Short
West Coast Premiere

James Picken's Jr (Grey's Anatomy, X-Files, How Stella Got Her Groove Back) stars as Albert, a man drawn back to his childhood home, seeking to move beyond long-buried pain. There he meets Greta, the home’s current owner, who holds the keys to his past—and its hidden secrets.

Director: James Glossman
Producer: James Pickens Jr., Christopher Wright, James Glossman 
Writer: John Pietrowski              
Cast: James Pickens Jr., Éilis Cahill
Cinematographer: Edward Rosini
Editor: Erinnisse Rebisz

Website: https://albertsflowerfilm.com/

Instagram: alberts_flower_film

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Alberts-Flower-Film/61582399681678/

Docu-Short

Bringing awareness to the 65,000 Black women missing in America

Director: Drew Tank Garrett
Producer: Drew Tank Garrett  Donna Collins
Writer: Drew Tank Garrett
Cast: Melissa Carter, Sydney Collins

Won Best Film on Women Empowerment.

Documentary Short
World Premiere

The city of Pine Bluff, Arkansas faces a crippling food insecurity crisis, and urban farmer Bernard Iwegbu is bringing the community together to solve it.

Director: Hunter Braun & Patrick Waechter
Producer: Lindsey Lunsford
Writer: Lindsey Lunsford
Cast: Latisha Brunson, Frank D. Dorsey, II, Shonda Eldridge, Teki Hunt, Bernard Iwegbu, Britain Knox, Whitney Lee, Sheila Moon, O.B. Moss, Eric Waddell
Cinematographer: Shanra Kehl
Editor: Gabriel Spaulding

Instagram: @keeshfilms

Short
West Coast premiere

Taylor has spent years curating the perfect life with her long-term boyfriend Khalil. To their social media followers, they are #CoupleGoals, but behind the filtered photos lies a relationship built on performance. When Taylor discovers their future together is in jeopardy, she stages a romantic evening to win him back, documenting the night via social media — but what begins as seduction quickly morphs into captivity. The tighter Taylor holds on to her fairytale, the looser her grip on reality, and it could cost her everything.

Director: Tanya Martineau
Producer: Van Dinh 
Writer:  Raisa D'Oyley            
Cast: Raisa D'Oyley and Malik Jones
Cinematographer: Tré Loren
Editor: Jason Simmonds

Official Selections: The Roxbury International Film Festival, Cobb International Film Festival, Urban Film Festival, Bronzelens Film Festival, Fiction Fest, Urban Mediamakers Film Festival, Peachtree Village International Film Festival (Finalist), Rome International Film Festival, Atlanta Horror Film Festival (HorrorFest), Twin Cities Black Film Festival, and LA Black Film Festival

Website: www.firstcomeslovethefilm.com

Instagram: @firstcomeslovethefilm

Facebook: @FirstComesLovethefilm

Short Film
LA Premiere 

A Night of Hate is a powerful one-act short film that explores love, loss, and the cost of resistance in 1963 Alabama. Inspired by the tragic bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, this story follows a young Black couple, Ruth and Ira George, caught between the promise of nonviolence and the pull of righteous rage.

Set in a single night, the film unfolds as Ira returns home after their church is bombed, searching for his wife amid the chaos. What begins as a frantic reunion quickly becomes a raw and intimate confrontation between grief, restraint, vengeance, and, above all, hope for their future.

Director: Wolfgang Bodison
Executive Producer: Alesha G, Samuel Selman
Producer : Wolfgang Bodison
Writer: Alesha G & Samuel Selman         
Cast: Alesha G , Samuel Selman and Henry Foster Brown 
Cinematographer: Jake Macpherson 
Editor: Samuel Selman 

A Night of Hate” was inspired by my grandparents, who grew up during segregation in Mississippi and Oklahoma. Their stories, strength, and resilience laid the foundation for this film. I wrote this piece because I couldn't find a one-act play that focused on Black love and was also infused with history. It only made sense to create my own.

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was one of the most devastating acts of racial terror in our country’s history. It ignited national outrage and helped propel the Civil Rights Movement forward. But at the heart of that tragedy were four young Black girls whose lives were senselessly taken. This film is dedicated to their memory.
We have also just been accepted into  ShowLow Film festival in Arizona and AMT International Film festival in Hell’s Kitchen New York. 

