SHORTS: ALL IN THE FAMILY (Virtual Encore)

Streaming 11/28-12/11
Featuring audience award and jury prize recipients, this compelling combo will properly prepare you for the holiday season. Explore wedding and parade outfit preparations, a sublime Southern past, and tools for how our community can support each other as a collective “we.” These festival favorites prioritize the vital role ancestry and chosen family play in our lives, and will warm your heart as they bring you home.


ZARI
Dir. Shruti Parekh, 19 min, USA/India
American teen Neelu feels like a fish out of water amidst preparations for her sister’s wedding in Delhi until she forges a brief and unexpected connection with Zeyb, a quiet sari store clerk with a secret.


GRACE
Dir. Natalie Jasmine Harris, 14 min, USA
Sixteen-year-old Grace prepares for her baptism in the rural 1950’s South. When she learns she must repent before the ritual, Grace contemplates her romantic feelings toward her best friend Louise.


CARIBBEAN QUEEN
Dir. Sekiya Dorsett, 23 min, USA
“Caribbean Queen” is an inspiring short film that follows the journey of Q, a young Caribbean boy, who wants to become the Queen of the West Indian Day Carnival Parade. However, prejudice from family and the community threatens this dream and celebration of Caribbean culture. But with determination and the help of their lesbian bestie, Joe, they may just make it to the Parkway!


ALOK
Dir. Alex Hedison, 19 min, USA
Alok Vaid-Menon is an internationally acclaimed nonbinary author, poet, comedian and public speaker. This thought-provoking short explores the way Alok personifies limitless expression of self, following them as they challenge societal norms and inspire viewers to embrace personal freedom beyond the binaries that divide us.