Bush Mama

Ashes and Embers is an original screenplay by Haile Gerima, about a Vietnam veteran, who, several years after the war, is struggling to come to terms with his role in the war, and his role as a Black person in America. He survives by working odd jobs in Washington, D.C. and living with his girlfriend and her son. When criticism of his alienated behavior come from her and a father figure too often, he runs to the streets or to his grandmother's rural house in Virginia. Her criticism and his memories of the past both send him fleeing again to Los Angeles, where he is surrounded by superficial people who have forgotten how to be compassionate human beings. It is here that the advice of his friends and grandmother combine to transform him from an embittered ex-soldier to a strong and confident man.

In 1902, a Gullah family on the Sea Islands off South Carolina decide whether to migrate to the mainland, risking their unique cultural heritage.

A hitchhiker named Martel Gordone gets in a fight with two bikers over a prostitute, and one of the bikers is killed. Gordone is arrested and sent to prison, where he joins the prison's boxing team in an effort to secure an early parole and to establish his dominance over the prison's toughest gang.

Daydream Therapy is set to Nina Simone’s haunting rendition of “Pirate Jenny” and concludes with Archie Shepp’s “Things Have Got to Change.” Filmed in Burton Chace Park in Marina del Rey by activist-turned-filmmaker Bernard Nicolas as his first project at UCLA, this short film poetically envisions the fantasy life of a hotel worker whose daydreams provide an escape from workplace indignities. —Allyson Nadia Field

An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.

A naive young woman moves from the South to stay with her aunt and uncle in Compton. As an outsider, she struggles at first to find her footing, but soon falls into the middle of a community of rebellious youth. She soon becomes more and more aware of the social injustices of the big city.

An enigmatic drifter from the South comes to visit an old acquaintance who now lives in South-Central LA.

A young African-American man, living in Los Angeles without direction in his life, reluctantly agrees to be the best man for his brother, an upwardly mobile lawyer.

Charlie Banks, chronically unemployed, struggles to find dignity and a meaning for life in the impoverished Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts.

In this meditative film the everyday lives of poor Ethiopian peasants are shown using documentary as well as storytelling techniques, with its drama arising out of the timeless yet persistent issues of their lives.

Eddie Warmack, an African American jazz musician, is released from prison for the killing of a white gangster. Not willing to play for the mobsters who control the music industry, including clubs and recording studios, Warmack searches for his mentor and grandfather, the legendary jazz musician Poppa Harris.

Filmed in response to the LAPD’s shooting of Eulia Love in 1979, Gidget Meets Hondo opens with stills taken by Bernard Nicolas of a demonstration against Love’s killing. Nicolas’ Gidget is a self-absorbed young white woman who remains clueless to the violence erupting around her, ultimately to her own peril. The film asks whether such police brutality would be tolerated if the victim were a middle-class white woman.

1943. Sasha is 8 years old, he has become mute after losing his parents. Now attempts to contact the outside world occur through the "dots" and "dashes" of Morse code. When Mikhail Viktorovich, an elderly tuner, appears in their communal apartment, the boy is convinced that he is a spy. Now his task is to save his loved ones by telling them about it.

Haunted by visions of death, a young man slowly surrenders to his violent tendencies.

A teenager gets a chance to spend a few days with his crush after years, however he remains reticent about his feelings while she deals with a personal loss.

Love story against the background of the fall of the Wall. On New Year’s Eve 1989 Maria’s ex-husband turns up on her doorstep. She lives in Rotterdam now and he has just fled crumbling Communism in their homeland. A long flashback makes it clear why he is not welcomed with open arms.

A young woman exercises a special power over wolves, a gift that was passed on to her as a child from a wolf keeper, a type of witch who mentally dominates these animals. The story takes place at the beginning of the 20th century in the French countryside.

Sally Goodson has been raising her autistic son David alone since her husband left many years ago. Now a social worker discovers that Sally has been dodging 'The System' to keep her son with her, instead of putting him in an institution. Each feels they know what's best for David. But their opinions are not the same. Sally's developing relationship with John Nils is caught in the middle.

Mara, a hard-working widow, brings up her two children in a developing industrial Transylvanian town.

Opposites Adam and Evan live in a small village in the French countryside. They go to the same high school but have never spoken to each other. During the summer holidays a prank lands the pair in trouble, and as a result they are forced to get to know each other.