SR Socially Relevant Film Festival NY – SRFF 2024
8 NARRATIVES FEATURES in competition
Friday – Sunday, March 15-17 – Cinema Village
From Life to Life | New York Premiere
Beka Sikharulidze | Georgia | 2022 | 93 mins
The story is set in 1990s Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Luka is a surgical doctor, who saves lives, but struggles to adapt to the ruthless and corrupt new system and by all means tries to stay loyal to his profession. However, he has to make a choice between his family and the lives of others. His choice leads to irreversible consequences.
With Beka Sikharulidze, Nino Kuratashvili, Ia Shugliashvili
Q&A with the filmmaker.
TRAILER
Trust in Love | New York Premiere
Mick Davis | United States | 2023 | 94 mins
Mickey Ferrera’s recording producing career is going down the tubes, his estranged wife wants a divorce and his son is struggling with the reality that he is gay, but Mickey is a warrior, so he’s about to get in the trenches and Trust in Love to keep his family together and maybe make one more good record.
With Eric Roberts, Natasha Wilson, Sydney Bullock
Q&A with the filmmaker. Trailer.
Bleecker | New York Premiere
Edith Hagigi | United States | 2022 | 104 mins
The intertwining stories of a motley of characters in NYC’s Village that Maya, who has come to The Big Apple to find her place in this world, meets. A longtime couple who express their affection through bickering; a Texan lass who is forever looking for love in all the wrong places, her want-to-be punk son & delusional mother who thinks she is the Queen of Egypt. A hapless therapist, a psychic, and an assortment of other characters create little distractions.
With Bob Ari, Alica Crowder, Tovah Feldshuh and Ben Stiller.
Q&A with the filmmaker and stars.
TRAILER
Valley of Exile | New York Premiere
Anna Fahr | Lebanon | 2023 | 107 mins
Two sisters arrive in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley at the onset of the Syrian war, embarking on a journey into exile that tests their loyalty to their country, their family and each other.
With Maria Hassan, Hala Hosni, Michel Hourani
Q&A with the filmmaker.
TRAILER
Maya | New York Premiere
Julia Verdin | United States | 2022 | 104 mins
15-year-old Maya is being raised in a household stricken by her father’s abandonment. Her mom Camila’s boyfriend, Diego, is an abuser. Maya is followed on social media by a seemingly nice guy named Ray and they start meeting up in person. Maya begins to realize he has another agenda when he starts using her to set up for appointments with his “clients”.
With Patricia Velasquez, Isabella Feliciana, Billy Budinich.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
CITROTOXIC | North American Premiere
Julia Zakia | Brazil | 2023 | 80 mins
Citrotoxic is a fiction film about an unlikely encounter. During a weekend in a remote area far from São Paulo, Bianca and her young daughter Serena meet Zé, a solitary rural pesticide applicator. Uneasiness appears among the mother’s struggle about poison’s dangers and spontaneous connection between the girl and Zé.
With Bianca Porte, Luiza Leblanc, Jerry Gilli.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
I AM GITMO | New York Premiere
Philippe Diaz | United States | 2023 | 115 mins
During the War on Terror started after 9/11, Gamel Sadek, a Muslim schoolteacher is taken from his home and delivered to Bagram Air Base, a CIA black site, where he is questioned about the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. Despite relentless beatings, starvation, and torture in Gitmo, Gamel maintains his innocence. As Gamel prepares for a hearing on his status with his lawyer, he realizes he could be held indefinitely, and that a testimony from John, a military interrogator, will be the deciding factor.
With Sami Sheikh, Eric Pierpoint, Eric St. John, Nora Armani.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
You Never Know One Day You Too Might Become A Refugee | New York Premiere
Teo Nicholas Ormond-Skeaping, Lena Dobrowolska | United Kingdom | 2022 | 73 mins
After their home is destroyed by a climatic disaster in 2043, a family from the Island of Grain embarks on a perilous journey to find a better life. A cli-fy drama co-written with human rights lawyers, climate mobility experts and communities that have experience climate displacement.
With Kaara benstead, Dominic Farrow.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
Return to Eden | Out of Competition
Jeff Gross | United States | 2022 | 87 mins
After several decades abroad, Josef Klein returns home to the politically polarized town of Eden, Oregon. Ever the outsider, he does his best to fit in, a losing battle until he meets Hope, a brilliant and equally lonely woman, who happens to be a dancer in Eden’s only strip club. An unlikely and exhilarating friendship with tragic consequences.
