The Films

• Year 2026
• Country USA
• Runtime 4 min
• Director Adriana Alexander

Family Friendly, First Time Filmmaker, Student Filmmaker

This short documentary builds on the Fish for the Future project put together by the Wisconsin Sierra Club to explore why the Great Lakes are critical and how to preserve them for future generations. The independent filmmaker was a seventh-grade student at the time.

• Year 2025
• Country USA
• Runtime 12 min
• Director Nancy Donnelly

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Representative in Attendance, Staff Pick

In Michigan’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, teams from around the world compete in the MATE International ROV Competition. In this competition, the Thomson family from Alpena competes brother against sister against sister against father. Who will triumph in this test of engineering skills in the Great Lakes?

• Year 2026
• Country USA
• Runtime 5 min
• Director Adam Burns

Family Friendly, Filmmaker in Attendance

An eccentric coach uses his outsider status to develop a new play to implement in the annual Troy Athens powder puff football game.

• Year 2025
• Country USA
• Runtime 7 min
• Director Keall Emmers

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Student Filmmaker

Normal is a short reflexive documentary about growing up with divorced parents and living between two homes. Using personal narration, archival footage, and interviews with my parents, the film reflects on how something that seems difficult or overwhelming to others became my everyday reality - and how hearing their perspectives changed the way I understand my own childhood.

• Year 2026
• Country USA
• Runtime 25 min
• Director Annabel Edwards, Mito Habe-Evans

Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, First Time Filmmaker

Two boys arrive at a remote summer camp in the Vermont woods. Free from screens and societal expectations, they learn to open up, support one another, and redefine what it means to be a boy.