September 19-23
Film Guide for the 5th Annual Morehouse College
Human Rights Film Festival
Overview
Tuesday, 9.19
Wednesday, 9.20
Thursday, 9.21
Friday, 9.22
Saturday, 9.23
Virtual Catalog
The 5th Annual Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival will be held September 19-23, 2023 at the Shirley A. Massey Executive Conference Center. This guide lists 42 official selections which fall into five categories: Documentary Short, Narrative Short, Documentary Feature, Narrative Feature, and Student Film. Twenty of the films have been nominated for awards. All films will be available to view online. Register for screenings by clicking the link icon ( ) in the footer.
This year, we continue the tradition of celebrating filmmakers who through the medium of film challenge societal norms, question power structures, and advocate for marginalized communities. By bringing these films to the forefront, we hope to inspire others to use art as a means of activism and to foster a more socially conscious society. –
Kara Walker, Executive DirectorWilderness Therapy The Right To Read
A boy confronts his religious mother with his questions and concerns about God and the church on the day of his baptism. (Runtime: 13 min)
Official Nominee: Student Film
A young Black girl befriends a wealthy but troubled classmate. Problems ensue. (Runtime: 18 min)
Official Nominee: Narrative Short
Between 1964 and 1973, in an offshoot of the Vietnam War, the U.S. military dropped 4 billion pounds of explosives on Laos, making it the most heavily bombed country per capita on the planet. Eternal Harvest introduces Laotians who lived through the bombing campaign and those who live with bombs in their fields today. (Runtime: 72 min)
Official Selection: Documentary Feature
When a man is found dead on the floor of his kitchen, a teenage girl with knife in hand, must prove who the real victim is. (Runtime: 5 min)
Official Selection: Student Film
Lyons, Georgia is where Julia Mincey, aka Ma Julia, delivered hundreds of babies for 44 years. She was what the Black community regarded as a Granny Midwife, a well-respected Black woman who was a keystone for the Black community when doctors were not available. (Runtime: 17 min)
Official Selection: Student Film
Living in the shadow of her brother, Nannerl Mozart has always dreamed of being remembered as a famous composer. Born in a time when women were not allowed musical careers, she must find a new way to create her own legacy. (Runtime: 11 min)
Official Selection: Student Film
Palm Sunday
A southern gothic drama about a young Black Caribbean Immigrant who attempts to assimilate into an all-white church in 1970s Raleigh, North Carolina.
(Runtime: 15 min)
Official Nominee: Student Film
A Black puppet named Sammy falls in love with a woman in the audience while performing at the hands of his malevolent puppeteer. As a result, Sammy sets his sights on freedom from his strings with plans to live a life of dignity and humanity with her. (Runtime: 16 min)
Official Nominee: Student Film
Venturing into the controversial world of wilderness therapy programs, this documentary explores the delicate balance between the beneficial power of nature and the negative encounters experienced by participants during their time in camp, ultimately questioning the worth of enduring such hardships for the potential benefits nature can provide. (Runtime: 29 min)
Official Nominee: Student Film
The Right to Read shares the stories of an NAACP activist, a teacher, and two American families who fight to provide our youngest generation with the most foundational indicator of life-long success: the ability to read. (80 min)
Official Nominee: Documentary Feature
An attorney celebrates his little brother's 18th birthday in a society that blurs the lines between justice and unjust. (Runtime: 80 min)
Official Selection: Narrative Feature
1963
It’s 1963 and lovebirds Lesly and George are excited to spend the rest of their lives together and build a family. But when a racist attack on a southern baptist church shakes the world, Lesly has second thoughts about bringing a child into the world.
