Sarasota and Florida Filmmakers

Drawn in by the haunting spectre of the Florida panther, Nat Geo photographer Carlton Ward and a coalition of biologists, ranchers, conservationists, and Indigenous Peoples find themselves on the front lines of an accelerating battle between forces of renewal and destruction that have pushed the Everglades to the brink of ecological collapse.

Shane Wiskus is a top collegiate gymnast who dreams of going to the Olympics. But when the COVID-19 pandemic postpones the games, his university uses the crisis as a pretext to cut the program. Shane is forced to train independently and yet still manages to win the Nissen Emery Award at the end of the year, the NCAA’s highest honor for gymnastics.

In Attendance: Steven Nye, Director; Shane Wiskus, Subject

An Iranian girl decides to remove her Headscarf/Hijab in a life changing situation.

Those We Carry is a snapshot of a mother and daughter’s last 24 hours together as they travel to the wilderness of California so the mother, who’s terminally ill, can die with dignity.

Christina and Sara find themselves stood up while they wait for their online dates to arrive. What happens during the course of the evening surprises them both. It’s a story about connection, self-empowerment, and the joy of spontaneity.

When a long flirtation between two co-workers comes to a head durning a revealing lunch break in the park, who gets to walk away with their head held high?

When a phone scammer makes one last late night call, the woman on the other end gives her much more than she bargained for.

A young man tries to grow an oak tree by combining soil, an acorn, and the ashes of his dead father.

Faced with immigrating to the US from Cuba alone as children – via a secret program called Operation Pedro Pan that received over 14,000 children between 1960 and 1962 – this short documentary follows two former “Pedro Paners” who agreed to share their insights and contemplations on the impact this event had on their lives and what we all have to learn from it today.

After getting her heart broken, Inés decides she must end it all… that is, until her perfectly planned suicide is interrupted by the ghost of her chatty Cuban neighbor.

“Hidden Gems” is a documentary film about African American male business owners’ struggles and triumphs in the business world. Through personal anecdotes and interviews, the film delves into their unique challenges as African American men, highlighting their resilience and determination to overcome obstacles and achieve success.

This punk rock fairytale doubles as a portrait of Shoog McDaniel — a fat, queer, and disabled photographer working in and around northern Florida’s vast network of freshwater springs, the state’s source of precious drinking water. For over a decade, Shoog’s photographs have transformed the way fat people view themselves and how a fat phobic society views fat bodies.

A Day in the Life of a thirty-something immigrant caught in a rut. He lives in a place where everyone speaks a different language and no one understands anyone else. When his wife asks him to buy ice cream, his day unravels as misunderstandings sink to absurd misadventures. A satirical view about a day where the effects of a new immigrant’s mounting hardships and dizzying realities all converge into one big mess. The Subtitles Are Color Coded: Serbian (white) Spanish (yellow) Broken Serbian or Broken Spanish (orange) English (not subtitled)

A daughter comes home for the weekend to look after her father, ailing with Dementia. The appearance of a mysterious woman shines a light on their changing parent-child power dynamic, threatening to throw their world out of orbit.

When a 15 yr old boy does not get the support he needs from his parents he finds an unexpected friendship with a lonely, elderly neighbor.

In the distant future, the Climate Crisis forces mankind to evacuate Earth and head to space with the hopes of colonizing a new world. The trip is long and lonely, but a dating system has been created to allow Earth’s remaining survivors to communicate and hopefully find love. Connection tells the story of Lauren, a self-made woman, who uses the dating system to find a connection that might save more than her heart.

After the loss of her unborn son, Amy creates an artificial intelligence to cope and learn with.

Inspired by true events and shot on location at LAX airport, “Bienvenidos a Los Angeles” tells the timely story of Imani, a Nigerian single-mother living in Los Angeles, who offers to help a perfect stranger reunite with her son. In doing so, Imani learns this simple act of kindness threatens to jeopardize her own path to citizenship.

After meeting in their therapist’s office, two women battling their own mental health issues form an unlikely friendship when one helps the other confront a pregnancy scare.

Daniel Rosa, a teenage Puerto Rican-American, doesn’t feel like he quite fits into his extended family due to his different cultural upbringing. His mother and only confidant- Evie, tries thrusting him into the deep end when they attend a family holiday party in hopes for her son to connect. But when Daniel discovers a tragic truth about his family his world and identity gets flipped upside down, posing the question of who he wants to be and who he should be.

After receiving a mysterious letter, a wayward son returns to his childhood home to wrestle with a dark family secret.

A Woman’s Look at the world of Skydiving, BASE jumping, and Wingsuit Flying

One day in 2016 China after the abolishment of the One Child Policy, 11-year-old Mai attends her baby brother’s first birthday party and learns a crushing truth: her parents never really wanted a girl. What’s worse — she starts turning into a feather duster.

In this coming of age drama, 10 year old Max evades the harsh realities of the world around him by escaping to his hidden oasis in the woods with his older brother Jack.

When a young convict is caught by law enforcement, his only way out is to infiltrate and deceive his own team as they gear up for their biggest score yet.