Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez: San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards 2008

The coming of age story of Shéár Avory, a 17 year old trans* aspiring social justice advocate in Los Angeles who navigates housing instability and familial dependency on their journey to adulthood. Shéár depends closely on their mother for continued access to their medical transition, though struggling in her recovery from addiction, she is unable to always offer Shéár the support they need. An observational piece, the film aims to ask, what does coming into adulthood actually look like, for a young Black trans* femme in today’s America?

A documentary about Captain Dale Black, a pilot who died in a famous airplane crash in Burbank, California which was covered by the LA Times. After coming back to life, Black shares his near death experience as the sole survivor of a non-survivable plane wreck.

The ocean is the origin of creation. We simply wouldn't be here without it. In this poetic short film, we explore our relationship with it, allowing the ocean to speak to us, while wondering how we can best respond to the questions it makes us ponder. Will we ever be able to change our destructive behavior towards its environment? Perhaps we can only do so by understanding our relationship with it and remembering the deep connection we seem to have forgotten about.

On June 21 2007, the Howard Federal Government launched an intervention into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. It was one of the most dramatic policy shifts in the history of Aboriginal affairs. Relentless media attention focuses on ideological arguments for and against the Intervention, while the voices of those affected by the policy are rarely heard. For this film more than 40 Alice Springs town camp residents were interviewed in depth over the course of eight months to find out the answer to the question - is it working?

In 1976, a young punk lands in Natashquan. It’s the beginning of an unlikely love story between a small fishing community and this new arrival. Yet the relationship meets a brutal end when, three years later, the punk disappears without a trace. Forty years have now gone by, and the village of Natashquan is experiencing a slow, irreversible devitalization—one by one, villagers have been going missing. Those who tell the tale of the punk today see it as the story of a small community’s symbolic survival.

To the WWE Universe, Shawn Michaels made every match he competed in feel like a main event. No matter the time or the place, when The Showstopper stepped inside the ring, he delivered a performance unlike any other. Now for the first time ever, WWE Home Video dives deep into the archives to bring the WWE Universe never-before-released matches spanning the entire career of “The Heartbreak Kid.”

Druid Heights is a short documentary film by Marcy Mendelson about a wild & wooly place. California’s hidden bohemia. Where sex, drugs and philosophy thrived among the eucalyptus just a few miles north of the Golden Gate.

How does love fill your life? What is your perspective on love? (not)betrayed by love recognizes that there are several truths about love Is your love fragile, full of loneliness or full of life?

As dawn breaks over Taipei, a whole world comes to life around the Luzhou temple night market, only to be dismantled by sunrise. In COME HUNGRY, Oscar-winner Carol Dysinger creates a city symphony out of the rhythms, sounds, colors, and flavors of this ephemeral community that revolves around Taiwanese food, traditions, and identity.

Filmed entirely inside the world of virtual reality (VR), this immersive and revealing documentary roots itself in several unique communities within VR Chat, a burgeoning virtual reality platform. Through observational scenes captured in real-time, in true documentary style, the film reveals the growing power and intimacy of several relationships formed in the virtual world, many of which began during the COVID-19 lockdown, while so many in the physical world were facing intense isolation.

The Numbers Start with the River is a 1971 American short documentary film about small-town life in Iowa. Produced by Donald Wrye for the United States Information Agency, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.