The Pine Ridge Reservation declares a "State of Emergency", after a devastating rash of youth suicides tragically reaches the highest levels in the country. Due to inadequate federal assistance, residents take prevention efforts into their hands.

Films:
Little Brother
My Brother's Keeper
Chai
The Honey Makers
The Rotation
Pushkin's Pants

A young dancer struggles with her bi-cultural identity when she meets a confident young Deaf drummer who stirs up old conflicted feelings about growing up hearing in a Deaf family.

In a twist of perception, a Latina woman mistakes a caucasian man inside her son's home as an intruder and knocks him unconscious. A language barrier leaves them both confused about their situation.

Embrace program runs Aug 5th - 9th, 2021

Empower program runs Aug 9th - 14th, 2021

Aurora, Colorado's GEO ICE facility is a private immigrant detention center whose shadowy practices are obscured from advocates and lawmakers alike. But through the stories of those fighting to free their loved ones, and those who have done time on the inside, this film will shine a light on a facility too often shrouded in darkness.

Feeling Through, the first film to star a DeafBlind actor, is a coming of age story that follows Tereek, a teen wandering the streets of New York, desperate for a place to crash when he encounters Artie, a DeafBlind man in need of help getting home. From an awkward meeting between strangers emerges an intimate bond, and a journey that forever changes Tereek.

When Joy’s fairytale romance crashes and burns on the eve of her 35th birthday, the TICK-TOCK of her biological clock gets so loud, it pushes her into a series of romantic misadventures and provokes wild hallucinations. Pressures stack up against her, and everybody seems to have an opinion about what she should do with her dwindling egg count.

When Erica gets a last minute call to promote her Japanese American Cultural festival on the "Good Evening LA" Show, she has 2 hours to figure what to wear and participate in the interview, or risk losing her job. A Girl Problem is a short comedy about something we've all faced- a closet full of clothes, and nothing to wear!

An adopted woman is forced to confront her darkest fear about motherhood at her sister’s baby shower.

The Pine Ridge Reservation declares a “State of Emergency”, after a devastating rash of youth suicides tragically reaches the highest levels in the country. Due to inadequate federal assistance, residents take prevention efforts into their own hands. A tenacious Oglala Lakota elder leads the tribe’s suicide prevention team and mentors a resilient young group of suicide-survivor

1984, North London. Arjun and Lalita, Indian immigrants from Uganda, hardworking and prosperous, create a home in the face of mounting resentment. Will they forever be outsiders forcibly removed like the industrious hive of bees looking for their own piece of England in Arjun and Lalita’s garden?

Inspire program runs Aug 1st - 5th, 2021

LADFF 2021 Trailer

LAYERS portrays the poetic style of Hadi Salehi’s analog photography. Through a series of captivating conversations with the artist, and an exploration of his experimental process, BAFTA nominated director Bita Shafipour taps into Hadi’s layers of consciousness and maps out a visual narrative of the creativity that shapes his rich and diverse body of work. Using Hadi’s photographs and archival film footage, captured in dozens of countries and including thousands of subjects, this art film visualizes Hadi’s life as an Iranian immigrant in Los Angeles, dodging the Iranian Revolution, surviving the post Hostage Crisis ICE raids and deportations, and finally becoming an accomplished artist in a city where he has been capturing stories and making images over the past four decades. Shot primarily on 16mm film, Shafipour aims to pay tribute to Hadi’s creative process and the art of analog photography through her own analog filmmaking.

Keith, a white elementary school teacher, journeys to South Los Angeles to investigate the home life of his gifted student Lamont. When he meets the boy’s elderly Grandmother, they begin a polite dialogue about Lamont’s frequent absences from school, but the conversation grows increasingly hostile. Unbeknownst to Keith, there’s a special ingredient in Grandma’s sweet tea… and the teacher may be in store for learning a powerful lesson of his own.

