Ordinary Heroes: Documentary Shorts

Description

While politicians and pundits wax hyperbolic about immigration, crime, and the opioid epidemic, ordinary citizens experience these issues on a more personal scale. The people documented in these beautifully crafted short films are contending with life after prison, daily overdoses, family separation, and a chilling police encounter. They are everyday heroes, doing the best they can to overcome the challenges that face them.

Films listed in alphabetical order. Program order to be announced.

Heroin(e)
Elaine Sheldon, USA, 38 min.
In Huntington, West Virginia, the heart of “the opioid capital of America,” three women—a judge, a street missionary, and a fire chief—do what they can to fight the epidemic of abuse.

Knife Skills
Thomas Lennon, USA, 40 min.
Edwin’s in Cleveland prepares its launch, hoping to make a splash as a world-class French restaurant. Its staff is almost entirely made up of men and women just out of prison, most of whom have never cooked or served before.

Monument | Monumento
Laura Gabbert, USA, 12 min.
At Friendship Park, a unique meeting place along the US–Mexico border, family members and loved ones from both countries can see and speak to each other through a meshed fence, but they cannot touch.