Genre: Social Commentary

On a scorching afternoon along an isolated stretch of road, a lone police officer watches a girl running a small store. His gaze is sharp and relentless, searching for any sign of guilt like a predator stalking its prey. But as he scrutinizes her every move, he isn’t the only one on the hunt.

Tensions flare between 30 year-old Nadine and her boyfriend Karim as they go to elaborate means to dispose of their used condom before her parents return home. The different cultural expectations imposed on the two become apparent, bringing unspoken conflicts to the surface.

Lucid, poetic, and chilling, Oscar nominee Petra Costa’s latest exposé investigates the increasing power of evangelicals in Brazilian politics.

Mitch, Jaden, and Stevie, three young students with visual impairments who attend the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, detail common misconceptions and their struggles for accurate representation.

Winding through the maze of downtown Chicago, the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors (CCCM) work alongside the Field Museum and Willowbrook Wildlife Center to rescue birds that collide with skyscrapers, and study the birds that are killed during their annual migrations. The tenderhearted work presents a lens of environmental change that impacts every urban landscape.

In this intimate and affecting neorealist drama, a father takes his son to his first baseball game. But a series of obstacles will test him along the way.

A wealthy matriarch’s important work dinner is thrown into disarray when her housekeeper doesn’t show up. When her (and her adult children’s) incompetence in the kitchen becomes harder to hide from their hungry guests, a wacky comedy of errors ensues in this biting and boisterous class satire.

Leo Berkeley is a wheelchair-bound resident of an inner city suburb in Australia. Filled with ideas about existence but limited to the observations of his neighbors, Leo comes to know the depths of his awareness, while others are unbothered by their personal impact.

Through unique and fantastical imagery, the 17th-century Congolese heroine and prophetess Kimpa Vita comes to life in contemporary Brazil. In an effort to rescue her people from colonial oppression, Kimpa Vita methodically replicates herself.

Estranged Letters provides intimate access into Iranian-American visual artist Maryam Taghavi’s process as she prepares for her fist solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

A group of friends bring a newcomer named Judy to a certified jerk’s house party.
Judy is sweet, wears a nice dress — and she’s a shape-shifter battling an identity crisis while targeting her next victim.

An elderly widower tries to fight the urban redevelopment scheme threatening his Istanbul condo building. With nostalgia, he navigates a changing world.

When Evens and his mom planned a trip to the consulate office, they were hoping for a quick errand. They end up waiting hours to learn the status of Evens’ travel documents, and everyone in the overcrowded waiting room grows more aggravated — and interconnected — with each other.

A minor car accident triggers a cascading chain of events exposing lies and unspoken truths in this panoramic portrait of a patriarchal society.

Legendary British filmmaker Mike Leigh directs this fierce, compassionate, and darkly humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us.

A dedicated security guard in Beirut finds his assignment of guarding a waterfront construction site much more difficult than he thought. Delightful and romantic, this surrealist comedy gives us a glimpse into the ups and downs of a man who dares to dream beyond his reality.

After an African-American father confronts an intruder in his home, his actions spark a tense and confrontational investigation with far-reaching consequences.

This humorous and harrowing documentary follows Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger through one of the most difficult years of his life.

The killing of a giraffe in a Copenhagen Zoo is the launching pad for this wry, provocative essay film about life, death, biology, and human and animal consciousness.

Shopping under the pseudonym “Claude,” an older woman finds solace in isolation by buying secondhand lamps online. When a seller abruptly rescinds their offer, however, Claude is determined to possess the lamp by any means necessary.

Widowed Mahin, 70, lives alone in Tehran. Out to tea one afternoon, she’s inspired to break from her routine and revitalize her love life.

Palestinian activist Adra and idealistic Israeli journalist Yuval join together to chronicle the assaults on Adra’s community in this compelling portrait of resilience.

A lonely man struggles to hide his alcohol addiction during an important reunion with an estranged loved one. A naturalistic and unflinching glimpse into one man’s inner turmoil, this stark and intimate portrait is told with profound humanity.

Hand drawn in charcoal, this short depicts a young woman stranded on a hotline call. Her surroundings begin to morph and change, exhibiting a surrealist resonance with her feelings of limbo.

Relocated from his African home to Pablo Escobar’s Colombian compound, Pepe the hippo reflects on his chaotic life in this inventive cinematic essay.

A family clash over an heirloom piano explodes. The battle between brother and sister — one hopes to sell it, the other refuses to give it up — unleashes haunting truths about how the past is perceived and who defines a family legacy.

Katie Wotton has struggled with mental health and body dysmorphia throughout her life, and the sea has always been an escape. There, she fights the currents and challenges the shadows of her mind to find inner peace and a sense of belonging.

When his sons’ paths begin to radically diverge, a father must figure out how to love and support them both in this intimate, urgent family drama.

Newly widowed Santosh is compelled to take her husband’s old job on the police force, where she’s thrust into an intriguing murder investigation.

Virtually unseen for 50 years, this jubilant documentary features a soul-stirring display of contemporary Black musicians at Chicago’s 1972 Black Expo.

57-year-old Jonathan is a staple of the Glen Ellyn community, thriving thanks to the support of his mother and friends as he navigates life with Autism Spectrum Disorder. When a new landlord increases his rent twice over, locals rally to raise the cost difference and his story goes global.

When Iman’s handgun mysteriously goes missing, he reaches a breaking point in this tense domestic drama crossed with a paranoid political thriller.

An eye-opening investigation of the Trump-era policy of separating immigrant families—and the brave people from both parties trying to stop it.

A tight-knit unit of petty thieves and outsiders comes together to shelter an abandoned child, but an unforeseen incident threatens to tear apart their newfound family.

Small business owners who have transformed old Pizza Hut franchises present a rich tapestry of the American experience in this delectable documentary.

A Black CIA agent secretly uses his training to lead a guerrilla army against the U.S. government in a powerful tale of resistance and liberation.

Bruce is in elementary school, and starting to trust his own instincts over the lessons instilled in him by teachers and authority figures. Using the guiding voice of his own personal superhero, he puts his bravery to the test and defies his school in the name of self-respect.

A poetic march through the cultural archive of teen girlhood, this film stitches together disparate found footage into an imagined narrative where girls navigate threatening forces, challenge complex expectations, clock the adults, and wage small rebellions.

Stranded in Athens, displaced Palestinian cousins devise a dark scheme in order to reach Germany and start a new life.

A woman has fantasies of burning the skyscraper in which she works. This film is a dreamlike and extremely mysterious portrait of a person alienated by their environment.

As a toxic substance slowly ravages a celebrity’s body, the question left to ask is, how far would you go for the advertising money?

The lives of a politician, her aide, an artist, and a refugee become intertwined as values and allegiances are tested in this political thriller.

The humble dreams of a group of Somali misfits form the backbone of this gentle, gorgeously realized ode to the persistence of life in the face of death.

As a desolate community prepares for the succession of a shaman in Northeastern China, a pair of filmmakers recording the process find themselves intertwined in the deadly ritual. Combining found footage with an omniscient perspective, a nightmare unfolds.

An isolated village in northern Tunisia is beset by strange events when matriarch Aicha’s son returns from war with a mysterious pregnant bride.

A misty afternoon returns a Mapuche couple to their wedding video. In their civil ceremony, they are noted as one of only two couples married in the indigenous language of Mapudungun.