ARIA: Opera On the Edge

directed by Karen Day
( United States / 2025 / 1 hour 30 mins )

Diversity and opera rarely appear in the same sentence. Dull, stuffy, and inaccessible are the adjectives most often applied to this 300-year-old singing spectacle usually performed in Italian, French, or German. Today, an unlikely group of four young artists is breaking barriers on world stages to create a place for themselves and cultural relevancy in the obscure and mysterious art of opera. Special guest, Priti Gandhi, recent Associate Director of the Laffont Competition at the Metropolitan Opera, will join director, Karen Day, immediately following the screening for a Q&A session.

Thursday, February 12 · 8:00 pm – 10:30 pm, The Avalon Theatre (TICKETS)

About the Director

Karen Day has written, produced and directed 11 documentary films and hosted and produced more than 50 features for national television. Her exclusive news segments from Iraq, Afghanistan and Myanmar have appeared on NBC NIGHTLY NEWS, BBC, CNN and LINK TV.

Child of Dust

directed by Weronika Mliczewska
( Poland / 2025 / 1 hour 30 mins )

Sang is one of hundreds of thousands unwanted and discriminated children left behind by the American soldiers after the Vietnam War. When his lifelong dream of finding his father comes true, Sang’s only mission is to race against time to meet his ailing dad and break the cycle of war trauma that has plagued generations. After a long and challenging journey, Sang can finally go to the USA, but without his wife, daughter, and beloved grandson. Reuniting with his father is a healing experience for both, but far from easy. Even though 50 years have passed since the last American soldier left Vietnam, many wounds remain open.

Saturday, February 14 · 5:45 pm – 8:15 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)
Sunday, February 15 · 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

Weronika Mliczewska is a director and producer with a background in anthropology. She has worked on projects for CNN, France2, Deutsche Welle, SVT, and Polish Television. Her film “”Child of Dust”” is her feature-length debut and has been selected for Dok.incubator and participated in markets like DOK Leipzig, EFM, EDP, CEDOC Market. In her work she is exploring identity, minorities and cultural encounters. She is also a published author and a frequent public speaker.

DARA (A Port Harcourt Love Story?)

directed by Kingsley Bobby Okey-Ejiowhor
( Nigeria / 2025 / 1 hour 59 mins )

TikTok sensation Dara gains admission into school but campus life is nothing like what he expected. Trapped in a web of toxic love, cultism, and campus violence, his only escape? Dance. His only strength? Passion. But one dangerous moment threatens everything. His freedom, his girl, even his life…

Sunday, February 15 · 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

Kingsley Bobby Okey-Ejiowhor, known professionally as Bobby Rak, is a Nigerian filmmaker, director, cinematographer, editor, and fight choreographer. Born and raised in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and now based in Abuja, Bobby Rak is a versatile storyteller whose work spans action, drama, documentaries, short films, and music videos. With a growing body of work that balances artistry, technical skill, and cultural authenticity, Bobby Rak continues to craft stories that resonate with audiences in Nigeria and beyond.

Easy Digging

directed by Marissa Macy
( United States / 2024 / 1 hour 39 mins )

A documentary crew follows Ed Brown, a middle-aged building inspector, as he returns to his childhood dream of digging a hole to China. When Ed’s plans go viral and a billionaire investor gets involved, the whole world tunes in. Ed must face why he’s digging this hole, the loss of a childhood friend, his strained relationship with his father, and what it means to attempt the impossible.

Wednesday, February 11 · 8:30 pm – 11:00 pm, The Miracle Theatre (TICKETS)
Sunday, February 15 · 8:00 pm – 10:30 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

Marissa Macy is a children’s author, filmmaker, and improviser in Austin, TX. She has been making DIY films since 2011, including the local cult hit Bed Eater: The Movie (2017). Her directing process heavily incorporates improv, and she loves to write complex characters and absurd, high-concept ideas. Marissa also helps run We Luv Video, a non-profit video store in Austin.

Eugene O’Neill’s The First Man

directed by Hardeep Giani
( United States / 2025 / 2 hours )

This is the first-ever film adaptation of The First Man – an early and rare story from the pen of Nobel laureate and Pulitzer prize winner, Eugene O’Neill. World renowned anthropologist Curtis is consumed by grief over his young daughters’ deaths. He finds solace in immersing himself in preparations for his upcoming expedition to Asia, where he aims to unravel the mystery of “The First Man.” However, he must confront an undercurrent of family conflict as he battles against his relatives’ unsettling suspicions that his wife Martha is carrying his best friend Bigelow’s child.

Friday, February 13 · 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

Hardeep Giani is a renowned Director and Producer in Film and Television. He has worked for the BBC, Channel 4, Talkback, RDF and Silver River television companies. Having studied film directing in New York at the NYFA and Motion Picture Pro – he has also gained qualifications from NFTS, London Film School, Raindance and Dov-Simens Producers course. His Short films Rose, Mary and Time, If You Go Away and The Years of Laughter and Forgetting have won numerous awards at film festivals. His long form documentary ‘F**K It, It’s Over’ also won many awards at film festivals and he directed the TV documentary ‘Megan and Harry: A Revolutionary Romance’. His First Feature ‘Eugene O’Neill’s – The First Man’ is due for release in 2025.

Forever Free and the Illiteracy Playbook

directed by Dion Johnson
( United States / 2025 / 1 hour 36 mins )

Millions of Americans—especially in marginalized communities—struggle with basic literacy, a crisis rooted in generations of educational inequity. This documentary confronts that deliberate reality head-on, weaving archival footage, expert insights, and deeply personal stories into a powerful narrative about literacy as a gateway to civic participation, economic mobility, and personal dignity.

