Tom Piraino & Barbara McWilliams
Special Programs
One of the CIFF’s most valuable contributions to our community is using the power of film to educate our youth about issues that are relevant to their own lives and communities as well as to society as a whole. For nearly 30 years, this has been accomplished through FilmSlam—the CIFF’s media literacy program and mini-festival of films for students in grades 5-12.
In the spring of 2020, FilmSlam smoothly evolved into FilmSlam Streams. The initial effort consisted of 160 short films (most of which were foreign language) from the current as well as previous Festivals. The films were shared online with 165 teachers, who then passed along the links to their peers for a virtual viewing experience with students. Online study guides were provided to the educators. And post-film Q&As were conducted with filmmakers following a handful of the screenings (some were pre-recorded and some were live).
In the summer of 2020, FilmSlam Streams was restructured to become the CIFF’s year-round digital media literacy program and online festival of films. Special attention was given to: (1) building a program that is flexible to the online needs and schedules of teachers and their students; and, (2) sharing films on a universally understood platform while ensuring security from piracy for filmmakers and their films.
Fall 2020 registrations for FilmSlam Streams included 34,400 students from 188 schools (29 CMSD) in Cuyahoga and 29 other counties. Fifty-seven short films rounded out the program and students had the opportunity to participate via Zoom with 55 filmmaker Q&As in 15 countries.
For more information or to make reservations, please contact Beth Steele Radisek, FilmSlam Streams Director, at 216.623.3456 x13 or beth@clevelandfilm.org.
Support Provided By:
Tom Piraino & Barbara McWilliams
Tom Piraino & Barbara McWilliams
3 Epistolary Films (3 films épistolaires)
France
Directed By 10th grade students of La Guerche-de-Bretagne's high school
Running Time: 8 Minutes
Aurélien, Adama, Liza. Three short letters written and filmed by the students of a French high school. {more}
United States
Directed By Kevin Taylor
Running Time: 16 Minutes
A baby is found in the park on Christmas day, and ten years later her story is told. {more}
UNITED STATES
Directed By Michael Parks Randa, Lauren Smitelli
Running Time: 80 Minutes
After falling in love at a dance camp over the summer, Sage and Anthony don’t know when they’ll see each other again…but it might be sooner than they think. With a magical twist of fate, Sage finds herself enrolled as... {more}
South Korea, USA
Directed By Jinuk Choi
Running Time: 4 Minutes
A wheelchair dreams of one day being fast like a racing car, and one night decides to do its own race in the hospital hallway. But will the wheelchair be able to fulfill his dream? {more}
Spain
Directed By Jorge Sarria de Vicente
Running Time: 5 Minutes
The lives of a child from the Republic of Congo and the president of a technology company are connected by a material that will change them completely. {more}
Common Language (Агульная мова)
Directed By Volia Chajkouskaya
Running Time: 14 Minutes
The director, who has always been viewed as the black sheep in her family, sets out to the Belarusian town of Vitebsk to talk with her parents about previous grievances and topics that were considered taboo. The effort to find... {more}
United States
Directed By Ben Proudfoot, Kris Bowers
Running Time: 14 Minutes
A virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer tracks his family's lineage through his 91-year-old grandfather from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. (English CC available) {more}
Germany
Directed By Katharina Rivilis
Running Time: 20 Minutes
June 17, 1953—Frida’s 8th birthday—was supposed to be a celebration. Instead tanks are rolling through the streets of East Berlin. {more}
Cyprus, Turkey, Syria
Directed By Doğuş Özokutan
Running Time: 12 Minutes
Yusuf accepts a job smuggling refugees with his refrigerated meat truck, believing this is the only way to earn money to save his daughter's life. When the smuggler shows up with the refugees, and Yusuf realizes there are children that... {more}
France, Morocco
Directed By Saïd Hamich Benlarbi