Instagram:@anightofhate_shortfilm

Documentary Short

Shadows and Light: A Refugee’s Journey is a deeply personal documentary tracing the journey of Taban Patrick Consantino Qwiriko, S.J., a South Sudanese refugee, Jesuit priest, and filmmaker.

Born during the Second Sudanese Civil War, Taban fled with his family to Uganda as a young child and spent nineteen years growing up in a refugee settlement. Through intimate testimony, archival material, and present-day encounters, the film follows his journey from war and displacement to education, faith, priesthood, and filmmaking.

At its heart, Shadows and Light is a story about resilience, human dignity, and the transformative power of hope. Moving between South Sudan, Uganda, and the United States, the documentary explores what it means to carry the experience of displacement while refusing to allow suffering to have the final word.

Taban ultimately discovers filmmaking as a way of transforming personal memory into a voice for others whose stories often remain unseen and unheard.

Director: Taban Patrick Consantino Qwiriko, S.J.
Producer: Taban Patrick Consantino, S.J.
Writer: Taban Patrick Consantino Qwiriko, S.J.
Cast: Taban Patrick Consantino Qwiriko, S.J., Rose Aketch, Ikuu Constantino
Cinematographer: Fr. Christof Wolfs 
Editor: Taban Patrick Consantino Qwiriko, S.J.

Shadows and Light: A Refugee’s Journey is Taban Patrick Consantino Qwiriko, S.J.’s thesis documentary from Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television, where he completed his MFA in Film and Television Production with a concentration in Directing Non-Fiction.

The film has received the Best Director Jury Award from Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television and was named an Award Winner at The Greatest NYC Film Festival. It has also been recognized as an Official Selection of the Silicon Valley African Film Festival.

The documentary grows directly from the director’s own experience of displacement. Having spent nineteen years as a refugee in Uganda before later becoming a Jesuit priest and filmmaker, Taban approaches the story not simply as a filmmaker documenting refugees, but as someone whose own life has been shaped by forced displacement. The film seeks to reclaim refugee stories through dignity, agency, memory, and hope.

Website:
https://sites.google.com/view/lightfromshadowsfilms/about

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/t_qwiriko?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/taban.patrick?sfnsn=mo&mibextid=RUbZ1f

Short
Los Angeles Premiere

This is the untold story of Bill Patterson, who dedicated seven decades to public service in Oakland and along the way mentored some of the greatest people who ever lived—Curt Flood, Bill Russell, Joe Morgan—champions who changed the world, even as forces worked to destroy the Black community he served.

Director:  Anthony Severo
Producer: Thomas Sawano
Writer: Anthony Severo, Barry Gardin, William Patterson Jr             
Cast: Bill Patterson, Barbara Lee, Robert Harris, Joe Ellis
Cinematographer: Khepera bBtties
Editor: Thomas Saano

Website: https://filmfreeway.com/TheBillPattersonStory

Instagram: www.instagram.com/1528films

Animated Short film

This is a dedication to my father who was a SAG actor for over 50 years.  This is also dedicated to anyone who has loved and lost a parent.

Director: Drew Tank Garrett
Producer: Drew Tank Garrett
Writer: Drew Tank Garrett
Narrator: Drew Tank Garrett

Short
Los Angeles Premiere

When devoted husband and father Chris juggles caring for his terminally ill wife, raising their bright 11-year-old daughter, and surviving the daily grind of a corporate job laced with microaggressions, he does what Black men are so often expected to do—push through it all. But as he fights to secure a life-changing promotion at work and hold his family together, an unexpected tragedy shatters the fragile balance he’s been clinging to. One day, a split-second decision changes everything. Way of the World is a powerful short film that explores love, loss, and the quiet storms Black men carry long before the world ever sees them break.

Director: Stoney Watts
Producer: Tonja Ayers
Writer:  Stoney Watts            
Cast: Emory Lawrence, NuNu Thurman, Kennedie-Olivia Reeves, Tonja Brown, Kamal Smith, DaCarla Strong, Tom Fazekas, Michael Tremblay, Ryan McConaghy
Cinematographer: Thomas Pawlowski
Editor: Jhayla Mosley, Lavarro Jones

Director Statement

Way Of The World means everything to me. This project allowed me to take pieces of my past to bridge the gap to make my dreams become a reality. Coming from Corporate America, and all that it entailed for a young black man, pushed me to my true passion…film. I took this opportunity to create a powerful short film to showcase life changing experiences that I actually endured, which inevitably got me to where I am today.

Instagram: @wayoftheworld_shortfilm