Schedule

HCAF 2022 will feature a wide variety of curated feature films with a focus on the diverse cultural community of Houston, Texas.

HCAF 2022 will also see the return of CineSpace, our annual short film competition with NASA, as well as the third annual regional short film competition Borders | No Borders.

Friday, November 11, 2022

7:00pm-9:00pm: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Following the life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family, the pharmaceutical dynasty who was greatly responsible for the opioid epidemic's unfathomable death toll.

Location:  Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Brown

Voices of the Gods

Co-presented by Fotofest and the Menil Collection. This event is bring-your-own blanket or lawn chair Film will be preceded by a KoumanKe’le’ Performance at 6:30pm. | This documentary captures the rich legacy of ancient African religions practiced in the United States. It provides viewers with rare insight into the practices and beliefs of the Akan and Yoruba religions–their cosmologies, their use of music, dance and medicine in various ceremonies and rituals–and illustrates how mass media...

Location:  The Menil Collection

7:30pm-9:30pm: The Five Devils

Vicky lives with her mother Joanne and father Jimmie, a man struggling to find his place. When Vicky's aunt Julia arrives after being released from prison, her presence brings back the past in a violent, magical way.

Location:  Rice Cinema

Selena 25th Anniversary

For single tickets, click HERE . Festival All Access Pass Holders get in for free! Please email [email protected] no later than Thursday, November 10 to reserve your seat. | The true story of Selena, a Texas-born Tejano singer who rose from cult status to performing at the Astrodome, as well as having chart-topping albums on the Latin music charts.

Location:  Rooftop Cinema Club Uptown

9:30pm -11:30pm: Will-o’-the-Wisp

Preceded by Short Film: A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here. Co-Presented by the Big Queer Picture Show. | 2069, an erotic year if ever there was one, but a fateful year for a king without a crown. | Tired of loneliness, a middle aged motorcyclist goes to a lesbian party for the first time.

Location:  Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Wyatt

Saturday, November 12, 2022

12:30 - 2:30 PM : Close

The intense friendship between two thirteen-year old boys Leo and Remi suddenly gets disrupted. Struggling to understand what has happened, Léo approaches Sophie, Rémi's mother.

Location:  Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Brown

1:00pm - 3:00PM : Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands

Co-Presented by Stages Houston. Preceded by Short Documentary Plumshuga: The Rise of Lauren Anderson. Followed by a Workshop with Filmmaker Rita Coburn. | Documentary on Marian Anderson, an African American woman, an international singing star in the twentieth century who succeeded over racial prejudice and became an inspiration for America's civil rights movement. | Behind every piece of theater are years of planning, polishing, and revising. Discover the creative path taken by Deborah D....

Location: Rice Cinema

6:30 - 8:30 PM : Friday I'm In Love

Followed by a Q&A with the director, Marcus Pontello, moderated by Michael Robinson . | Since 1978, Numbers Nightclub has been a home to the underground and LGBTQ communities in Houston, becoming one of the longest running nightclubs in the U.S. From its early days as a gay disco, to its evolution as an alternative music venue, Numbers has showcased such legendary performers as Ministry, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Grace Jones, The Cure, Bjork, Nine Inch Nails, and more. Friday I’m In Love tel...

Location: Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Brown

7:30pm - 9:30 PM: The African Desperate

The film follows 24 hours in the life of Palace, a newly minted MFA grad from an upstate New York art school, whose final day of school becomes a psychedelic odyssey.

Location: Rice Cinema

9:00am- 11 PM: Holy Spider

A female journalist travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to hunt a serial killer.

Location:  Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Brown

Sunday, November 13, 2022

11:00AM - 3:00PM: Martha's Mustang- A Staged Screenplay Reading

Based on a true story from Baytown, Martha’s Mustang is about a woman who owns a struggling auto body shop and is forced to sue City Hall in order to keep the refurbished hot pink Mustang, with wild flowers planted inside, as part of her shop’s sign to attract business. This is a staged Reading of Jenny Waldo’s new Screenplay, Martha’s Mustang, and will be followed by a Q&A with the Cast and Filmmakers . This script was just selected as a Quarterfinalist for the 2021 Nicholl Fello...

Location: Six Foot

12:30pm- 2:30 PM : You Resemble Me

When two young sisters are torn apart, the eldest loses her identity and transforms into someone new in the name of belonging and resistance.

Location: Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Brown

1:00pm-3:00pm: Rodeo

Julia -a young misfit who is passionate about riding- meets a crew of dirt riders who fly along at full speed and perform stunts. She sets about infiltrating their male-dominated world, but an accident jeopardizes her ability to fit in

Location: Rice Cinema

1:00pm- 3:00pm: Borders 

Followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers, moderated by Michael Robinson. | CANS Can’t Stand follows a group of Black trans women in New Orleans who are fighting to repeal Louisiana’s Crime Against Nature by Solicitation (CANS) law, which police and prosecutors have used to terrorize queer/trans Louisianians for 40 years. | ???? (What They've Been Taught) explores expressions of reciprocity in the Cherokee world, brought to life through a story told by an elder and first language sp...

Location: The DeLUXE Gallery

3:00pm- 5:00PM: Women Talking

Followed by a conversation with Judith Ivey and Sheila McCarthy . | In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith.