Running Time: 25 Minutes
Morocco 2004: the summer 11-year-old Adil is upset by the visit of his father and big brother, who leave for France in just a few days. {more}
United States
Directed By Mike Berry
Running Time: 19 Minutes
Teenaged Rosa is forced to make a difficult decision when her father Hector, a hard working Guatemalan, is threatened with deportation. {more}
Embracing the Stars (Abrazar las estrellas)
Spain
Directed By Christopher Sánchez, Mario Cervantes
Running Time: 8 Minutes
Javier is deaf-blind, but he is willing to live the adventure and climb to the top to fulfill his dream of embracing the stars. {more}
Poland
Directed By Yifan Sun
Running Time: 25 Minutes
Lola was adopted into a Belgian family 11 years ago as an infant. Over the years, she has been imagining the reunion with her birth family in China. This summer her dream finally comes true, when Lola’s two families meet... {more}
UNITED STATES
Directed By Mu Sun
Running Time: 97 Minutes
In low-income communities across America, children’s health and educational outcomes are declining. This was overwhelmingly apparent to teacher Stephen Ritz when he began teaching in the Bronx, where approximately 37% of children do not have consistent access to food. Since... {more}
Directed By Kitty Hu
Running Time: 21 Minutes
A father struggles to prepare for his wife's return from the hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm. His daughter documents his struggles and the evolving nature of their often strained relationship in this insightful documentary. {more}
USA, China
Directed By Yuan Yuan
Running Time: 13 Minutes
Eight-year-old Chasuna travels from her home on grassland to visit her father who lives in the big city. During her father’s birthday party, Chasuna finds out he has remarried to a Chinese woman, and must learn how to accept her... {more}
FRANCE
Directed By CHABNAME ZARIAB
Running Time: 20 Minutes
As Louise prepares to go out of her building, a man hands her a bag before being picked up by the police. {more}
I'm a Vampire (Soy Un Vampiro)
Mexico/USA
Directed By Sofia Garza-Barba
Running Time: 14 Minutes
In and amongst the confusion created by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, eight-year-old Jackie believes she is turning into a vampire. As her suspicion is reinforced by her parents’ bewildering behavior, the imaginative girl creates a plan to survive the confinement. {more}
Canada
Directed By Amar Chebib
Running Time: 16 Minutes
Joe Buffalo is an Indigenous skateboard legend. He’s also a survivor of Canada’s notorious Indian Residential School system. Following a traumatic childhood and decades of addiction, Joe must face his inner demons to realize his dream of turning pro. {more}
Ireland
Directed By Gar O'Rourke
Running Time: 9 Minutes
A journey into the heart of what is widely considered the world’s most hardcore gym—Kiev's enormous open-air Kachalka gym. This observational film follows the gym's caretaker as he takes us through the enormous scrap-metal site, allowing a glimpse into the... {more}
The Man Who Never Saw the Rain (El hombre que nunca vio llover)
Spain
Directed By Miguel Muñoz
Running Time: 2 Minutes
What if you've never seen it rain? {more}
Portugal, France
Directed By Gabriel Abrantes
Running Time: 20 Minutes
Tired of being a banal architectural ornament, a sculpture runs away from the Louvre to confront real life on the streets of Paris. {more}
United States
Directed By David Telles
Running Time: 6 Minutes
Ausee and his best friend Skeeter earn a living dancing on the BART train. An encounter with a hot-headed commuter named Suzy threatens their livelihood and chaos ensues. {more}
France
Directed By Otalia Caussé, Geoffroy Collin, Louise Grardel, Antoine Marchand, Robin Merle, Fabien Meyran
Running Time: 5 Minutes
In Lisbon, a German married couple is about to get aboard the legendary n°28 tramway, but their ride is about to become a much bigger adventure than expected. {more}
United States
Directed By Arman Taheri
Running Time: 23 Minutes
In post-COVID era Shaker Heights, Ohio, four students go to a eighth grade reunion. But all is not what it seems as they find out the true purpose of the gathering. {more}
Russia
Directed By Eteri Nioradze
