Narrative Shorts Selections

  • All For You

    A career-driven daughter and her resolute mother clash over conflicting priorities and learn how far they're willing to go for the sake of love.
    U.S. (Director: Dawn Reavis)

  • Celyna

    Celyna, a first generation Asian teen, must decide between holding onto her mother's memory through dance or walking her own path of rock and roll.
    U.S. (Director: Artisha Mann-Cooper)

  • Courtney

    A struggling comedian going through the ups and downs of life.
    U.S. (Director: Courtney Theophin)

  • Cursive

    When a woman on the verge of a breakup gets help from a mysterious stranger to improve her handwriting, she finds the inner voice she has longed for all along.
    U.K. (Director: Isabel Steuble-Johnson)

  • Curtain Call

    Luke runs into an old flame, Eric, from his previous life of performing in musical theatre. Comparing how both moved on, Luke reveals that Eric was his first and only same-sex relationship.
    U.S. (Director: Malynda Hale)

  • Destroy Imagination

    A male student has just been raped in his dorm room and he fears that people will not believe him.
    U.S. (Director: Chris Adam Abercrombie)

  • #DTMUS (Don't Tell Me Ur Sorry)

    Inspired by true events that follow two African American teens who experience the pandemic in two different lights.
    U.S. (Director: Anah Ambuchi)

  • Essex Girls

    This coming-of-age film explores Black British girlhood and magical female friendships in 2009 Essex.
    U.K. (Director: Yero Timi-Biu)

  • Family or Freedom

    A captivating short film that follows Farah, a British Pakistani dentist who dares to chase her childhood passion for acting, defying the constraints of her strict upbringing.
    U.K. (Director: Nathan Caselton)

  • Fervor

    In the unforgiving embrace of a desolate desert, a resolute young Latina faces off against her relentless foe.
    U.S. (Director: Enrique A. Mendoza)

  • Floor

    A young Asian woman trying to figure out where her father’s body is after his sudden death by suicide.
    U.S. (Director: Caitlin Boston)

  • Kijana Mfalme Boy King

    The state of humanity is viewed through the lens of a black boy.
    U.S. (Director: Chad Quinn & LaTrice Amanda Strong)

  • Legend of El Cucuy

    Laura and her husband Carlos are permissive parents, and their choice to raise their daughter Isabel without discipline has resulted in an obscene, disobedient child.
    U.S. (Director: Cynthia García Williams)

  • Lifeline

    Marcus has lived life with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Well, today it all comes crashing down when he terrifyingly contemplates suicide in a game of Russian roulette.
    U.S. (Directors: Shaun Heard-Mckoy & Edwin Walker)

  • More Than Hair

    Sitting for the first time in a barbershop, a young black boy will discover for the first time the symbolic power of black hair.
    U.S. (Director: Fitch Jean)

  • Mosiah

    The government has charged Marcus Garvey with mail fraud in connection with selling stocks for the Black Star Line - a shipping line designed to forge a link between North America and Africa.
    U.S. (Director: Jirard)

  • Omakase

    A young woman questions her priorities after her mother interrupts her promising, lavish Omakase dinner date with a phone call.
    U.S. (Director: Tristan Au)

  • Physical Therapy

    A gay Latino doctor must decide between keeping his low-income clients or taking a job at a private practice for the kids of the mega-rich.
    U.S. (Director: Ahuatl Amaro)

  • Saving Art

    Instead of telling his newly diagnosed five-year-old son that he has Leukemia; Brian tells Arthur that the chemotherapy will give him superpowers.
    U.K. (Director: Remi R.M. Moses)

  • Stero

    With the heart of a warrior and an imaginary sensei by his side, a young boy attempts to defy the repressive rules of his school by becoming a badass hero.
    U.S. (Tevin Kimathi & Millan Tarus)

  • Sundown

    A coming-of-age thriller short about Mikey, a young boy from Baltimore, and the lifelong consequences of disobeying his mother and staying out too late one night.
    U.S. (Director: Cierra Andrea Gladden)

  • Supa Hair

    After the death of her mother, Luna and her sister, Carmen move from the Dominican Republic to Arizona to live with their estranged grandmother where she is confronted with bullying and her sister's cold shoulder.
    U.S. (Director: Glenís Hunter)

  • They Don't Live Long

    A man has been released from prison for a felony pending hearing in two months and he could be sentenced to up to five years. The connection with his fellow miscreants proves just too deep to ignore.
    U.S. (Director: Adrian Pnut)

  • TikTok Challenged

    A soap opera-loving grandmother, has always dreamed of being a star, and she's finally got her chance.
    U.S. (Director: Ivan Rome)

  • Ursula

    The children of a fallen screen star must settle their differences when their once-famous mother is linked to a string of murders.
    U.S. (Directors: Kwame Berry & Peter Samuel)