The American Film Institute Announces Full Slate For AFI DOCS 2021
- Details
- Category: Entertainment News
- Published on Thursday, 27 May 2021 06:12
- Written by AFI
SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Curated from hundreds of entries, this year’s short films highlight unique voices from around the world – presented in six programs.
AUDIBLE: DIR Matt Ogens. PRODS Nyle DiMarco and Peter Berg. USA.
Athletes at the Maryland School for the Deaf defend their winning streak while dealing with the loss of a friend. They face pressures of entering the hearing world in this coming-of-age story.
THE BEAUTY PRESIDENT: DIR Whitney Skauge. PROD Caley Shannon. USA.
“If a bad actor can be president, why not a good drag queen?” In 1992, Joan Jett Blakk made a historic bid for the White House as the first openly queer write-in candidate. World Premiere.
THE BROTHER (LE FRÈRE): DIR Jérémie Battaglia. PROD Amélie Lambert Bouchard. Canada.
Suffering from an illness that causes body paralysis, Kais dreams he is the hero of his favorite anime, along with his brothers, Fehd the bodybuilder and Zaïd the ninja. US Premiere.
BUG FARM: DIR Lydia Cornett. PROD Brit Fryer. USA.
Four women in Central Florida establish a unique bond while working with crickets, superworms and roaches on an insect farm in the rural town of LaBelle.
CODED: DIR Ryan White. PRODS Christopher Leggett, Rafael Marmor, Conor Fetting-Smith, Jessica Hargrave and Marc Gilbar. USA.
The coded advertisements of legendary early-20th century gay illustrator J.C. Leyendecker quietly, but directly, acknowledged a community that was forced to live in the closet.
THE COMMUNION OF MY COUSIN ANDREA: DIR Brandán Cerviño Abeledo. PRODS Brandán Cerviño Abeledo and Sabrina Zimmermann. Spain.
Andrea’s First Communion ceremony lacks glamour. For Andrea, things without sparkles are meaningless. World Premiere.
EAGLES (ÁGUILAS): DIRS Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Maite Zubiaurre. PRODS Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Maite Zubiaurre. USA.
Once a month, along the scorching southern desert border in Arizona, one group of searchers, the Aguilas del Desierto, set out to recover missing loved ones.
THE GALLERY THAT DESTROYS ALL SHAME: DIRS Aurora Brachman and Jessie Zinn. PRODS Aurora Brachman and Jessie Zinn. USA.
One evening in L.A., a group of women gather to learn how to take back the speculum. World Premiere.
THE GAME: DIR Roman Hodel. PROD Franziska Sonder. Switzerland.
A whistle. The crowded stands of the stadium roar. Players protest angrily. Announcers follow the action on the field. In the middle of it all is the referee.
GOLDEN AGE KARATE: DIR Sindha Agha. PRODS Malcolm Pullinger and Rachel Serada Barth. USA.
Teen karate pro Jeff Wall teaches senior citizens self-defense at a local nursing home, giving them the tools to feel in control, connected and cared for.
THE HAIRDRESSER (LA COIFFEUSE): DIR Lorraine Price. PROD Lorraine Price. Canada.
At 83, Kathleen is still doing hair, though not how you might expect. Her work is special. World Premiere.
HALPATE: DIRS Adam Piron and Adam Khalil. PRODS Alexandra Lazarowich and Everett Osceola. USA.
Alligator wrestling, considered a staple of Florida tourism, is a dangerous spectacle that has been performed by members of the Seminole Tribe for over a century.
THE I AND S OF LIVES: DIR Kevin Jerome Everson. PRODS Madeleine Molyneaux and Kevin Jerome Everson. USA.
The smoothest area of resistance. The “I and S” of “Lives” is traced by a lone rollerskater on Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC, on a summer afternoon in 2020.
INTERNATIONAL DAWN CHORUS DAY: DIR John Greyson. PROD John Greyson. Canada.
On International Dawn Chorus Day (May 3, 2020), birds from six continents join a Zoom call, where they gossip about storms, cats, wires, dates and two Egyptian activists. US Premiere.
