump and author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Following the screening Tamara Lanier, Attorney Preston Tisdale, Dr. David Harris (former Managing Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School) and Jill Abramson (Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Harvard University) will discuss the the film and the implications of the decision issued recently by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Katia and Maurice Krafft loved two things — each other and volcanoes. For two decades, the daring French volcanologist couple roamed the planet, chasing eruptions, documenting their discoveries. Ultimately, they lost their lives in a 1991 volcanic explosion, leaving a legacy that forever enriched our knowledge of the natural world. Director Sara Dosa and the filmmaking team fashion a lyrical celebration of the intrepid scientists’ spirit of adventure, drawing from the Kraffts’ spectacular archive. Fire of Love tells a story of primordial creation & destruction, following two bold explorers as they venture into the unknown, all for the sake of love.
Against all odds and polar advice, a Muslim chaplain, a French biologist, a Qatari princess and eight other women from the Arab World and the West attempt to ski across the melting Arctic sea ice to the North Pole. These boundary-breaking adventurers, led by veteran polar explorer Felicity Aston, navigate everything from frostbite and polar bear threats, to sexism and self-doubt in an intimate story of resilience, survival and global citizenry. These audacious women are also, to date, the last ever to ski over the ice to the North Pole.
Adapted from the heartbreaking and inspirational novel of the same name, “Dear Zoe” is a powerful story of resilience told from the point of view of a 16-year-old girl; a coming-of-age drama in which teenage Tess enlists her biological father – a lovable slacker – and the charming juvenile delinquent next door to help her come to grips with the death of her little sister.
Kristal Bush grew up in Philadelphia watching nearly every man in her life disappear to prison. She channeled that struggle into keeping families connected as a social worker and through her van service that transports riders – mostly women – to visit partners, fathers and sons in faraway prisons. But when Kristal’s father and brother come home after decades behind bars, she confronts what it means to piece her own family back together, and create a different future for her young nephew, Nyvae. Weaving intimate vérité scenes with Kristal’s own videos, A WOMAN ON THE OUTSIDE is a tender portrait of one family striving to love in the face of a system built to break them.