Virginia Film Festival

Azadi:
2019. USA, Greece. 25 min. Director: Scott Lunt, Hanna Stawicki Featuring: Sakina Hashemi, Farahnaz Ahmadi, Nour Omran, Priyali Sur

Azadi follows a group of young refugee women building a new life in Athens, Greece, as they learn to tell their own stories for the first time through short films and shift from survival to dreaming of a hopeful future.

Échappé:
2018. USA. 12 min. Director: Allison Mattox Featuring: Olesya Senchenko, Pavel Shatu, Nikolai Tsankov, Abigail Simon, Martin Harvey

In 1970, a preeminent Soviet ballet company tours the West to showcase their elite dancers. During a performance of “Sleeping Beauty,” a rising ballerina begins to suspect that her brother is planning to defect.

Esta Es Tu Cuba:
2018. USA, Puerto Rico. 20 min. Director: Brian Robau

Inspired by the real-life stories of the children involved in Operation Pedro Pan, the mass exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied minors from Cuba to America, this short follows Anton, a young boy living in Cuba during the 1960s, when his life begins to spiral out of control as he realizes his beloved country is changing.

The View from Up Here:
2017. USA, France. 17 min. Director: Marco Calvani Featuring: Melissa Leo, Leila Bekthi

Claire (Melissa Leo) and Lila (Leila Bekhti) are neighbors. They both live in the same building, they see each other every day but they hardly know each other’s names. Until today, when Claire decides to pay a visit to Lila and to ask for something that will definitely put at risk the cohabitation.

Lost & Found:
2019. USA. 22 min. Director: Orlando Von Einsiedel

Separating thousands of families from their loved ones, a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing and violence perpetrated by the Myanmar military has driven more than 700,000 Rohingya from their homes. An inspiring story of humanity and heroism in the world’s largest refugee camp, this short follows Kamal Hussein, a Rohingya refugee who has dedicated his life to reuniting children with their parents.