INVISIBLE MONSTERS AND TOMATO SOUP: DIRS Stevie Borrello, Marcie LaCerte and Meghan McDonough. USA.
A batch of mushy sourdough. Two radioactive lizards. Three cans of Campbell’s tomato soup. When COVID-19 lockdowns began in 2020, people around the world began reporting more vivid dreams.
MAMA: DIR Pablo de la Chica. PRODS David Torres, Pablo de la Chica, Kathleen McInnis, Miguel González, Eduardo Jiménez, Jordi Rubio, Diego Urruchi and Néstor Lopez. Spain.
Deep in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, one of the most violent places in the world, Mama Zawadi and her baby chimpanzees find that unconditional love can heal the wounds of war. North American Premiere.
MISSION: HEBRON: DIR Rona Segal. PROD Idit Kliger. Israel.
Israeli soldiers are recruited at age 18 and, only months later, are already overseeing Palestinian civil life. Former soldiers describe their time in Hebron, the most troubled city in the West Bank. North American Premiere.
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA: DIR Sergei Loznitsa. PRODS Philippe Martin, Dimitri Krassoulia-Vronsky, Emmanuel Perreau and Louis Vaudeville. France.
Filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa revisits the Palais Garnier of the 1950s and 1960s, reviving the era when kings and queens, celebrities and heads of state ascended the stairs to worship the art of opera.
NSENENE: DIR Michelle Coomber. PROD Michelle Coomber. UK.
In this poetic portrait of a Ugandan tradition, Masaka's grasshopper catchers light up the sky. World Premiere.
THE ONE WHO CROSSED THE SEA (DER ÜBERS MEER KAM): DIR Jonas Riemer. PRODS Jonas Riemer and Johannes Schubert. Germany.
In a makeshift boat, a GDR refugee escapes to West Germany. His newfound freedom is disorienting, and it is only later, with a growing nationalist movement, that he begins to feel at home.
PARTY LINE: DIR Lydia Cornett. PROD Lydia Cornett. USA.
At the early voting line in Ohio’s most populous county, civic duty is a public performance. World Premiere.
R.I.P. T-SHIRTS: DIRS Kate Davis and David Heilbroner. PRODS David Heilbroner, Grace Harry and Anwan Glover. USA.
A small custom T-shirt shop in Washington, DC, sees a generation of Black youth experience gun violence. World Premiere.
RED TAXI: DIR Anonymous. Hong Kong.
As protests in Hong Kong escalate, taxi drivers experience a city in upheaval driving the streets day and night. Anonymously filmed by locals.
S P A C E S (M E Z E R Y): DIR Nora Štrbová. Czech Republic.
A multi-textured animated exploration of memory as a container of identity, based on the personal story of the filmmaker and her brother who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. North American Premiere.
SCUM BOY: DIR Allison Swank. PROD Allison Swank. South Africa.
A look at the off-the-wall psyche of Gen Z by way of visionary 3D artist Scum Boy, a young South African, Jewish transgender man living his life with illuminating fearlessness.
SENIOR PROM: DIR Luisa Conlon. PRODS Jessica Chermayeff and Luisa Conlon. USA.
At an LGBTQ retirement home, the annual “senior” prom takes on a whole new meaning – a celebration of the lives and legacies of resistance of the eldest queer generation. World Premiere.
SHELTER: DIR Smriti Mundhra. PROD Maya Gnyp. USA.
A verité documentary that follows three young children and their families as they grapple with housing insecurity in Los Angeles. World Premiere.
SINCE YOU ARRIVED, MY HEART STOPPED BELONGING TO ME (DESDE QUE LLEGASTE MI CORAZÓN DEJÓ DE PERTENECERME): DIR Erin Semine Kökdil. PROD Erin Semine Kökdil. USA.
Central American mothers journey by bus through Mexico, searching for their children who migrated north towards the United States but disappeared en route.
SOUVENIR SOUVENIR: DIR Bastien Dubois. PROD Amiel Tenenbaum. France.