Location:  Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Wyatt

4:00pm- 6:00pm: Object Permanence: Experimental Shorts Program

A keeper’s log, a score for light, a script for sound. A reconstruction, a slow reclamation. To begin where there is light. | Honoring the life of a loved one who died due to an accidental opioid overdose, the film materializes the process of overdue bereavement by invoking a fragmented presence at the periphery of the mind. | Objects disappear. | The simultaneity of beauty and decay are axes of an exploration of colors and tones. | n 1887 the Hyderabadi Nobleman Viqar-ul-Umra commissioned...

Location:  Rice Cinema

4:00 - 6:00PM :Environmental Shorts Program

Followed by a panel with filmmakers, moderated by Jasmine Jones. | For nearly fifteen years, Bilal Motley worked as a steelworker at the largest oil refinery on the East Coast. His documentary film, Midnight Oil, draws on this experience. The film chronicles his struggle to reconcile his love and kinship for his distressed refinery brothers and sisters, and his growing awareness of the surrounding communities of color, fighting for environmental justice. | Barry, a Jamaican-born beekeeper, ha...

Location: The DeLUXE Gallery

6:00- 11:59 PM: Filmmaker Mixer

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Location:  White Rhino Patio And Cocktail Bar

7:00pm- 9:00PM: Art & Krimes by Krimes

Follow Philadelphia artist Jesse Krimes, who created spectacular works while incarcerated and continues to use his work to inspire and challenge.

Location:  Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Brown

7:00pm- 9:00PM: Cinespace

Doors Open at 4:00pm with interactive exhibits, live DJ Set by Flash Gordon Parks, and a Space-Movie-Themed Costume Contest. CineSpace is co-presented by NASA and Space Channel. | A young girl dreams about shooting into space to escape the pollution in her neighborhood. | This short documentary explores why a journey to Mars can be the next giant leap for mankind. | A journey towards the end of the heart of our solar system as we know it. | "I was really interested in space, but I th...

Location:  Orange Show Center for Visionary Art

7:30pm - 9:30 PM: Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power

Preceded by Short Film: Root Shock. | Through first person accounts and searing archival footage, LOWNDES COUNTY AND THE ROAD TO BLACK POWER tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County, Alabama. | Named after the book by Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, Root Shock narrates the fate of a 102 year old Third Ward elder who was evicted from her home. The...

Location:  The DeLUXE Theater

Monday. November 14, 2022

5:00pm-7:00pm: Alamo Bay

Presented by HCAF Advisory Board member, Margarita de la Vega Hurtado. | A despondent Vietnam veteran in danger of losing his livelihood is pushed to the edge when he sees Vietnamese immigrants moving into the fishing industry in a Texas bay town.

Location:  Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Wyatt

7:00pm- 9:00PM :Sick of Myself

Increasingly overshadowed by her boyfriend's recent rise to fame as a contemporary artist creating sculptures from stolen furniture, Signe hatches a vicious plan to reclaim her rightfully deserved attention within the milieu of Oslo's cultural elite.

Location: Rice Cinema

7:30 - 9:30 PM: Borders 

Followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers, moderated by Michael Robinson. | One hot summer day, Nats and Caro go to the pool to cool off, but the day doesn't turn out the way they expected. | As the only English speaker of the house, twelve year old Marisol takes on the overwhelming responsibility of being her immigrant mothers translator. Much of her own life is disrupted to aid her Spanish-speaking mother, Gloria, navigate an English-speaking world. From fully translating medi...

Location: Talento Bilingue Houston

Cinema Paradiso

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Monday, November 14, 8 - 11 PM @ River Oaks Theater

Co-Presented by the Friends of River Oaks 7:15 Doors 7:30 performance by W7 Duo 8:00 Cinema Paradiso Screening will be held across from the River Oaks Theater at the Parking Deck Picture Show (Barnes & Noble parking deck) 2030 W Gray, rain or shine. | A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

Tuesday, November 15th

7:30 - 9:30 PM : Sirens

Lilas and Shery, co-founders and guitarists of the Middle East's first all-female metal band, wrestle with friendship, sexuality and destruction in their pursuit of becoming thrash metal rock stars.

Location:  Asia Society Texas Center

7:30 - 9:30 PM: 100 Ways to Cross the Border

Co-Presented by the Houston Latino Film Festival. Followed by a panel discussion with Filmmaker Amber Bemak. | This vibrant documentary celebrates Guillermo Gómez-Peña and the contribution his radical, queer, anti-colonial art has made to conversations around border-thinking, gender politics and Latinx identity.

Location:  Talento Bilingue Houston

7:30 - 9:30 PM : Rewind & Play

The lack of respect with which the Black musician Thelonious Monk was treated in Autumn, 1969. At the end of his European tour, legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk appears on an interview show in Paris for French state television.

Location: The DeLUXE Theater

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

7:30pm: With Peter Bradley

When filmmaker Alex Rappoport met then 79-year-old abstract artist Peter Bradley in early 2020, Bradley hadn’t sold many paintings or had a major show in over four decades – yet he still painted every day in his shipping-container studio, heated by a wood stove, no matter what the weather. Over time, Rappoport recorded Bradley’s fascinating life story, which occupies a unique and inexplicably overlooked place in 20th century art history.

Location: Delux Theater

Date: November 11-November 17, 2022

Location: Various Venues in Houston, TX

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