The refugee crisis in Ugandas Kyangwali Refugee Settlement isnt new. For the people of this camp, being a refugee is a protracted circumstance endured for decades. SAUTI (Voice in Swahili) follows the efforts of five young women who were brought to the Settlement as children and who, as they approach adulthood; strive to pursue their dreams for a future beyond the constraints of a protracted refugee situation in an underdeveloped host country. Though safer than they were before, little else has changed since fleeing war and persecution years ago in their home countries of Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan. Transcending the label refugee has been especially challenging for the women of Kyangwali.
2017
Special Jury Award
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
13 minutes
Director:
Gayle Nosal, Beret E. Strong
REIFF 2017
Special Jury Award
Documentary Feature
Mexico
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
36 minutes
Director:
Julio Carlos
REIFF 2017
THE GUY FROM OKLAHOMA narrates the story of Anado McLauchlin, a visual artist born in Oklahoma but whose chaotic life took him to San Francisco, New York and India before finally settling down in Mexico, where he has built an impressive art gallery in the middle of a desert village, on the outskirts of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.
Special Jury Award
Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
23 minutes
Director:
Dean Peterson
REIFF 2017
A comedy about two estranged sisters who are thrust back into each other's lives by the impending death of their grandmother and forced to try to repair their feral relationship.
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
4 minutes
Director:
Tom Putnam
REIFF 2017
A young girl is awakened in the middle of the night by a mysterious scratching on the screen door outside her room.
Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
44 minutes
Director:
Mischa Marcus
REIFF 2017
I AM STILL HERE is the story of 10-year old Layla, who was stolen from her family and thrown into Americas child sex industry. Stories of courage drawn from interviews with trafficking survivors are the foundation for the fictionalized account of Laylas journey as she confronts the monsters of her past and embraces the hope of her future.
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
13 minutes
Director:
Joe Youorski
REIFF 2017
After his mom re-marries, Jacob Perry, 12, moves to a new city and couldn't be more nervous for his first day at school. Things get more complicated when his step-brother steals his backpack to smuggle their sick cat onto the city bus, leading Jacob to skip and follow him along to the vet's office.
Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
17 minutes
Director:
Robert T. Herrera
REIFF 2017
Eugene, an inner-city teen, escapes the city streets and hides away on a midwest city rooftop during the 4th of July holiday. He is found by Holly, a widowed alcoholic, who lives in the secluded rooftop dwelling with her Boston terrier. They commit to spending the day together above the city as they wait for a hopeful resolve to Eugenes situation. As their day passes, their friendship grows, and their personal realities begin to catch up with them.
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
10 minutes
Director:
Eric Shahinian
REIFF 2017
A devoted husband is forced to confront his doubts about remaining the caretaker of his wife suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Documentary Feature
Australia
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
20 minutes
Director:
Kim Beamish
REIFF 2017
In enviable weather, on the southeast coast of Australia, a punt glides over Merimbula Lake towards an oyster lease, with a passionate young oyster farmer Dom at the helm. Its a romantic picture of tranquil beauty and a life close to nature, attuned to the rhythm of the tides. But Dom and fellow locals swear the waters getting warmer and the storms more severe. The only oyster its legal for them to grow in the lake is the famous gourmets delight, the Sydney Rock Oyster. Taking three years to mature, its highly vulnerable to pollution and changes in water temperature and salinity. There are diseases too and the threat of competition from a much faster growing non-native species, the Pacific Oyster. OYSTER follows Dom and Pip into their home, their work-shed, out on their punt and into the water, to see what its like to be raising two energetic young boys, while youre working big hours to keep a few million oysters alive, and any decision you make to deal with the pressures of climate change, environmental damage and increasing disease could have far reaching consequences.
Narrative Feature
Canada
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
34 minutes
Director:
Ryan M. Andrews
REIFF 2017
After fame abandons him in an apathetic existence of misery and self-loathing, a writer's infatuation with his "muse" becomes a dangerous obsession.