Filmmaker in Attendance Former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis' 2013 filibuster of anti-abortion legislation was an unforgettable event for lawmakers and political observers on both sides of the aisle. Five years later, listen in as key players in the debate reflect on their longest night.

After selecting a building at random in a Jewish neighborhood in Paris, French director Ruth Zylberman meticulously reconstructed its community of inhabitants during the German occupation. What results is the spellbinding 209 RUE SAINT-MAUR, an experimental historiography that tells the emotional story of lives uprooted and destroyed under the Nazis.

306 Hollywood is a magical realist documentary of two siblings who undertake an archaeological excavation of their late grandmother’s house. They embark on a journey from her home in New Jersey to ancient Rome, from fashion to physics, in search of what life remains in the objects we leave behind. 306 Hollywood will premiere on opening night at the Sundance Film Festival 2018. It is the first non-fiction film to be shown in the NEXT section

Jayne Loader in attendance Armageddon has never been so darkly funny as in The Atomic Cafe. This 1982 cult classic juxtaposes Cold War history, propaganda, music and culture, seamlessly crafted from government-produced educational and training films, newsreels and advertisements. Taken together, these sources cheerily instruct the public on how to live in the Atomic Age, how to survive a nuclear attack (!)... and how to fight and win a nuclear war. As a U.S. Army training film advises, "Viewed from a safe distance, the atomic bomb is one of the most beautiful sights ever seen by man." Returning to theaters in a sparkling 4K digital restoration created by IndieCollect,The Atomic Cafe is an absurdist blast from the past that would be downright laughable if it weren't so eerily relevant to our fake news present. 

It's a documentary about the life of eccentric comedian Frank Sidebottom who wore a huge paper mache' head and whose true identity was a closely guarded secret until after died. The 2014 Magnolia Pictures film titled Frank was inspired by his sensational mystery.

After the high-profile killing of Damilola Taylor, Cornelius Walker's mother, scared for her son’s safety, moved their family out of London only to find themselves living on an estate rife with racism. But rather than fight back, Cornelius became more like the people who hated him.

Filmmakers in Attendance Young Texas voter, not afraid of the rain.

The film explores the vision behind the iconic American jazz record label. Since 1939, Blue Note artists have been encouraged to push creative boundaries in search of uncompromising expressions. Through current recording sessions, rare archive and conversations with iconic Blue Note artists, the film reveals an intimate perspective of a legacy that continues to be vital in today’s political climate. Legendary artists Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter come together with today’s generation of groundbreaking Blue Note artists such as Robert Glasper and Ambrose Akinmusire to record an All-Stars album. These reflections lead us back to the highly influential figures of the past on which the legacy of Blue Note is built: Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Miles Davis. The Film strives to transmit the values that jazz embodies and that Blue Note has been promoting since its inception: freedom of expression, equality, dialogue - values we can learn from and that are as relevant today as they were when the label was founded.

When Jennifer Laude, a Filipina transwoman, is brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine, three women intimately invested in the case -- an activist attorney (Virgie Suarez), a transgender journalist (Meredith Talusan) and Jennifer’s mother (Julita "Nanay" Laude) -- galvanize a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of U.S. imperialism. Directed by PJ Raval.

Miami Beach Elegy, 2017, 29 min HD video CHIP LORD "We are living right now in the midst of a global climate emergency and social crisis that demands immediate response and long-term adaptation. We must prepare for the coming storm- not in thirty or forty years, but today.” - Roy Scranton, Learning to Die in the Anthropocene Miami Beach Elegy is a visual poem remembering Miami Beach as it was in the early 21st century – a colorful canary in the mine shaft that is climate change. Shot in an observational style and using haunting music by composer Hayden Pedigo, Lord has fashioned a beautiful and dark landscape portrait of place. Like biologists who are studying the Rabbs Fringe limbed tree frog in central panama as it goes extinct, Lord is “trying to catalogue what was out there before it was lost.” Valley of the Sun, 2018, 26 min HD video CHIP LORD "...our Hollywood imagination of disaster is dominated by the blockbuster spectacle of some future, definitive event that triggers a system of collapse. In reality, the apocalypse has already begun." - Andrew Ross, BIRD ON FIRE, 2011. Valley of the Sun is a poetic look at the "future in the present", a video album of songs about Phoenix in the Anthropocene. Original music composed and performed by Hayden Pedigo and stunning cinematography by Christopher Beaver propel Chip Lord’s film. Produced and Directed by Chip Lord Cinemtaography by Christopher Beaver Sound design and mix by Jim McKee

Come & Take It captures Jessica Jin's transformation into one of America’s most irreverent anti-gun violence leaders, creating what some people are calling The Great Texas Dildo Revolt.

97 year old Holocaust Survivor, Inge Ginsberg, rose to fame as a songwriter for legendary musicians such as Doris Day, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole. DEATH METAL GRANDMA follows Inge Ginsberg’s journey to break out as a performer of death metal music and as she prepares for an America’s Got Talent Audition. The short documentary interweaves the rich personal history of Inge’s life as she attempts to merge her personal lyrics with the contemporary genre of Death Metal.