First Sight: Award-winning shorts from the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism

With Wyatt Wu, Bella Graves, Laura Harris, and Beatriz Costa Lima in person

Jury award–winning student films from the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism, originally presented at the second annual Stronger Than Fiction Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri. Jurors: RaMell Ross, Lana Wilson, Eric Hynes. New York premieres.

Ulisses. Dir. Beatriz Costa Lima. 2018, 22 mins. The small beach town of Majorlandia is a place where time passes slowly and adventure comes quietly. Ulisses is a poetic observational documentary that follows the lives of a community of “jangadeiros” — fishermen typical to the dune-lined northeastern coast of Brazil. Although their numbers are dwindling, some jangadeiros continue to live off the ocean. The sights and sounds of their lives show more than a century’s worth of history woven into every sail.

The Sit Down. Dir. Laura Harris. 2018, 12 mins. This intimate nonfiction examination of mental health captures a reveal that leaves a young woman wondering where she stands with her family. Conversations with her mother and father turn confrontational as her biggest secret is revealed. Supported by loved ones, this family works out real problems in real time. The pain she carries becomes the family’s pain as they try to face the unknown future together.

Roxana. Dir. Bella Graves. 2018,. 21 mins. The film follows a young mother’s visit to the juvenile detention center where she was once incarcerated, returning this time as a trained somatic therapist. Through an intimate look into the lives of incarcerated youth, Roxana shows us the consequences of childhood trauma.