New Course Starting July 15th! - Social Justice Filmmaking for All
This course is for anyone who is interested in learning how to make a social justice documentary. Participants will learn how to tell their story meaningfully and with visual impact.
Find out more and register here!
Open House - Thursday, June 26, 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Where: Pacific Tower, 11th Floor - 1200 12th Ave. S, Suite 1101 - Use the main entrance to the building.
We moved! Come check out our new office space! We are now located in one of Seattle’s most iconic buildings. Come find out what we are up to and meet the SJFI Team.
Network and meet the social justice film community and learn about our upcoming programs and events. Details
Food and Beverages will be served.
For more information, contact Marisa at marisa@socialjusticefilminstitute.org
2025 Social Justice Film Festival Awards
This season, we presented 61 films over five days, welcomed social justice filmmakers and special guests from around the country, and hosted workshops and panel discussions focusing on local and global issues while amplifying youth voices. What an amazing, supportive community of festival-goers, donors, and community members! We are very fortunate to be part of this community and could not have presented this event without all of you.
Gold Awards
I'm Still Here
Directors - Stephen Stinson, Sam Miller
Medium Documentary
26 minutes | USA | 2024
Between 1947 and 1967, black owned homes in Birmingham, Alabama were bombed over 50 times. Homes on Center Street were targeted so often, the neighborhood became known as ‘Dynamite Hill.’ The street became an inflection point for the Civil Rights movement. I'm Still Here is a short film about three people who lived this history as children and elected to stay in Birmingham to try and turn the city's struggles with Civil Rights into a symbol for hope.
Fireline
Director - Robin Takao D'Oench
Short Narrative
14 minutes | USA | 2024
FIRELINE tells the story of an inmate firefighter desperately trying to call home while battling a wildfire with his crew. Today, 30% of CalFire Fire Dept. is supplemented by prison labor despite no clear pathway to employment upon release. FIRELINE is a tribute to the unsung heroes on the frontlines in the battle against climate change. The film stars Bobby Soto (The Tax Collector, Flamin' Hot) and is produced by Lena Waithe's Hillman Grad and Indeed's Rising Voices Program.
Can't Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines
Directors - Vanessa Raditz, Natalia Villarán-Quiñones, Yarrow Koning, Jess Martínez, Shoog McDaniel
Feature Documentary
97 minutes | USA | 2024
As Florida's violent legislation dominates headlines, LGBTQ2S+ communities are also on the frontlines of accelerating climate change. “Can’t Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines” weaves interviews with 14 LGBTQ2S+ artists, organizers, and educators across Florida (and the new Florida diaspora) into an intersectional climate justice narrative.
Neighborhood Alert
Director - Ngozi Onwurah
Medium Narrative
30 minutes | USA | 2023
Inspired by a true story, NEIGHBORHOOD ALERT, tells the story of a Black mother that is forced to take an extraordinary action in order to ensure the safety of her teenage son.
Kalamazoo Gals
Director - David Massar
Short Documentary
17 minutes | USA | 2024
When music journalist John Thomas discovers a mysterious archival photo, the ensuing odyssey reveals a shameful chapter in the history of the iconic Gibson guitar company. During World War II, with instrument production supposedly suspended, an extraordinary group of women toiled secretly behind the scenes, creating the “Banner Gibsons” that are cherished to this day by musicians and collectors the world over. From Nashville to Kalamazoo, this short documentary explores the hidden legacy of these craftswomen, and the trials of female artists and others in the industry who struggle not to be erased from the American Story.
Silver Awards
Message
Director - Saeed Moltaji
Narrative Short
9 minutes | Iran | 2024
A determined female reporter in a war-torn Gaza, facing poor internet conditions, decides to take all her memory cards to her colleague in the news agency building. She hopes he can send the videos. She faces obstacles along the way.
One Fighting Irishman
Director - Sharon Yamato
Medium Documentary
30 minutes | USA | 2024
ONE FIGHTING IRISHMAN is a 30-minute documentary narrated by actor George Takei focusing on the little-known story of civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins who filed lawsuits on behalf of more than 5,500 detainees who renounced their U.S. citizenship while incarcerated at the embattled Tule Lake Segregation Center, considered the worst of the ten WWII detention centers. It will explore the issues that led to segregation and the unprecedented mass renunciations, and why it took more than 23 years to retrieve citizenship for nearly all of them, including George Takei’s mother.
Maraschino Cherries
Director - Vincent Paquette
Medium Narrative
19 minutes | Canada | 2023
Pending an eviction from their landlord, a brother and a sister have no choice but to take matters into their own hands to come up with the money and stay out of the streets.
HAAGUA
Directors - Marc Antony Chavez, Octavio Aceves Coutiño
Short Documentary
16 minutes | USA | 2024
A major disturbance more than 400 years ago interrupted nature’s law along the shores of the West Coast of California, Mexico, and beyond. A chain reaction ensued, forever changed our coastlines, seascapes, practices, and Indigenous life. However, a new wave is upon us. Allowing the space to not just survive, but to thrive, Indigenous life reflects nature’s law and rebounds. “Haagua” depicts the timeless connection between Great Great-Grandmother Ocean and her great-grandchildren.