Saturday, February 14 · 3:15 pm – 5:45 pm, Regal Gallery Place (SOLD OUT)
Sunday, February 15 · 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

Dion Johnson, a longstanding resident of Prince George’s County, MD and Morgan State University graduate in Electrical Engineering, is an award-winning filmmaker, media entrepreneur, international speaker, photographer, and published author. After founding two successful IT businesses, Dion co-created JayMedia Group with his wife, where he established publishing processes and created the layout for the company’s first book. He has since carved out a niche in personalized magazines, web and graphic design, photography and film.

Halmeoni

directed by Lenny Maréchal
( France / 2025 / 45 mins )

As a heat wave devastates the country, a residence for elderly people finds itself cut off from the world, subjected to brutal water rationing. The director, Phil, imposes an authoritarian regime where water distribution becomes an instrument of power. Josephine, 82 years old, a former activist, refuses to submit. In secret, she rallies other residents for a sabotage operation.

Sunday, February 15 · 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

Born on January 20, 2005 in Bourges, Lenny Maréchal discovers his passion for the cinema through the writing of short films and the cinema option at the Marguerite high school in Navarre. There he realized his first collective projects and staged a musical presented at the Maison de la Culture in Bourges, confirming his taste for directing actors and visual narration. Selected twice in competition at the Festival du Film de Demain (FFD) of Vierzon, he gradually asserts a singular perspective combining formal requirement and sense of the collective. He is currently preparing a new short film more social and frenetic, while developing the film adaptation of a novel and working on several audiovisual projects. His cinema is part of an approach both committed, sensory and deeply human.

Mercy at the Gates

directed by Dan Tarrant
( United States / 2025 / 46 mins )

Can mercy make a difference in the life of an addict? Follow Nick’s harrowing journey from addiction to mercy on the streets of the world’s largest open-air drug market in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. Learn about his life on the streets and how it collides with the lives of the residents and those who serve the addicted at Mother of Mercy House. You will never see the addicted, the residents or those who serve them both the same way again after watching this Philadelphia Catholic film with universal appeal. This film is raw, honest and yet still inspiring. The goal at Mother of Mercy House: giving mercy to the neighborhood. The impact is up to the recipient. This film contains drug use. In recognition of the film’s focus on dignity, mercy, and compassion, $8 from each ticket sold will be donated to Samaritan Inns, a Washington, DC–based nonprofit that has provided holistic, faith-based addiction treatment and recovery services for nearly 40 years. We are proud to support Samaritan Inns and its vital work in our community.

Saturday, February 14 · 12:30 pm – 2:15 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

The Immigrant’s Wife

directed by Jon Lutz
( United States / 2025 / 52 mins )

1959. Pyotr admires the intelligent, creative television personalities on his favorite science fiction shows. He’s got a few ideas of his own, so why not him, too? Well, for starters, his recently acquired mail-order-bride may have some unexpected opinions of her own!

Friday, February 13 · 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

Jonathan Lutz lives in Washington DC with his amazing family of 4. His favorite movie is a tie between “Floating Clouds” by Mikio Naruse and “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” by Charles M. Schulz.

The Magic Lantern

directed by Eli Brown
( United States / 2025 / 1 hour 16 mins )

Marijke Brown receives a mysterious letter revealing details about her rescue as an infant by the Dutch Underground. The letter sparks a 30-year odyssey for her and her son, a filmmaker, as they connect to family lost in the Holocaust—and each other.

Thursday, February 12 · 5:30 pm – 7:45 pm, The Avalon Theatre (TICKETS)
Saturday, February 14 · 6:30 pm – 8:45 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood (and the Making of Pink Narcissus)

directed by Bart Everly
( United States / 2025 / 1 hour 37 mins )

Velvet Vision is the story of photographer/director James Bidgood whose 1960’s beefcake photographs were unlike any others. Depicting elaborate fantasy scenarios drenched in lush color they transcended the genre. His film Pink Narcissus was initially credited to ‘Anonymous’ on its 1971 release date shrouding it in mystery. Falsely attributed to Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol, among others, it wasn’t until almost twenty years later that it was revealed to be Jim’s work.

The following film contains mature content and is not recommended for audiences 17 and under.

Saturday, February 14 · 8:15 pm – 10:45 pm, Regal Gallery Place (TICKETS)

About the Director

Bart Everly is an award-winning American filmmaker and photographer. His films and photographs – documenting art and culture, society, and politics – have been screened and exhibited internationally.

Contact Tracing

directed by Amy Tofte
( United States / 2025 / 90 mins )

Inspired by the true story of a public health nurse assigned to track covid-positive cases for the CDC during the early days of the pandemic. Just as the task becomes overwhelming, she encounters a conspiracy theorist and—in saving her—finds a purpose and a friend. At times serious, at times absurd, Contact Tracing paints a picture of a historical moment and the invisible labor of women of all ages and all backgrounds who got us through it.

Saturday, February 14 · 1:00 pm – 3:15 pm, Regal Gallery (TICKETS)

About the Director

Amy Tofte (writer/director) was awarded a Nicholl Fellowship in screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She co-directed/co-wrote the short film Other Side which was awarded Best Independent Short at the 2016 IFS Film Festival in Los Angeles and has completed several additional short films as a producer including 2019’s award-winning IMPASSE. Her feature film, the zombie- apocalypse love story Better Off Zed (screenplay), was released in 2018. She is currently developing several projects for independent producers. She also an award-
winning playwright with plays produced around the country and internationally.