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.
Films
OCT 16-19, 2025 • Marquette, MIchigan
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.
Family Friendly, Student Filmmaker, First Time Filmmaker
Life is beautiful, however it’s the people and things on this earth that make it not so beautiful. Enjoy every second of every day you have in this life. One day you will wake up and it will all be gone.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere
In November 2016 Gatlinburg, Tennessee was devastated by a wildfire that impacted thousands of families and businesses. Beyond the Ashes tells the stories of the families and businesses affected by the fire and how one city demonstrated resilience during its darkest times.
Family Friendly
A heartwarming tribute, this centennial documentary celebrates tradition, nature, and the lasting impact of Camp Daggett on Northern Michigan families.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Has Subtitles
“Citizen” explores the near deportation of Grand Rapids, Michigan-born U.S. citizen, Marine, and combat veteran Jilmar Ramos Gomez. This film scrutinizes the system that nearly expelled him, the collaboration between local law enforcement and I.C.E., and raises critical questions about who gets to define what it means to be American.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere, Student Filmmaker
A short documentary about three generations of Ojibwe women from L’Anse, Michigan, sharing their stories about intergenerational trauma.
Filmmaker in Attendance, First Time Filmmaker
Love and forgiveness are the telling messages in this real life story of a family whose lives changed in a split second due to distracted driving.
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.
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.
Adult Language, Michigan Premiere, First Time Filmmaker, Student Filmmaker
A teenagers thoughts on the ongoing climate crisis shown through hectic city montages and the wilderness of Grand Teton National Park.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly
Blending stunning visuals, heartfelt stories, and expert perspectives, “Lake Leelanau, Spirit of the Lake” is a heartfelt tribute to a lake that continues to shape the identity and memories of its community.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Michigan Premiere
A short documentary about the importance of Native American language revitalization shot in Milwaukee, Keshena and Bjorklunden with Indigenous Nations Poets
Michigan Premiere, Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Adult Themes
In 2022, 17-year-old Marquette High School student Jordan DeMay’s life ended. What looked like a suicide revealed something far more sinister, an international scheme that preyed on his trust.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick
Detroit endured six decades of massive disinvestment, losing its primary industry in what is often described as the largest economic withdrawal in U.S. history. Its industry collapsed, its skyline dimmed. Yet the city’s spirit refused to vanish. Some call what followed the greatest comeback story in the nation. Others insist Detroit never left at all.
Now, through the eyes of a two-time Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and the voice of a celebrated poet, comes a story told from the ground up. Drawn from a twenty-year archive of over three million photographs and thousands of hours of unseen footage, this cinematic journey redefines an iconic city through the lives of the people who lived it.
Filmmaker in Attendance
_Something in the Water _follows five water justice advocates who discuss how Milwaukee’s Black communities are disproportionately being lead poisoned, the debilitating effects it has on residents’ health, and their hopes to see equitable change that will heal the water and Black resident’s relationship to it.
Adult Language, Filmmaker in Attendance
How does a satire comedy website find itself on the front lines of the debate over free speech online? Seth Dillon and his team at the Babylon Bee,tell the story of how they unwittingly found themselves at war with Twitter over a joke, eventually garnering the attention of Elon Musk and ushering in a new era for the social media company.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Adult Language, Staff Pick
The Developer is about outdoor climbing areas and how they are discovered, established, and maintained. Follow Michigan climber Brendan Baars and his journey to put The Nooks — a newly developed crag in northern Ontario — on the climbing community’s map.
Has Subtitles, Representative in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere, Family Friendly
Urban farming empowers Detroiters to reclaim their food supply. Three Detroiters to share what urban farming does for them emotionally and physically. Their stories are unique, but all use urban gardening to connect with their communities and understand what’s going in their bodies.
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.
Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere
On a windswept hill, in a place still young and devoid of all life, an ancestral house builds itself. The house comes to life and unveils its long life of one hundred and fifty years. Brick by brick and beam by beam, each action, big or small, shows life. Over the years, it leads us to feel the passage of time, the transformations of its surroundings and its vulnerability in the face of the unstoppable frenzy of our urban growth. The house evolves quietly in the heart of a growing and buzzing city that will eventually bring its end.
Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, Student Filmmaker
When a father is faced with health issues caused by nearby petrochemical plants, he must make a decision: stay and fight for his community, or leave and save his family.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, First Time Filmmaker, Student Filmmaker
Ron Yob, chairman of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians, seeks to gain federal recognition for his tribe from the federal government. Through Yob’s fight, he walks viewers through the historical evidence of the tribe’s presence in Grand Rapids to understand why the tribes deserve their federal rights.