Focus Forward: Short Films, Big Ideas

With unfettered access, the film follows Baltimore's idealistic young mayor into office, where he puts his personal and political future on the line to save his beloved city from chronic violence.

During three years of unparalleled violence in Baltimore, Charm City delivers an unexpectedly candid, observational portrait of those left on the frontlines. With grit, fury, and compassion, a group of police, citizens, and government officials grapple with the consequences of violence and try to reclaim their future.

James Forman, a 31-year-old public defender and son of a civil rights leader, provides representation for black youth in Washington, D.C., who can't afford their own attorneys in this riveting documentary that goes inside the criminal justice system. Director Kirsten Johnson's award-winning film also sheds light on the difficulties that ex-offenders face when trying to break the cycle of crime and imprisonment.

In 2000, Illinois Gov. George Ryan ordered a moratorium on the death penalty after university students uncovered new evidence proving the innocence of 13 men on death row. This documentary follows the hearings held by a panel Ryan appointed to study the issue and interviews activists, scholars and prisoners, while examining the history of the American death penalty. As Ryan's time in office comes to an end, he must decide what steps to take to reform the judicial system.

Join former first lady Michelle Obama in an intimate documentary looking at her life, hopes and connection with others.

With this inventive portrait, director Kirsten Johnson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.

Made refugees by the war in Ukraine, Olga and her granddaughter Milana travel to a summer camp in the Austrian Alps to test the limits of their own bravery, and to strengthen their growing bond.

Hard Earned follows five families around the country to find out what it takes to get by on eight, ten, or even 17 dollars an hour, as the people of the nation cry out for a livable minimum wage. The series turns an intimate lens on a group of 21st century American dreamers. They fight against all odds to thrive, while it takes everything they have to simply survive.

Journey To The West is a contemporary exploration of the ways in which Chinese medicine - including acupuncture and herbal remedies - is being practiced today.

The home for the world's boldest contemporary filmmakers, celebrating intriguing personal stories that spark conversation and inspire action.

'Dark money' contributions, made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, flood modern American elections — but Montana is showing Washington D.C. how to solve the problem of unlimited anonymous money in politics.

Forty years before WikiLeaks and the NSA scandal, there was Media, Pennsylvania. In 1971, eight activists plotted an intricate break-in to the local FBI offices to leak stolen documents and expose the illegal surveillance of ordinary Americans in an era of anti-war activism. In this riveting heist story, the perpetrators reveal themselves for the first time, reflecting on their actions and raising broader questions surrounding security leaks in activism today.

Aisha McAdams, a former competitive runner turned photographer, embarks on a journey to document the triumphs and struggles of famed ultra trailrunners, including Jim Walmsley and Eszter Csillag. Traveling to mythical races—the Western States Endurance Run in the mountains of eastern California, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in the French Alps—the film marvels at athletes who maintain their intensity as they run 100 miles of mountain trails while climbing thousands of vertical feet.

E-Team is driven by the high-stakes investigative work of four intrepid human rights workers, offering a rare look at their lives at home and their dramatic work in the field.

Facing a sex obsessed culture, a mountain of stereotypes and misconceptions, and a lack of social or scientific research, asexuals - people who experience no sexual attraction - struggle to claim their identity.

POSTMORTEM, a hybrid documentary film and theater project, is a crime drama about a girl who didn’t tell her childhood secret—and the woman she becomes, who does.