The Life We Have

5 films in this block • 65 minutes

The Films

Love & Sugar

  • Year 2024
  • Country USA
  • Runtime 4 min
  • Director Thomas C Johnson

Family Friendly

Love & Sugar celebrates how Stephen Loveland, renowned Saint Paul, Minnesota ice cream man, purposefully inspires kindness.

A Caregivers Journey

  • Year 2024
  • Country USA
  • Runtime 8 min
  • Director Andrew J. Morgan & Nick Nummerdor

Family Friendly

A Caregivers Journey puts a spotlight on the lives and experiences of two Michigan caregivers who are caring for their aging loved ones. It’s a heartfelt first-hand look at the joy and challenges that come with caregiving.

Honk for Peace

  • Year 2025
  • Country USA
  • Runtime 17 min
  • Director Sabrina Greener

Subject in Attendance, First Time Filmmaker

In the wake of the Iraq war, anti-war protesters began gathering on a street corner in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Twenty years later, a small but dedicated group still gathers, their message unchanged.

The Life We Have

  • Year 2025
  • Country USA
  • Runtime 24 min
  • Director Sam Price-Waldman

Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

For over three years, Rob Shaver, 48, has run at least a mile every single day. Through rain, pain, and the weight of a terminal cancer diagnosis, his daily streak has become more than a habit — it’s an act of resilience, a step-by-step refusal to surrender to his disease.

The Life We Have traces Rob’s two-decade journey with stage four cancer, confronting profound questions at the heart of the human experience: What gives life meaning when time feels fragile? How do we keep moving forward when suffering feels endless?

As the film unfolds and Rob’s story deepens, we are invited into an intimate meditation on mortality, movement, and a reminder to cherish the life we have.

When I'm in the Water

  • Year 2025
  • Country USA
  • Runtime 12 min
  • Director Kennedy Laylon

Family Friendly, Staff Pick

When I’m in the Water is a film centered around a group of women, called the Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage, in Cape Cod, Mass. fighting to revitalize not only their own lives and the lives of their fellow group members, but the ecosystems consisting of hundreds of ponds in the Cape. Throughout their journey to clean up the ponds, members of the group have found an accepting and supporting community to aid them in their personal journeys, harnessing their mental fortitude and discovering physical strength at their age.