Shorts Program: PEOPLE, PLACES

These five short works of non-fiction palpably give form to subjects and locations, from New Orleans to Puerto Rico, the Cuban countryside to New York City.

You Can’t Stop Spirit
Dir. Vashni Korin / 16 minutes / 2021 / United States
You Can’t Stop Spirit centers the Baby Doll Mardi Gras masking tradition, comprised of a group of self-liberated black women that created an alternative social space where they are allowed and encouraged to be free.

By Way of Canarsie
Dirs. Emily Packer and Lesley Steele / 14 minutes / 2020 / United States
By Way of Canarsie is a wandering portrait of an oft-neglected shoreline community. Through brief encounters, observation, and expressive use of analog film, the film paints a portrait of the predominantly black New York City neighborhood of Canarsie’s shared desires for recognition and respect. As some community members advocate for a commuter ferry at the local pier, others reflect on the current use of natural resources, the indigenous history, and the impending environmental concerns that encompass Canarsie’s relationship with the water as it exists today.

The Whisper of the Leaves
Dir. Amir Aether Valen / 16 minutes / 2021 / Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba
The Whisper of the Leaves is a contemplative journey of harmony between different forms of life that coexist on the earth. This film is a meditation on the effect of time, movement of the human spirit, and passage to new forms of life, through the eyes, ears, and bodies of three elderly land workers living in a small community in the outskirts of Bauta, Cuba.

Queenie
Dir. Cai Thomas / 19 minutes / 2020 / United States
Queenie, a 73-year-young black lesbian and resident of the Marcy Projects, navigates applying for Stonewall Houses, NYC’s first LGBTQ elder-affordable housing development.

Comida Pa’ Los Pobres
Dir. Arleen Cruz-Alicea / 14 minutes / 2021 / Puerto Rico
Through Los Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico, a platform he created in 2012, Giovanni Roberto has fed hundreds of Puerto Rican families. Having known food scarcity in his own life, he pushes every day for community solidarity to manage the hunger that the government of Puerto Rico neglects. Comida Pa’ Los Pobres is a portrait of this young man who inspires people to actively participate in the creation of a solidarity-oriented work movement, as he also fights for government agencies to understand that he only seeks to give food to the poor.

Please note: This program can be viewed only once during a three-hour window beginning at the scheduled time. For more information on viewing this program or any films, please visit our FAQ and How to Watch pages.