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Meet the Shorts at the Meet The Press Film Festival at AFI FEST presented by Audi
A partnership with NBC’s MEET THE PRESS, the Meet The Press Film Festival at AFI FEST showcase of short documentaries features a wide range of compelling stories and highlights some of the most pressing issues facing our society. Each shorts program has a Q&A moderated by NBC News journalists Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, Hallie Jackson, Kasie Hunt, Jo Ling Kent, Cynthia McFadden and Morgan Radford.
PASSES TO AFI FEST NOW AVAILABLE AT FEST.AFI.com.
The list full list of Meet The Press Film Festival at AFI FEST shorts:
BLACKFEET BOXING: NOT INVISIBLE
2020, USA, 29 min Directed by Kristen Lappas and Tom Rinaldi
As an epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women afflicts tribal communities, a group of Blackfeet women tackles the threat head-on by practicing and training in self-defense.
BREACH OF TRUST
2019, USA, 24 min Directed by Mishal Mahmud
BREACH OF TRUST explores the University of Southern California’s institutional cover-up involving the sexual misconduct of former full-time gynecologist George Tyndall. The story is anchored by the survivors, who after being wronged by the university continue their fight for institutional change.
CHURCH AND THE FOURTH ESTATE
2020, USA, 32 min Directed by Brian Knappenberger
A reporter uncovers a file that reveals a shocking series of child-abuse allegations in Idaho’s Boy Scouts, which rattles the community and implicates the Mormon church. The story reveals long-running crimes that threaten to bankrupt the Boy Scouts.
DO NOT SPLIT
2020, USA | Norway, 20 min Directed by Anders Hammer
During the 2019 protests in Hong Kong, a series of evening demonstrations escalate into conflict when heavily armed police appear on the scene.
GAMES OF SURVIVAL: A CULTURE PRESERVED IN ICE
2019, USA, 16 min Directed by Nicholas Natale
The events at the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics — like the Four Man Carry and the Knuckle Hop — won’t be familiar to most Americans in the Lower 48, but they are rooted in traditional Eskimo culture and pure Americana.
GLOVES OFF
2020, USA, 15 min Directed by Ugonna Okpalaoka and Nadine Natour
GLOVES OFF follows the story of Tiara Brown, a young police officer who forges new ways to serve her community by day, then laces up and fights to make a name for herself in the boxing ring by night.
LIONS IN THE CORNER
2019, USA, 9 min Directed by Paul Hairston
In Virginia, Scarface started Streetbeefs in his backyard to combat gun and knife violence in the area. Soon, it turned into something much more.
THE LOST ASTRONAUT
2019, USA, 12 min Directed by Ben Proudfoot
In 1963, Ed Dwight Jr. was poised to be NASA’s first African-American astronaut. Until suddenly he wasn’t.
MY BROTHER’S KEEPER
2020, UK, 21 min Directed by Laurence Topham
MY BROTHER’S KEEPER is about the remarkable friendship between former Guantánamo detainee, Mohamedou Ould Salahi, and his one-time American prison guard, Steve Wood, who gradually became convinced of his innocence.
OIL & WATER
2020, Canada, 14 min Directed by Anjali Nayar
Facing imminent takeover of ancestral lands, the women in the Turkana region of Kenya stand up against oil giant Tullow. Despite resistance from the men in their community, they continue to fight for their way of life.
A PRAYER FOR JOSHUA JACKSON
2018, USA, 21 min Directed by Ryan Heffernan, Grayson Schaffer and Khalil Hudson
What do you do when someone says your dream is over? Race car driver Joshua Jackson went through something that would break even the toughest of souls, but Jackson managed to come out even more determined.
STATUS PENDING
2020, USA, 26 min Directed by Priscilla Gonzalez Sainz
With immigration law under attack, five first-generation immigration lawyers — who call themselves “The Tribe” — strive to help immigrants obtain safety and status in the United States.
SUSTAINED OUTRAGE
2019, USA, 26 min Directed by Gabriela Cavanagh
For over 100 years, the family-owned Charleston Gazette-Mail has been a relentless watchdog over West Virginia’s most powerful. But eight months after winning the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, the newspaper must face a painful reality.
TALL TALES WITH TRUE QUEENS
2020, USA, 10 min Directed by Kristina Budelis and Leandro Badalotti
Drag Queen Story Hour features drag queens reading stories to kids in libraries and schools. Amidst a building controversy, we learn that kids and drag queens have more in common than you might think.
TANGLED ROOTS
2020, USA, 19 min Directed by Samantha Knowles
TANGLED ROOTS follows Kentucky State Representative Attica Scott as she fights to pass a bill that would dismantle a system of discrimination against black people who are penalized for something seemingly innocuous — their hair.
THE TORTURE LETTERS
2020, USA, 12 min Directed by Laurence Ralph
One of Laurence Ralph’s first memories of the police is when a plainclothes officer harassed his family. Now a Princeton anthropology professor, Ralph traces his story to the entrenched practices of torture by the Chicago Police.
UNITED STATES OF JOE’S
2019, USA, 21 min Directed by Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen
In rural Utah, a valley of world-class bouldering is nestled among a conservative community of Mormons, cowboys and coal miners. When punk rock climbers show up, cultures clash, but the story doesn’t end there.
VOTE NEIL
2020, USA, 18 min Directed by Honora Talbott
Neil is a first-time politician running for State House. Mike is his fiancé and campaign manager searching for purpose. An intimate portrait about politics, the Southern LGBTQ experience and one incredible love story.
WHEN THE NEWS HITS HOME: A YEAR INSIDE THE CAPITAL GAZETTE
2019, USA, 21 min Directed by Moises Saman
The 2018 shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper left five people dead, exposing not only the danger many journalists face but reminding the public of the essential role local journalism plays in communities large and small.