(Runtime: 4 min)
Official Selection: Narrative Short
What happens when teachers fight back? (Runtime: 3 min)
Official Selection: Narrative Short
When two young men ' s worlds collide, their mothers are left to pick up the pieces. (Runtime: 15 min)
Official Selection: Narrative Short
The story follows Daniel, a gifted psychic with the ability to see into the future, but yet out-of-luck millennial- all the while coming into contact with the eccentric homeless Josie Williams as they embark on a journey of committing burglaries. (Runtime: 11 min)
Official Selection: Narrative Short
In the heart of Corona, Queens, two Ecuadorian siblings are placed at odds with each other when one reveals a sudden urge to leave their home. (Runtime: 16 min)
Official Selection: Narrative Short
Play Clothes takes you on a poetic journey through the African-American diaspora of being Black and a minority in America. (Runtime: 4 min)
Official Selection: Narrative Short
A young Haitian boy must decide if joining a gang is the right path for him. (Runtime: 15 min)
Official Selection: Narrative Short
Johnny is a 12-year-old Latino boy whose mom, an undocumented immigrant, has been arrested by I.C.E. She needs an immigration lawyer, but a good lawyer costs $5K. Inspired by true events.
Official Selection: Narrative Short
In America, gun violence is now the number one killer of children under the age of eighteen. This raw, emotional, documentary takes an uncomfortable look at how we got to this unacceptable place. (Runtime: 63 min)
Official Nominee: Documentary Feature
Eight miles inland of Miami’s beaches, Liberty City residents fight to save their community from climate gentrification: their land, sitting on a ridge, becomes real estate gold. (Runtime: 86 min)
Official Nominee: Documentary Feature
Operatives of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp secretively challenged Major Gamaliel Turner’s right to a ballot, launching an investigative reporter’s hunt to uncover and expose an astonishing vote suppression scheme that threatens to overturn the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. (Runtime: 71 min)
Official Selection: Documentary Feature
Manny, a rebellious biker, must fight for justice when his younger brother is killed in a senseless police shooting. Harassed by those who have sworn to protect him, he finds parallels between his story and that of Jesus Christ, as he's slowly nailed to a cross of his own. (Runtime: 47 min)
Official Nominee: Narrative Feature
An aspiring dancer makes her dreams a reality despite the doubtful opinions of her father. (Runtime: 4 min)
Official Selection: Honorable Mention
A young Black girl befriends a wealthy but troubled classmate. Problems ensue. (Runtime: 18 min)
Official Nominee: Narrative Short
A young girl develops muscles, but finds a different kind of strength. (Runtime: 15 min)
Official Nominee: Narrative Short
The Protagonist, tired of her multiple roles, escapes the jungle with her friend Voice-Over for a humorous adventure. (Runtime: 14 min)
Official Nominee: Narrative Short
Grad student Ahmad Jones drives for a rideshare company. He receives a request from a mysterious woman — a poet. They connect over music, but she seems to ignore him. When the opportunity arises to see her again, Ahmad must learn how to communicate in ways beyond his understanding to win her heart. (Runtime: 15 min)
Official Nominee: Narrative Short
A devoted father experiences the highs and lows of teaching his son with down syndrome the sweet science of baseball. However, his patience is stretched as his child struggles to grasp the basic fundamentals of the sport they love. (Runtime: 14 min)
Official Nominee: Narrative Short
Wokman shares an immigrant Chinese family’s pursuit of the American Dream from inside of their restaurant, China Wok. Based in 1998 in rural Georgia, Wokman is a slice-of-life story of the only Chinese family in town, the Lis, as they navigate through their own little corner of America. (Runtime: 16 min)
Official Nominee: Narrative Short
Financial Freedom For All: Robert James and Carver State Bank
The Bluest Space: Creatives Defining Fine Art Spaces
Finding Ubuntu
When Desegregation Came to Sand Springs
Butterfly, Butterfly ifine In Her Absence
Inclusion: The Story of the Americans with Disabilities Act
In 2021 Robert James celebrated his 50th year as President of Carver State Bank in Savannah, GA. Carver State Bank is one of only 20 Black-owned banks in the US, and James is the longest-serving Black bank president (possibly the longest-serving bank president of any bank in the US). Financial Freedom For All tells his story, along with the importance of minority-owned financial institutions in the US. (Runtime: 82 min)
Official Selection: Narrative Feature
The first chapter of the BLUEST SPACE documentary series, FULL-TIME HALFTIME, dives straight into the heart of Creekside High School's Band. Go down memory lane as Band Director, Dexter Bailey Jr., describes the unfolding of his passion for arranging music. (Runtime: 11 min)
Official Selection: Documentary Short
Finding Ubuntu is a documentary spotlighting a Congolese hero, Maick Mutej, who emerges as a human rights advocate helping thousands of refugees in Malawi while in the midst of his own crisis.
