Film Schedule:

Friday, October 20th, 2023

7:00 PM: Shorts Program: Immigrants & Community

Join us at the MLK Jr. Memorial Library for a short film program featuring films exploring how central "community" is to the immigrant experience. The program includes a short film covering the history of a local apartment in Mount Pleasant and its residents, the stories of Afghan refugees working to start over in Silver Spring, New York, and New Zealand, and two Guatamalan day laborers in Florida fighting for unpaid wages and legal protection.

A filmmaker Q&A following the screenings will feature Tavleen Tarrant, Co-Director of Allies Welcome. Tavleen is a social newsgathering reporter at NBC News. Previously she was a news assistant at CNN where she worked on breaking news in the Northeast United States. She is a graduate of a Master’s in Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, in the documentary specialization.

- Monarcas
- Park Regent
- No Place Like Home
- Allies Welcome

Location: MLK Jr. Memorial Library, The Auditorium, 5th Floor, 901 G St NW, Washington, DC

Saturday, October 21st, 2023

11:00 AM: Stuck in Greece: An LGBT Refugee Crisis

When brought to Athens, Greece in 2016 for a screening of his film Daddy, actor and filmmaker Gerald McCullouch (CSI, Physical, the BearCity trilogy) unexpectedly meets a group of LGBT refugees fleeing persecution from their communities, their governments, and their families who now find themselves trapped in Greece. Unable to move on to other parts of the EU, they face abuse, torture, rape and murder in the refugee camps so many are forced into a life of displacement. For years. Confounded by their circumstances, Gerald is compelled to document his education of a crisis facing countless members of his community who came to Greece under desperately different circumstances.

Location: Miracle Theatre, 535 8th Street, SE, Washington DC 20003

6:00 PM: Reception and Keynote Program: Estamos Unidos with Sisterhood

Estamos Unidos:

Hundreds of Central American migrants form a “caravan” amidst an unprecedented wave of Central American migration and Trump-era policies to halt it. They navigate the pains and joys of unity along an arduous journey across Mexico and towards the United States.

Sisterhood:

As the world dealt with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, Lebanon was also dealing with the fallout from the escalating economic and social crises. One of the communities hardest hit were female migrant domestic workers, an already fragile and vulnerable group. When Lebanese families were no longer able to afford to pay their salaries, thousands of migrant women found themselves thrown out into the streets without money, clothes, food, or their travel documents.

Location: Edlavitch DCJCC JxJ Theater, 1529 16th Street NW, Washington DC

Sunday, October 22nd, 2023

12:00 PM: Shorts Program: Young Immigrants and the Power of Imagination

Join us at the Edlavitch DCJCC for a shorts program exploring the power of imagination and creativity for young immigrants. These powerful short films feature young immigrants from many different countries, and while they share challenges such as trouble with making friends, understanding a new language, or feeling comfortable in their new home, they demonstrate the resilience of imagination and creativity as a way to find peace, make new friends, explore new ideas, and understand their new home.

- Kotoba
- Home
- Karam Camera
- Unsaid
- The Old Young Crow

5:00 PM: Asian American Immigrants Program: Nurse Unseen with Baseball Behind Barbed Wire

Baseball Behind Barbed Wire:

Baseball Behind Barbed Wire tells the story of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans, through the uncommon yet popular lens of baseball, America’s national pastime. There is great irony in the popularity of the All-American Sport of baseball. Japanese Americans incarcerees had their citizenship and civil rights taken away and were forcibly confined from 1942-45. Playing baseball was a chance to assert their citizenship and affirm their loyalty as Americans, even as camp guards in towers pointed their rifles inward and the barbed wire kept them confined.

Nurse Unseen:

NURSE UNSEEN explores the little-known history and humanity of the unsung Filipino nurses risking their lives on the frontlines while facing a resurgence of anti-Asian hate in the streets. The film unearths the colonial ties between the Philippines and the United States that have led to Filipino nurses becoming the unknown backbone of the U.S. and global healthcare systems.

Location: Edlavitch DCJCC JxJ Theater, 1529 16th Street NW, Washington DC

Fest Date: October 20 - 22, 2023

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