No Place to Grow Old
Director - David Schaupp
Feature Documentary
48 minutes | USA | 2024
No Place to Grow Old is the first documentary to capture a growing crisis unfolding quietly across America: older adults aging into homelessness. Set in Portland, Oregon, this film follows the lives of three older adults navigating the harsh realities of life without a home. Through their stories of hardship and resilience, the film offers an intimate portrayal of their challenges while illuminating the systemic issues contributing to their plight. Featuring insights from local and national experts, No Place to Grow Old is a powerful call to action that emphasizes dignity and hope, envisioning a future where everyone, regardless of age, has a safe and secure place to call home.
Bronze Awards
The Strike
Directors - JoeBill Muñoz, Lucas Guilkey
Feature Documentary
85 minutes | USA | 2024
THE STRIKE weaves together, thread-by-thread, a half century of personal and criminal justice history into a single, compelling narrative around the drama of the 2013 hunger strike to end indefinite isolation. Grounded in testimonies from the hunger strikers themselves, the film details how the protest was conceived from a whisper inside the halls of Pelican Bay to a colossal feat across California prisons. With unprecedented access to state prison officials and never-before-seen footage from inside Pelican Bay, THE STRIKE reveals the panic that gripped the highest echelons of state government.
SWEEP DREAMS
Directors - E.T. Russian, Edward Mast
Short Narrative
7 minutes | USA | 2024
An animated dream of displacement and apocalypse.
Exception
Director - Rodrigue Hammal
Medium Narrative
31 minutes | Canada | 2024
When a leaked video of his lecture on the Psychology of Oppression goes viral and sparks accusations of anti-Semitism, tenured Palestinian-American professor Karim Hadawi finds himself at a crossroads with a harrowing ultimatum: issue a public apology to salvage his career or risk losing not only his job but also the custody of his beloved daughter. This unexpected challenge forces Karim to navigate a turbulent territory where principles clash with the pressures of public perception, plunging him into a distressing battle for integrity, family, and the preservation of freedom of speech.
Dark and Tender
Director - Aaron Johnson
Medium Documentary
19 minutes | USA | 2024
Aaron Johnson’s powerful short film "Dark and Tender" follows ten Black men on a transformative retreat with the Chronically UnderTouched (CUT) Project outside Seattle. The men seek to reclaim platonic intimacy and tenderness through close encounters with nature and depictions of gentle Black masculinity, restoring the vital aspect of touch by replacing violence and rough play with care, connection, and intimacy.
Monalisa - a climate story
Directors - Mathias Schweikert, Tobias Schäfer
Short Documentary
8 minutes | Germany, Indonesia | 2024
In Monalisa's home town, a small village in the middle of the rainforest on the Indonesian island of Borneo, many people are faced with a tough decision: Do I sell my land to ensure my family's financial survival and risk deforestation and environmental destruction by large corporations? Or do I stand up for the preservation of nature and suffer economic consequences as a result? The documentary short film ‘Monalisa - a climate story’ shows how the climate crisis is already shaping biographies in the Global South. It portrays a young indigenous woman from the Dayak people who joins a reforestation organisation and gives everything to find a solution to the conflict in her community that does justice to both people and nature.
Youth Visions Award
A Woman's Role
Directors - Caroline and Aaryhn
Short Documentary
14 minutes | USA | 2023
Teen filmmakers Caroline and Aaryhn explore women’s roles in society, the messages they are receiving, and their dreams for their future in this thoughtful and personal documentary. With each other and experts, they discuss the progress that has been made and the obstacles that are still present in achieving gender equality. Through sharing their own experiences and intersections, they hope to increase empathy in audiences and inspire them to have similar conversations in their own lives.
Director’s Award
1001cuts
Director - Sarah Temkin
Short Documentary
24 minutes | USA | 2023
1001cuts explores the careers of the daughters of Title IX through the experiences of surgeons. Social and cultural change in the 1970's allowed for the opportunity to train and be included into this high stakes professional environment. This film documents the pervasive stereotypes and gender-based discrimination that persist within workplaces designed for, and still controlled by men. Within medicine and surgery, the failure to apply culture change has had wide ranging impacts on the careers of women, the healthcare system, and the patient care experience.
Anne Paxton Founder's Award
Building Justice: A Journey to Finland
Directors - Tania Anderson, Impact Justice
Short Documentary
16 minutes | USA | 2024
In 2023, the nonprofit Impact Justice led a diverse group of Americans on a journey to Finland to understand how Nordic countries have reduced their reliance on incarceration by relying on housing and social supports, and maintaining prisons that look very different from those in the United States. Often known as the "Nordic Model," these countries have created prison environments that are designed to nurture people’s growth and return home, rather than to punish and exclude them from society. As California begins to implement aspects of the Nordic Model in prisons like San Quentin, "Building Justice: A Journey to Finland" asks the question: What is possible here in the United States?
Listen and learn more about films at the
2025 Social Justice Film Festival!
RADICAL FILMS is the Social Justice Film Institute podcast featuring alumni and friends of the Social Justice Film Festival discussing all things related to social justice storytelling. The Social Justice Film podcast was created to explore and share stories about the intersection of social justice and film.