With Gary Kohn, Jade Struck, Claude Duhamel
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
SR Socially Relevant Film Festival NY – SRFF 2024
11 Documentary Features in competition
Crosses In The Dust | New York Premiere
Christine Kane | United States | 2023 | 52 mins
At the Arizona-Mexico border, the Sonoran Desert has been weaponized as part of the “Prevention Through Deterrence” policy, costing the lives of thousands of migrants since its inception in the mid-1990s. A law professor and her students assist organizations fighting the ongoing immigration crisis while honoring those perished on their journey into America.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
Ora | US Premiere
Michel Garcia | France | 2022 | 53 mins
Éric Dargent, Jérôme Bonellli and Benoît Moreau: three lives, each their own handicap but more importantly one commun passion: surfing. A documentary taking us along the history of three peoples discovering how to overcome theirs obstacles through the ocean. The hunger of constantly moving forward takes the three of them to Tahiti to share their experiences, their knowledge of prostheses fit for the purpose and raise awareness to accessibility.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
The Forgotten Homeland | New York Premiere
Essam Nagy | Egypt | 2022 | 72 mins
A documentary about life at the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, where stories and life accounts of refugees who were uprooted from their historical lands in Artsakh and are currently living in Goris and its suburbs are told.
Q&A with the filmmaker.
TRAILER 
Partings And Landings | New York Premiere
Kardash Onnig | United States | 2022 | 62 mins
The story of the filmmaker’s four generations of Armenian survivor family who migrated from its ancestral home in Turkey to Syria, then Lebanon, and, finally, to the US. The film offers refugees everywhere the hope that they can rebuild their lives by integrating into a new culture. Q&A with the filmmaker.
TRAILER
Phantom Parrot | New York Premiere
Kate Stonehill | United States | 2022 | 85 mins
A human rights activist is prosecuted under terror laws for refusing to hand over the passwords to his electronic devices during a border stop, unveiling unsettling questions about the rule of law, modern espionage and digital privacy.
Q&A with the filmmaker.
TRAILER
sNOprint | North American Premiere
Simon André Kristiansen | Norway | 2023 | 50 mins
Five people trek across the mountains of Hardangervidden in Norway, to spark dialogue with fellow adventurers around the climate crisis and the smelting snow, in one of the last places that is guaranteed to have it.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
DEPOT – Reflecting Boijmans | New York Premiere
Sonia Herman Dolz | Netherlands | 2023 | 86 mins
A happy story of visionary minds around the content and construction process of the world’s first, fully accessible for visitors, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and its unique historical parallel: the building of the Museum itself, in never-seen parts of the movie from 1935. Two buildings designed like a very special pair of gloves around an art collection. A symphony of Art and Architecture.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
ONLINE ONLY (do not include this title – just list the films together)
Son of the Earth | North American Premiere
Ning Tong Wang | China | 2022 | 60 mins
There has never been a hospice like this for children in China before. At Daisy House, children with terminal cancer or blood conditions get to stay with their families. They receive palliative care from medical personnel, social workers and volunteers, who support and comfort them and their families right the way through.
TRAILER
The Mind Game | North American Premiere
Sajid Khan Nasiri, Eefje Blankevoort, Els Van Driel | Netherlands | 2023 | 62 mins
When he was just 14, Sajid Khan Nasiri fled Afghanistan alone. After a two-year journey filled with danger and hardships – which he minutely documented on his phone camera – he arrives in Belgium to seek asylum. In clips recorded with his telephone camera, and in messages to filmmakers Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel, he keeps track of his progress. Once in Belgium a new game begins: the mind game; about the psychological pressure young refugees face.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
Manuscripts Don’t Burn | New York Premiere
Mariam Ohanyan | Armenia | 2023 | 57 mins
The film tells about Armenian heritage of Lviv (Western Ukraine), particularly, writings of Armenian traveler Simeon Lehatsi, who lived in Lviv and history of Armenian church, which was closed during Soviet times.
TRAILER
Blockade | US Premiere
Hakob Melkonyan | Armenia | 2021 | 85 mins
For thirty years, the inhabitants of Chinari, an Armenian village, have been trying to survive the war between Azeris and Armenians and the difficult conditions imposed by a blockade situation. Through the daily life of an Armenian family, this film immerses us in the heart of this forgotten conflict.
Q&A with the filmmaker. TRAILER
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Trailers are all on the festival YouTube Channel and on the website.
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