Inside The Beauty Bubble

Directors- Cheryl Bookout & Cheri Gaulke Producers- Cheryl Bookout & Cheri Gaulke

Inside the Beauty Bubble follows "America’s hairstorian" Jeff Hafler as he struggles to keep his Beauty Bubble Salon & Museum in Joshua Tree afloat during a challenging yet remarkable year that changes his life and the lives of his husband and son. The roadside attraction is the magical and kitsch-filled brainchild of the eccentric stylist and renowned collector of 3,000 vintage beauty artifacts. The film follows Jeff as he and his Beauty Bubble Salon & Museum face a year of lockdowns, protests and massive societal change. It is a film about family, fabulousness and folk art, which reminds us that sometimes it is the strong people on the margins that hold a community together.

Game on

Director- Theresa Loong

“My life, in many ways, is a game space. Game dev - I guess any life - there's stress. And sometimes it's incredibly creative, but a lot of times, especially if you're doing it right, you don't necessarily know how it's going to turn out.” - Brenda Romero, “Game On”

A female game designer with over 50 game titles to her credit, Brenda Romero succeeds in the overwhelmingly male-dominated game industry. Her journey mirrors that of an epic video game: from a childhood in upstate New York to a career in Savannah, Santa Cruz, and Galway, Ireland. Brenda’s quests took her through the help desk for Wizardry on the Apple II computer to designing multiplayer console and social media games; from creating Playboy: the Mansion to devising The New World, a board game about the human suffering and cost of the Middle Passage.

The Spirit Of Japan

Director- Joseph Overbey

The Spirit of Japan is the story of the Wakamatsu family, who have been making the traditional Japanese distilled spirit, shochu, at their Yamatozakura Distillery in Kagoshima Prefecture since the 1850s. We follow 5th generation toji (master brewer/distiller) Tekkan Wakamatsu (41) as he takes the traditions passed down by his father Kazunari Wakamatsu (77) and strives to adapt to a changing world. The film follows Tekkan, while he balances the rigors of making handmade shochu, running the family business, and maintaining a healthy family life.
 
In a world of mass consumerism and commodification, the Wakamatsu family have maintained the 500 year old tradition of brewing and distilling sweet potato shochu by hand. Director Joseph Overbey and Producer Stephen Lyman lived with the family and began the project of documenting their craft in 2016. The Spirit of Japan offers a rarified and intimate cinematic portrait of shochu making and home life in a modern, rural Japan.

Tiny Movements

Director- Laura Sweeney

Tiny Movements is a short documentary about Jen Wilenta, a professional modern dancer, mother of two who discovered video recordings of her husband raping her after drugging her with high doses of Ambien. The video's time stamps reflect that the abuse had been going on for over four years. She and her children escaped and filed an order of protection. Once in a safe space, she danced in her kitchen, filmed it and posted it to Social Media. She would write comments about how her body felt, fears, favorite outfits, shattered memories, any thoughts that came to mind. It became her daily meditation, a reflection and her own self-created way to heal from abuse. The project on Social Media was called “Tiny Kitchen Dances” and she danced, filmed and posted every day for three years, little by little healing and breaking isolation. This documentary is the telling of the story of her creation of Tiny Kitchen Dances project, her healing and ongoing legal battle to protect herself and her children, the journey to put her abuser in jail all while moving forward to rebuild and thrive in her life.

Acting Like Women

Director- Cheri Gaulke Producers- Cheryl Bookout, Meg Linton

In 1975, the filmmaker—a minister’s daughter—escapes her restrictive Midwestern life to join the radical community of women artists at the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles. Acting Like Women uncovers a hidden chapter in feminist art history, spotlighting the women artists of the 1970s-80s who used performance art to challenge societal norms and envision a more equitable world. Rooted in the pioneering work of the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles—the first public center dedicated to women’s culture—this documentary contextualizes their groundbreaking art for today’s audiences, especially those grappling with the erosion of rights these feminists fought to secure.

The Right to Food

Producer: Graham Meriwether

America’s founders singled out many fundamental rights: freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, free speech and the right to bear arms. It didn’t occur to them to enshrine the right to food, in part, because it was such a fundamental right, they could not have imagined a future where people would be barred from raising chickens in the backyard, or growing food in raised beds in front of their housing complex.

As America’s food regulations have been captured by monolithic multinationals, a growing subset of Americans from all backgrounds and political ideologies have come together to fight for the ability of citizens to regain control of what they put into their bodies. This documentary is the story of a movement of Americans ready to reclaim the right to food.

75 Park

Executive Producer- Graham Meriwether Director: Everette Hamlette

As Everette returns home from college he finds his childhood park caged up, locked up with chain link fencing. Curious as to why, he begins to unravel and discover the history of his neighborhood, which sets him on a path of enlightenment, and leaves him with a hunger for justice.