(Runtime: 22 min)
Official Selection: Documentary Short
In 1964, nine African American high school students challenged the segregated school system of Sand Springs, Oklahoma. They attempted to transfer to an all-white high school, defying the local school board. They prevailed and hastened the desegregation of the rest of the school system. (Runtime: 30 min)
Official Selection: Documentary Short
Butterfly, Butterfly is a deeply personal film that surveys Len Morris' 30 years of filming children all over the world and measures the changes that have occurred for better or worse in children's human rights. (Runtime: 35 min)
Official Nominee: Documentary Short
Set in the Kono district of Sierra Leone, this docuchoreopoem captures the beauty of Blackness through the lens of the youth coming of age amid a skin bleaching epidemic. (Runtime: 30 min)
Official Nominee: Documentary Short
When a federal agent who worked on stopping the opioid epidemic loses his wife to an overdose, he and his family must learn to live in her absence.
(Runtime: 22 min)
Official Nominee: Documentary Short
Lack of accommodation in buildings and streets is challenging for persons with disabilities; lack of awareness on the part of society, more so. Thirty years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the film Inclusion asks: Is America fully accessible?
(Runtime: 36 min)
Official Nominee: Documentary Short
Jeremy Chue is a picture-perfect teenager. He is talented, has the perfect grades, a well-off family, and attends a prestigious Washington, D.C. private school. At least that is how he appears. After losing his twin brother in a mass shooting, Jeremy takes matters into his own hands, holding a teacher hostage and looking to teach America a lesson it will never forget. (Runtime: 82 min)
Official Nominee: Narrative Feature
DocuCourse: Pregnancy & Prejudice
The Only Doctor
The Five Demands
This powerful and eye-opening documentary chronicles the extraordinary life of Sherry "Mama Hakima" Payne, an inspiring nurse and doula advocate for Black infant and maternal health.
Mama Hakima has dedicated her life to combating the alarming disparities that afflict Black mothers and infants. (Runtime: 83 min)
Official Selection: Documentary Feature
There are 3.1 million public school teachers in the US Education system. Most are under paid, under appreciated, and misunderstood. As a result there has been a mass exodus from the profession, creating a shortage that that has dire consequences. In this raw and emotional documentary, we follow Nkanga Nsa on her inspiring journey to become a teacher in the nation’s 3rd largest public school system, Chicago Public Schools. (Runtime: 50 min)
Official Nominee: Documentary Feature
After experiencing neglect and traumatic loss while pregnant in prison, Pamela Winn becomes an activist, leading hundreds of thousands to support the Dignity Bill to end the shackling of pregnant people in prison. "WINN" exposes the horrifying experience that incarcerated pregnant people endure and documents Pamela’s mission to end shackling and ultimately prison birth. (Runtime: 17 min)
Official Selection: Documentary Short
The Five Demands is a riveting story about the student strike that changed the face of higher education forever. In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York. The documentary uncovers the untold story of this explosive student takeover, and proves that a handful of ordinary citizens can band together to take action and affect meaningful change.
(Runtime: 84 min)
Official Selection: Documentary Feature
After working years without pay, Dr. Karen Kinsell, the only doctor in Georgia's poorest county for 15 years, now faces the imminent closure of her clinic. Join her on this uplifting story of never giving up or giving in. (Runtime: 85 min)
Official Selection: Documentary Feature
The Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival (MCHRFF) aims to continue the tradition of celebrating filmmakers who utilize the medium of film to challenge societal norms, question power structures, and advocate for marginalized communities. By bringing these films to the forefront, we hope to inspire others to use art as a means of activism and to foster a more socially conscious society.
If you are interested in being a sponsor, please consider supporting the film festival at the following levels:
The filmmakers lounge is a space that encourages filmmakers to network, discuss their projects, and share resources, thereby creating a unique experience on our campus for visitors.
As a Screening Sponsor, you become a partner in upholding the MCHRFF commitment to fostering awareness of global issues and supporting marginalized communities.
The support of our Bronze sponsors is absolutely vital for the continued success and sustainability of our community-driven program. Their generous contributions enable us to fund essential resources
