Like Thunder

2024 • USA • 52 min • Kate Stapleton

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, First Time Filmmaker

The Inner Sea is an unconventional love story–a story about music, adoption, the journey of a lifetime, and a bright blue 40 foot school bus. This film explores the complex issues of identity that result from the decision to place a child for adoption. It is also a film that explores the role that art plays in suffering, and healing.

2024 • USA • 80 min • Paige McKenna

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Adult Language, Adult Themes, Nudity, Staff Pick

GOLD is a documentary exploring the lives of four current dancers and the owner of the Gold Nugget strip club in Spread Eagle, Wisconsin. The film focuses heavily on Dusty’s story, who was a dancer in the 90s. She has owned the club for 30 years, and runs the club in a way that empowers women, guiding them to further education, encourages them toward sobriety, and offers respect and support through unconditional (and sometimes tough) love.

2025 • USA • 111 min • Andrew Templeton

Filmmaker in Attendance, First Time Filmmaker, Adult Language, Adult Themes, Staff Pick

Amid the radical politics and cultural upheaval of the late 1960s, a series of brutal murders targeting young women gripped the twin university towns of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan. This independent documentary examines not just a series of crimes, but the social and political tensions that enabled them—many of which still resonate today.