Virginia Film Festival

Heritage, performance, history, and competition are at the forefront of these documentary essays, giving us a unique window into the lives, struggles, and dreams of a diverse set of character studies.

A House Without Snakes

2016. Botswana/USA. 29 min. Director: Daniel Koehler.

In Botswana, two young Bushmen struggle to build their futures in the wake of their people’s relocation from their ancestral homeland. Ketelelo looks to education as a way to reinvent himself and provide for his family. Meanwhile, Kitsiso wonders whether he should stay in his ancestral homeland to honor his father or seek a new life in town.

I Am Yup’ik

2016. USA. 16 min. Directors: Daniele Anastasion, Nathan Golon.

A 16-year-old Yup’ik Eskimo leaves his tiny village and travels across hundreds of miles of frozen tundra to compete in a basketball tournament and bring pride to his community.

Nia and Cheryl

2016. China/USA. 14 min. Director: Weichao Xu.

Ballet culture is unexpectedly inherited in an African-American family. It brings dreams to the mother and daughter, and also lets them suffer great hardships in their own lives.

The Reconnection

2016. Nigeria/USA. 15 min. Director: Chuck Anakwenze.

This documentary, shot almost entirely at the Frontier Culture Museum of Staunton, VA, reintroduces Americans to the key contributions that the Igbo tribe of West Africa made in colonial Virginia.

Soy Cubana

2016. Cuba. 17 min. Directors: Jeremy Ungar, Ivaylo Getov. Featuring: Koset Muñoa Columbié, Ana Hernández Rosillo, Maryoris Mena Faez, Annia Del Toro Leyva.

The Vocal Vidas are a female a cappella quartet from Santiago de Cuba—the cradle of Afro-Cuban music. This documentary offers a unique window into these four women’s lives and artistic process in a communist country.