Running Time: 11 Minutes
Nadia is a nail artist who is obsessed with cleanliness and tidiness. She tries to maintain a “perfect” world around herself, but one day new client Kristina comes to her beauty salon and messes up everything. The chaos helps both... {more}
A Raging Silence (A Raging Silence)
United States
Directed By C. Hubert Calhoun III
Running Time: 21 Minutes
A girl who is denied entrance into a prestigious arts academy succeeds her brother in a new way of life. {more}
Germany
Directed By Nele Dehnenkamp
Running Time: 16 Minutes
Hanan accompanies her brother to classes in the public pool. The first swimming badge is called Seahorse because it doesn’t drown their instructor explains. When Hanan came to Europe in a rubber dinghy, she couldn’t swim, and to overcome this... {more}
China
Directed By Qiying Lin
Running Time: 12 Minutes
A boy realizes for the first time his inability to protect his migrant kid friend. {more}
SHOT DOWN: Howard Snyder and the B-17 Susan Ruth
United States
Directed By Michael Mazur
Running Time: 13 Minutes
This documentary short is based on the awarding-winning book SHOT DOWN: The true story of pilot Howard Snyder and the crew of the B-17 Susan Ruth written by Steve Snyder. Steve's father Howard evaded capture for seven months after being... {more}
United States
Directed By Jeremy Dubin, Ryan Lewis
Running Time: 2 Minutes
Jimmy spends almost every night in his Palace of Isolation, studying his favorite superheroes. But tonight is different. He may have just cracked the storyline for the next big budget blockbuster. Probably not, but you never know. {more}
United States
Directed By Gabriel Gaurano
Running Time: 28 Minutes
Born and raised in the Watts projects of Los Angeles, 12-year-old Mexican-American boxer Meryland Gonzalez fights in-and-out of the ring for her dream to be crowned the 2019 Junior Olympics champion. {more}
United States
Directed By Kelly Riot
Running Time: 24 Minutes
Quentin Shaw, a quirky 11-year-old half-Asian boy, is still grieving from the death of his mother. He struggles with his racial identity and finding a place to fit in. {more}
UNITED KINGDOM
Directed By Philip Sansom, Inigo Gilmore
Running Time: 82 Minutes
Around the slums of Katwe, Uganda some unlikely sounds fill the air: those of tubas, trumpets, trombones, and brass drum sets. This is all thanks to Brass for Africa, a UK based nonprofit (98% African-led) that brings brass music to... {more}
Egypt
Directed By Mohamed Kheidr
Running Time: 26 Minutes
After her husband abandoned her and illegally fled the country, Walaa’s only way to secure income for her family was by driving a tuk tuk in a male-dominated environment where women struggle. At the risk of being ridiculed, harassed, and... {more}
UNITED STATES
Directed By Dagmawi Abebe, Victor Alonso-Berbel, Roy Arwas, Hannah Bang, Christopher Beaton, Agazi Desta, Tiffany Kontoyiannis Guillen, Zoe Salnave, Ernesto Sandoval, Sabina Vajraca
Running Time: 108 Minutes
It’s October 1935. America is in the midst of The Great Depression, and millions of unemployed are struggling to survive. Still, Harlem’s Lafayette Theater continues operations and is the most active Negro Theater unit of the Federal Theater Project, a... {more}
United States
Directed By Maddie Stambler
Running Time: 16 Minutes
As Reverend Darrien Fann—a young African American man with cerebral palsy—enters adulthood, he questions what independence means to him and how our society views people with disabilities. And he reflects on the obstacles he has had to overcome to fulfill... {more}
Jordan, Qatar
Directed By Obada Jarbi
Running Time: 17 Minutes
Um Mohamed is a proud mother of three and wife to a polio survivor. Her husband's disability makes him incapable of joining the work force. As a result, Um Mohamed roams the streets of Irbid collecting scrap metal and recyclables... {more}
UNITED STATES
Directed By Christi Cooper
Running Time: 110 Minutes
YOUTH V GOV follows the journey of 21 audacious young people suing the U.S. Government for its continued lack of action in response to the existential threat of climate change. Since 2015 the plaintiffs—now ages 13-24—have argued in an unprecedented... {more}
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