NFF NOW - Shorts

Director: Laura Checkoway and Thomas Lee Wrights | USA / 29 MIN / 2017

Edith and Eddie, ages 96 and 95, are America's oldest interracial newlyweds. Their love story is disrupted by a family feud that threatens to tear the couple apart.

Director: Frank Stiefel | USA / 40 MIN / 2017

A portrait of a brilliant and well respected artist. Whose body of raw, emotional work reveals a lifetime of depression and mental disorder. She has suffered through electro shock therapy, multiple commitments to mental institutions and a 10-year period without speech. Through an examination of her work, interviews, re-enactments, the building of an eight-and-a-half-foot papier-mache’ bust of her beloved psychiatrist, we learn how she has emerged from a life of darkness and isolation to a life that includes love, trust and support.

Director: Elaine McMillion Sheldon | USA / 39 MIN / 2017

Once a bustling industrial town, Huntington, West Virginia has become the epicenter of America’s modern opioid epidemic, with an overdose rate 10 times the national average. This flood of heroin now threatens this Appalachian city with a cycle of generational addiction, lawlessness, and poverty. But within this distressed landscape, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon (Hollow) shows a different side of the fight against drugs — one of hope.  As America’s opioid crisis threatens to tear communities apart, the Netflix original short documentary HEROIN(E) shows how the chain of compassion holds one town together.

Director: Thomas Lennon | USA / 40 MIN / 2017

What does it take to build a world-class French restaurant? What if the staff is almost entirely men and women just out of prison? What if most have never cooked or served before, and have barely two months to learn their trade? We follow the hectic launch of Edwins restaurant in Cleveland. In this improbable setting, with its mouth-watering dishes and its arcane French vocabulary, we discover the challenges of men and women finding their way after their release.

Director: Kate Davis | USA / 30 MIN / 2017

The story of Breaion King, a 26-year-old African-American school teacher from Austin, Texas who is stopped for a routine traffic violation that escalates into a dramatic arrest.

Writer/Director: Reed Van Dyk | USA / 20 MIN / 2017

Inspired by an actual 911 call placed during a school shooting incident in Atlanta, Georgia.

Writer/Director: Kevin Wilson Jr. | USA / 20 MIN / 2017

At 2:30AM on August 28, 1955 in the most racially divided state in the country, 64 year-old Mose Wright tries to protect his 14 year-old nephew Emmett Till from two racist killers out for blood. Based on the true story of the 1955 murder of Emmett Louis Till.

Director: Derin Seale | Writer: Josh Lawson | AUSTRALIA / 13 MIN / 2016

The delusional patient of a psychiatrist believes he is actually the psychiatrist. As they each attempt to treat each other the session gets out of control.

Director: Chris Overton | Writer: Rachel Shenton | UK / 20 MIN / 2017

The Silent Child centers around a profoundly deaf 4-year-old girl named Libby who is born into a middle-class family and lives in a world of silence until a caring social worker teaches her the gift of communication.

Director: Katja Benrath | Writer: Julia Drache | GERMANY, KENYA / 23 MIN / 2017

For a decade Kenya, has been targeted by terrorist attacks of the Al-Shabaab. An atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust between Muslims and Christians is growing. Until in December 2015, Muslim bus passengers showed that solidarity can prevail.

Director: Glen Keane | Writer: Kobe Bryant | USA / 5 MIN / 2017

The animated film is an adaptation of Bryant’s NBA retirement announcement after 20 years with the Los Angeles Lakers. Narrated by Bryant, the film’s hand-drawn animation and emotional score will touch fans of all ages with its universal message about love and loss.

Directors: Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Théophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon | FRANCE / 7 MIN / 2016

In a deserted rich house, a couple of amphibians explore their surroundings and follow their primal instincts.

Writer/Director: Dave Mullins | USA / 7 MIN / 2017

When a toy stealing bully ruins recess for a playground full of kids, only one thing stands in his way: the “Lost and Found” box.

Directors: Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter | FRANCE / 6 MIN / 2017

Even though Sam's father is hardly ever home because he is often away on business trips, he is able to connect with his son by teaching him how to pack a suitcase.

Directors: Jan Lachauer and Jakob Schuh | UK / 29 MIN / 2016

Roald Dahl’s retellings of classic fairy tales with playful twists and surprising endings.