A Love Song for Latasha – dir. Sophia Nahli Allison, Janice Duncan, USA, 18 minutes, 2019
The injustice surrounding the shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins at a South Central Los Angeles store became a flashpoint for the city’s 1992 civil uprising. As the Black community expressed its profound pain in the streets, Latasha’s friends and family privately mourned the loss of a vibrant child whose full story was never in the headlines. Nearly three decades later, A Love Song for Latasha removes Latasha from the context of her death and rebuilds an archive of a promising life lost. Oral history and memories from Latasha’s best friend and cousin converge in a dreamlike portrait that shows the impact one brief—but brilliant—life can have.
Do Not Split – dir. Anders Hammer, Charlotte Cook, USA/Norway, 36 minutes, 2020
Speaking from the heart of the Hong Kong protests, Do Not Split begins in 2019, as a proposed bill allowing the Chinese government to extradite criminal suspects to mainland China escalated protests throughout Hong Kong. Unfolding over the course of a year, Do Not Split captures the determination and sacrifices of the protesters, the government’s backlash, and the passage of the new Beijing-backed national security law.
Hunger Ward – dir. Skye Fitzgerald, Michael Scheuerman, USA, 40 minutes, 2020
Filmed inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in conflict-ridden Yemen, Hunger Ward documents two women fighting to thwart the spread of starvation against the backdrop of a forgotten war. The film provides unflinching portraits of Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and Nurse Mekkia Mahdi as they work to save the lives of hunger-stricken children in a population on the brink of famine. With unprecedented access to a sensitive conflict zone, Hunger Ward reveals the bravery of the deeply committed doctors working in the midst of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Colette – dir. Anthony Giacchino, Alice Doyard, France/Germany/USA, 24 minutes, 2020
Ninety-year-old Colette Marin-Catherine is one of the last surviving members of the French Resistance. As a young girl, she belonged to a family of Resistance fighters that included her 17-year-old brother Jean-Pierre. The last time Colette saw Jean-Pierre was in 1943, when he was arrested by the Gestapo and “disappeared” into the Nazi concentration camp system, never to be seen by his family again. For the past 74 years, Colette has never allowed herself to set one foot in Germany…but that’s all about to change when a young history student named Lucie enters her life.
A Concerto Is a Conversation – dir. Ben Proudfoot, Kris Bowers, USA, 13 minutes, 2020
A Concerto is a Conversation tells the story of virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer Kris Bowers, as he tracks his family’s lineage from his 91-year-old grandfather in Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Bowers traces the process of breaking into new spaces through the generations of sacrifice that came before him, focusing on the story of his grandfather Horace Bowers, who, as a young man, left his home in the Jim Crow South and eventually ended up in Los Angeles. Encountering discrimination at every turn, he and his wife, Alice, nevertheless made a life as business owners. Today, their legacy lives on through their family and community in South Los Angeles.
