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.

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

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.

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

Sheer Qorma is a story of belonging and acceptance, identity and family, and how it comes together under one roof, as resilient, queer Muslim women and non-binary characters of colour, choose to embrace love that exists beyond their personal beliefs and social moralities.

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.

Bound in flowers, a tattooed hand strokes a face. Ropes unwind on the floor. Tremors of pain, tremors of release. What do you desire?
Motta follows “hard to classify” Brazilian artist Fabio da Motta as he questions the boundaries between fantasy, power, provocation and art.

Films:
Freeze
Sunday Morning
A Girl Problem
El Servicio

In hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, medicine can be hard to come by. A little boy has to grow beyond his limits if he is to help his grandfather.

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.

LADFF 2021 Trailer

In the 1990s, Israel established government-built caravan sites for Russian and Ethiopian immigrants. Abraham, a 9-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, teaches himself Russian in order to survive the difficult conditions, and creates a unique bond with Marina, his neighbor who immigrated from Russia.

Fioms:
On a Path
Not That Kinda Guy
DUET

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.

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

When Taiwanese American 5-year-old Christy and her mom reunite with her father and two older sisters at the airport after a year of separation, the cracks between them grow even wider. Through Christy’s eyes, we explore the struggles of the family attempting to reconnect.

Imed, a young father, finding himself alone for a few days with his five year old son due to his wife’s business trip, will have to confront his deepest fear.

Films:
Feeling Through
Sunday's Child
CODA

The Facility by Jeremy Flood
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.

Léto is a transgender and gay 20 something boy living in an industrial suburb of Tours, France. He's stuck between a boring day job, a hostile neighborhood, random encounters and feelingless sex through dating apps. Hopelessly wandering, his feet drag him to the ice skating rink where attractive and enigmatic Hamz works.

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.

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?

Brought to you with the support of Audio Eyes.

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.

Nitzan (16) is an introverted teenager that has always felt invisible to society. One day Neomi (20) the girlfriend of Nitzan’s brother Erez (20), invited her to join them for an overnight trip, an invitation that led Nitzan down a path of self-discovery.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Films:
TÂM
Ayaan
Sheer Qorma

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

Inspire program runs Aug 1st - 5th, 2021

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Aurora, an autistic little girl, spends her days with her mother and brother, covered by a veil like a ghost.

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

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.

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.

Sometimes with the sons, it happens as with the drawings, they do not come out as you imagined. This is Gusti's story. A father who goes through bewilderment and denial, to find the most unconditional love for his new son.

Sheer Qorma is a story of belonging and acceptance, identity and family, and how it comes together under one roof, as resilient, queer Muslim women and non-binary characters of colour, choose to embrace love that exists beyond their personal beliefs and social moralities.

Duet is the story of one fateful day in the lives of 8-year-old girls May and Shadmit, who dislike each other but learn that their lives have become oddly intertwined forever.

Duet is a multidisciplinary project, uniquely integrating film and music. The story raises questions about loneliness, regret, subject memory and fate that ties two children together for a lifetime.

Embrace program runs Aug 5th - 9th, 2021

With the grand opening of their chai stand, Iranian siblings Sanam and Reza are faced with the unexpected competition from their neighbors' hot chocolate stand. Soon enough, their conflict becomes much more than just selling the most drinks. Sanam decides to face this feud head on and take matters into her own hands.

Empower program runs Aug 9th - 14th, 2021