Decades after leaving Appalachia, a daughter returns to eastern Kentucky to excavate her father’s remarkable filmmaking legacy—as the founder of Appalshop—and examine the pull home still has on her. 17 minutes.
Directed by André Robert Lee and Tim Kirkman
For decades, 82-year-old Freeman Vines has been hand-carving guitars in hopes of replicating a sound that captivated and still haunts him. The guitars range in style from more traditional to fully abstract using a variety of wood—including lumber from trees once used to lynch Black men. Now battling multiple myeloma and suffering from diabetes, Freeman lives and works in a small storefront shop in rural Fountain, North Carolina, still in pursuit of the elusive sound, surrounded by his tools, materials, and other objects that speak to his lifelong conflict with racism in this region. Freeman Vines is the story of a true fine artist who has found a way to create while surviving in a complex world. 14 minutes.
Directed by Barbara Jane Brickman and John Haley
Not content to merely say the names of Black women and girls killed by anti-Black violence, poet Hannah Drake imagines a glorious field where these women might—one day—find peace and be free. 6 minutes.
Threshold
Directed by Gregory Brecher
In this short film, it’s been thirty years since Joan & Susie stood before their closest friends to celebrate at a small wedding, decades before their union would become legally recognized. Now, in front of children and chosen family, they cross a different threshold. As their loved ones gather to witness and participate in their divorce ceremony, reactions are mixed, and it becomes clear that their marriage, and its dissolution, might have changed more lives than just their own. 17 minutes.
An offbeat genre-bending comedy where mundane office tensions unravel into something far more unsettling. What if the most awkward person in the room was the most popular? Armie Broker, a socially awkward man, has worked for the Kingsley Work Agency for a few years. He is trying his best to fit in and be acknowledged. Will he win P.E.U.C award and be a Champion or will he come up short? 15 minutes.
Alex: A Craft Story
Directed by Evelyn Medley, Sean Hall
Being a broom maker is a little bit of a niche experience and a niche community, but it's sort of world famous—at least Berea Brooms is. 5 minutes.