Fioms:
On a Path
Not That Kinda Guy
DUET

This documentary is a lyrical meditation on my father's experiences with brotherhood, incarceration, and the relationship between the two.

Films:
TÂM
Ayaan
Sheer Qorma

Films:
Perspective Shift - Ep 2 - prue Stevenson
Princess
Motta
My Other Son
LAYERS: Art of Hadi Salehi's Photography

Perspective Shift is a documentary series which explores the triumphs and trials of some of Australia’s top practitioners in the arts industries, who also happen to be people with disability. Each 30-minute episode focuses on one individual excelling in an area of the Arts and explores their craft and their lived-experience.
Episode #2 - Prue Stevenson, is about one of Australia’s top emerging visual and performance artists, having exhibited work nationally and notably at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Australia, in Sydney. Prue’s art practice was birthed from her identity as an autistic woman and is an integral way that she connects with the world around her. Many of her art pieces invite audiences into her autistic culture, sharing and celebrating her unique “Prue version of Autism”. We too are invited into Prue’s story, travelling on her journey to becoming a leading artist in Australia.

Princess portraits a resolving of identity for non-binary Vietnamese-American dancer Jason Vu as they revisit memories of desire from their childhood. Celebrating uninhibited queerness and reckoning with its violent histories, Vu finds themself at the crux of past, present, and future—discovering that sanctuary is not a place, but an action of remembering.

There is a war between two tribes to claim the sun. Several centuries will pass and the humans are still in a war to claim the sun in the sky.

Films:
Feeling Through
Sunday's Child
CODA

Brought to you with the support of Audio Eyes.

Just as Jordyn is about to finally get it on with the (literal) man of her dreams, she is rudely pulled into the waking world by the discomfort of reality. Battling obnoxious roommates, nagging parents, and an air conditioner with a mind of its own, Jordyn desperately attempts to get a little extra sleep.

Esi is a young, first generation woman from a conservative town in Missouri, where her questioning of her sexuality and desire to be a photographer have become laced with shame and guilt. After moving to LA, Esi stumbles upon a vivid house party of QTPOC (queer and trans people of color). For the first time in her life, Esi is welcomed into a community where she can let down her walls, let go of societal and family pressures and take the first steps towards self acceptance.

Films:
Freeze
Sunday Morning
A Girl Problem
El Servicio

Films:
The Goldfish
Aurora
The Bath
The Blue Cape
Hello, From Taiwan

When fugitive Ayaan encounters  a man   on a rural  beach, she  must decide whether to trust him or journey on alone.

A young dancer struggles with her bi-cultural identity when she meets a confident young Deaf drummer who stirs up old conflicted feelings about growing up hearing in a Deaf family.

Feeling Through - ADFeeling Through, the first film to star a DeafBlind actor, is a coming of age story that follows Tereek, a teen wandering the streets of New York, desperate for a place to crash when he encounters Artie, a DeafBlind man in need of help getting home. From an awkward meeting between strangers emerges an intimate bond, and a journey that forever changes Tereek.

When Joy's fairytale romance crashes and burns on her 35th birthday, the incessant TICK-TOCK of her biological clock pushes her to try new things.

Keith, a white school teacher, journeys to South LA to investigate the home life of his gifted student Lamont. When he meets the boy’s Grandmother, the conversation grows increasingly hostile. Keith may be in store for learning a powerful lesson of his own.

Perspective Shift is a documentary series which explores the triumphs and trials of some of Australia’s top practitioners in the arts industries, who also happen to be people with disability. Each 30-minute episode focuses on one individual excelling in an area of the Arts and explores their craft and their lived-experience.

Esi is a young, first generation woman from a conservative town in Missouri, where her questioning of her sexuality and desire to be a photographer have become laced with shame and guilt. After moving to LA, Esi stumbles upon a vivid house party of QTPOC (queer and trans people of color). For the first time in her life, Esi can let down her walls.

Tâm wakes up in a strange hotel room. As she pieces together the night before, she realizes she is not alone.