2024 • USA • 9 min • Henry Behel

Staff Pick

For nearly everyone, losing your engine is a life-threatening event. Airshow pilot Eric Tucker is one of the few in the world who dares to make it an art form.

2024 • United States • 11 min • Brody Kuhar

Michigan Premiere

In 2021, a tragic car accident left Veranique (or V, as she’s known at Rox) paralyzed from the waist down. After a long stint in the hospital and multiple surgeries, doctors told Varanique she would never walk again. While this news would reshape her life, it wouldn’t alter her vibrant spirit. Veranique knew the key to living a full life rested in her mindset. In 2022, V set out to find a job, landing at Memphis Rox, a climbing gym in South Memphis. Witnessing climbing for the first time, she thought the gym would keep her behind the front desk — that she couldn’t participate in the sport. Until she did. Surrounded by community, Veranique is now a regular climber with a philosophy on and off the wall that the sky’s the limit.

2024 • USA • 17 min • Chris Cresci

Subject in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

Set against the backdrop of Desolation Canyon, UT, Mikah Meyer, a world-record traveler and LGBTQ+ advocate, reflects with three close friends and his mentor, Larry Edwards, on their stories and the power of mentorship within the queer community. As a child, Mikah believed he could never have a successful life AND be publicly out and gay. When he moved to college and met Larry, his openly gay choir professor, a lifelong mentorship was born. Amidst conversations and joy along the river, we understand the power and importance of their friendship. As Larry enters what he calls the ‘final chapter’ of his life, he reflects on the lifelong fight for openness and vulnerability within the queer community, and through the desolation of nature, finds contentment in a job well done.

2023 • USA • 6 min • Daniel Flahiff

Filmmaker in Attendance, Michigan Premiere

In his junior year of high school, Travis Sterner attempted to end his life. DAD BOD is the story of that day and Travis’s lifelong mission to break the cycle of depression and despair through fitness, empathy, and encouragement. 

2023 • USA • 17 min • Stephen Michael Simon

Filmmaker in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, Adult Language, Staff Pick

The city lifestyle left New York City artist Lala feeling hollow, forcing her to make the bold decision of uprooting herself and seeking solace in the untamed landscapes somewhere far west. Stripped of the familiar comforts of running water, electricity, and constant connectivity, she faces the daunting challenge of building a bountiful life from scratch.

2024 • USA • 18 min • Nate Sheppard

Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere

PETE’S CASTLE tells the story of Pete Kelley, creator of Kelley Castle in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. The film follows Pete and his brother Pat as they tour around the castle and recount the process of putting the castle together, piece by piece. Enjoy this amusing synthesis of old-world classical sensibilities and folksy American pragmatism and humor.

2024 • USA • 8 min • Freddie Gluck

Michigan Premiere, First Time Filmmaker, Family Friendly

Rex, a gifted marble sculptor, lives in a small mountain town in Colorado on a property littered with half-finished headstones, beer cans, a faithful dog, and a family of scrap metal minions. Stone Dead invites viewers to delve deep into a sequestered artist’s unconventional existence and explore the intriguing intersection of life and death.

2024 • USA • 12 min • Zeppelin Zeerip

Michigan Premiere

A Ukrainian snowboarder turned soldier grapples with the trauma of war and the uncertainty of being called back, seeking solace in nature as he tries to reintegrate into society.

2024 • USA • 5 min • RC Cone

Adult Language

This is Jackson Marvell. He’s totaled 5 trucks, hauled kegs up rock towers, and rarely (if ever) brushed his hair.

Introducing episode 1 of our multi-part film series profiling inspiring personalities who have dedicated their lives to ‘getting after it.’

2023 • USA • 71 min • Davis Huber

Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, First Time Filmmaker, Representative in Attendance, Staff Pick

Troubled Water is an exhilarating adventure, conservation film that beckons viewers to follow along on a transformative journey down the stunning coast of Lake Michigan. As the journey unfolds, the film unveils the significance of the Line 5 pipeline issue, the dire need for collective action and the historic precedent that this movement would establish. If successfully shutdown, it would become the first active pipeline in US history to be terminated before it ruptures.

2024 • USA • 20 min • Nkaujoua Xiong

Filmmaker in Attendance, Has Subtitles, Subject in Attendance, Staff Pick

At the age of 13, my father left his homeland, Laos, to seek a brighter future in the United States. Throughout the years, he devoted himself to supporting his family, seldom sharing the details of his past. This film intimately explores the experiences that shaped my father’s understanding of love.