An account of filmmaker Bastien Dubois’ multiple unsuccessful attempts to initiate a dialogue with his grandfather, who had been a soldier in the French-Algerian war.
TRADE CENTER: DIR Adam Baran. PRODS Adam Baran and Ethan Weinstock. USA.
The voices of gay men who cruised for sex at the World Trade Center in the 1980s and 1990s haunt the sanitized, commerce-driven landscape of the newly rebuilt Freedom Tower.
THE TRAIN STATION: DIR Lyana Patrick. PROD Jessica Hallenbeck. Canada.
In this beautifully animated documentary short, filmmaker Lyana Patrick narrates her family's powerful story of love and survival at Lejac Indian Residential School. US Premiere.
UNDER THE LEMON TREE (تحت شجرة الليمون): DIR Noor Fawzi Alasswad. PROD Yassmine Hammoudi. Qatar, Palestine.
Under the shade of a lemon tree, a Palestinian woman, Khaldieh, prepares herself a humble breakfast, remembering her former life and lost homeland with an assemblage of simple elements. US Premiere.
UNFORGIVABLE (IMPERDONABLE): DIR Marlén Viñayo. PRODS Marlén Viñayo and Carlos Martínez. El Salvador.
Inside an evangelical Salvadoran prison, a ruthless 18th Street gang hitman is guilty, not only of his crimes, but of the unforgivable sin of being gay.
THE WAY WE WAIT: DIR Ji-Yoon Park. PROD Ji-Yoon Park. South Korea, UK.
The filmmaker has just moved into her 22nd house when she receives a phone call that her grandmother is in critical condition. Belatedly attempting to strengthen their relationship, she awaits the impending loss. North American Premiere.
WHEN WE WERE BULLIES: DIR Jay Rosenblatt. PROD Jay Rosenblatt. USA.
A mind-boggling “coincidence” leads a filmmaker to track down his fifth-grade class, to examine a memory of his own complicity in a bullying incident 50 years ago.
Jimmy Carter Rock and Roll President Review – Four Stars! An Entertaining, Engaging, Oscar Bound, Biopic
SPOTLIGHT ON THE HINDSIGHT PROJECT
Special to AFI DOCS this year is the Spotlight on the Hindsight Project, sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The section presents the world premiere of six short films, which chronicle the experiences of BIPOC communities in the American South and U.S. Territories during the unprecedented events of 2020. The project is produced in partnership by Firelight Media, Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) and Reel South.
FOOD FOR THE POOR (COMIDA PA' LOS POBRES): DIR Arleen Cruz-Alicea. PRODS Arleen Cruz-Alicea. Puerto Rico (USA).
COMIDA PA' LOS POBRES follows a young Puerto Rican activist as he confronts the island’s persistent crisis of food insecurity. World Premiere.
MISSING MAGIC: DIR Anissa Latham. PRODS Anissa Latham, Kelsey Harrison. USA.
MISSING MAGIC centers on a young poet and activist in Birmingham, Alabama, as he tries to write his way through the complex history of the city. World Premiere.
NOW LET US SING: DIR Dilsey Davis. USA.
An interfaith, interracial choir in Durham, North Carolina, is forced to take a new direction during the pandemic. World Premiere.
THIS BODY: DIR Zac Manuel. PRODS Lauren Cargo. USA.
As Sydney Hall participates in an experimental coronavirus vaccine trial in hopes of protecting her beloved New Orleans community, she and her loved ones confront the history of medical abuse and experimentation on Black bodies. World Premiere.
UDAAN (SOAR): DIR Amman Abbasi. PRODS Alex Nystrom. USA, Pakistan.
UDAAN (SOAR) follows a young Pakistani woman as she immigrates from Karachi, Pakistan, to a small town in Arkansas to begin her first year of college. World Premiere.
WE STAY IN THE HOUSE: DIR Kiyoko McCrae. PRODS Kiyoko McCrae, Eritria Pitts. USA.
A group of New Orleans mothers struggle to care for their families and themselves throughout the pandemic. Utilizing video diaries, it provides an intimate portrait of mothering during a time of crisis. World Premiere.
