Who Will Start Another Fire

Opens on June 11

Director: Various Run Time: 130 min. Rating: NR

Presented in our Virtual Screening Room

An international short film omnibus featuring the works of nine emerging filmmakers from underrepresented communities around the world. Each of these stories is personal and distinctly told, but unified by themes of rebirth and growth, answering Malawian poet Jack Mapanje’s question in Before Chilembwe Tree, “who will start another fire?”

This collaborative release is in partnership with Kino Lorber, Dedza Films, and arthouse cinemas across the country.

The Program

Like Flying

Director Peier Tracy Shen

A young Chinese-American girl navigates her childhood through her parents’ broken relationship.

Country: United States
Language: Mandarin & English
Runtime: 15 min

Official Selection of Nashville, Palm Springs International Shortfest, Cinequest

Family Tree

Director Nicole Amani Magabo Kiggundu

It’s 1998. Jinja, Uganda. An 8-year-old schoolgirl finds out she has other siblings at her father’s deathbed.

Country: Uganda
Language: Luganda & English
Runtime: 17 min

Official Selection of Pan-African, Ngalabi International Shorts, Reel Sisters of the Diaspora, Capitol Hill

Troublemaker

Director Olive Nwosu

On a hot day in Eastern Nigeria, a young boy learns the hard way that actions have consequences.

Country: Nigeria
Language: Igbo
Runtime: 11 min

Winner of Best Student Film Award at Discover Film Festival 2019, Best Director at Queens World Film Festival 2020; Nominated for Best Short Award at Raindance 2020, Africa in Motion Film Festival 2020

Polygraph

Director Samira Saraya

Yasmine, an openly lesbian Arab nurse, finds out that her lover Or, an intelligence officer in the Israeli army, has been reporting on their relationship. Yasmine’s sister arrives for a visit from the West Bank, not knowing that she is going to meet the occupying enemy at her own sister’s house.

Country: Israel
Language: Arabic & Hebrew
Runtime: 20 min

Winner of Honorable Mention at Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival 2020; Official Selection of Queer Screen, Rose Filmdagen, Wicked Queer: Boston’s LGBT Film Festival, Kashish Mumbai International Queer, MIX Milano

The Lights Are On, No One’s Home

Director Faye Ruiz

A trans woman in search of her childhood home and family after running away several years prior is confronted with the gentrification of her neighborhood. With all her old paths home gone, she wanders the streets falling in and out of memories of her family, her early transition and a drug habit she can’t seem to shake.

Country: United States
Language: English
Runtime: 10 min

Official Selection of BFI Flare, Outfest Fusion, Long Distance

By Way of Canarsie

Directors Emily Packer & Lesley Steele

After years of neglect by the City of New York and the devastation of Hurricane Sandy – the coastal community of Canarsie, Brooklyn wants more.

Country: United States
Language: English
Runtime: 14 min

Official Selection of DOC NYC, BlackStar, Twin Cities Black, Better Cities, Prismatic Ground, Third Horizon

The Rose of Manila

Director Alex Westfall

An imagining of the formative years of Imelda Marcos, who, as one half of the Marcos regime, would become infamous for embezzling billions from the country to sustain her extravagant lifestyle. Here, the fate of a young girl and an entire nation become entangled as the absent mother of a country is born.

Country: Philippines
Language: Tagalog & English
Runtime: 12 min

Official Selection of San Diego Asian, National Film Festival for Talented Youth, BFI Future, Ivy, CineYouth – Chicago International, 2021 Athens International Film and Video

Slip

Director Nicole Otero

Probes the interior life of a woman on just one night—any night, but also across time as it bends around her. It’s mundane and also not. It’s interested in body and perception.

Country: United States
Runtime: 11 min

Official Selection of Indie Memphis Film Festival 2019

Not Black Enough

Director Jermaine Manigault

A young African-American man struggling to find his identity within his community meets a persuasive relic of the past.

Country: United States
Language: English
Runtime: 19 min

Official Selection of Flatpack, L.A. Shorts International, Aesthetica Short, Hollyshorts, Tallinn Black Nights, Emerging Lens Cultural