Films

Biotech breakthroughs edge ever closer to making extended human lifespans a reality. This enlightening documentary surveys this thriving landscape while examining the quality of a long life through the poignant stories of a tight-knit group of Maine residents.

A French doctor who treats Alzheimer’s patients and a Japanese theater director form a bond that is intellectual, creative, and spiritual in Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s humorous, painful, and constantly surprising drama.

A family faces an impossible question when love and responsibility collide, as three generations of women navigate aging, desire, independence, and the unexpected ways we care for one another.

"If music could talk, which means whatever your mind can bring.” This collection of documentary short films invite a sense of curiosity and quest, seeking to grasp human thought, motive, and expression. In Nita Blum and Jonathan Pickett’s A NEW INFERNO (US 2026, 16 min), paramedics race to save the lives of heatstroke victims using a radical new treatment. With an experimental sensibility, Karla Condado’s MIRIAM (Mexico 2025, 19 min) copes with grief as the filmmaker reads personal letters to her aunt who was a victim of femicide. Along the picturesque coastline of Brittany, France, bright orange novelty Garfield phones wash ashore in Zack Grant’s eccentric SILLY LITTLE PLASTIC CAT (France/US 2026 12 min). In SWING SWISH SWAY (US 2026, 7 min), TT Takemoto's colorful and tangible reconstruction of history is inspired by Filipina-American Rose Bamberger, founder of Daughters of Bilitis, San Francisco’s own first lesbian activist group. Free-spirited and expressive, Charlie Eguia’s HAPPINESS FOR A HERDER (US/Mongolia 2026, 16 min) follows a group of nomadic herder families in Mongolia. —Diana Sánchez Maciel

“But go easy Step lightly Stay free.” As we grow older, we tend to abandon all inherent free spirit and audacity. This collection of short documentary films brings those feelings flooding back, allowing us to live vicariously through these bold, intrepid, and resilient characters. In THE RIGHT FIT (US 2025, 12 min), Max Mollring and Nicolas Collins introduce the owner of a one-of-a-kind small business in San Rafael. Intimate and observational, Hao Zhou's AT THE STAGE WHEN (China 2026, 15 min) follows a young urban couple experiencing societal pressure around parenthood. Composed of black-and-white 35mm photographs, A TOWN CALLED NEEDVILLE (US/Canada 2026, 5 min) traces filmmaker Audrey Lane's inpatient stay at an all-women’s mental health facility in Texas. A collaboration between Ukrainian painter Alla Hurenko and directors Natalie Shirinian and Elizabeth Baudouin, ROOM OF THE ABSOLUTE (US, Ukraine 2026, 18 min) is a time capsule and portrait of resilience in the face of relentless destruction in Ukraine. It is 1980 in Yuba City, California, in Reaa Puri’s HARVEST PARTY AT CAMP TWO (US 2026, 16 min), and a group of Young Punjabi Sikh farmworkers throw the biggest party their small town has ever seen. —Diana Sánchez Maciel

Leah Nelson’s beautifully animated film, based on Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir, stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, and Bryan Cranston as a family struggling to support each other through a mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s.

Legendary auteur Mike Leigh turns his trademark humanist lens on the lives of best friends Rosie and Amy, social workers dealing with demanding clients and Amy’s aging parents. It’s a precarious work-life balance…but nothing a glass of wine can’t fix.

A French doctor who treats Alzheimer’s patients and a Japanese theater director form a bond that is intellectual, creative, and spiritual in Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s humorous, painful, and constantly surprising drama.

Free-spirited and expressive, Charlie Eguia’s Happiness for a Herder follows a group of nomadic herder families in Mongolia.

In The Right Fit, Max Mollring and Nicolas Collins introduce the owner of a one-of-a-kind small business in San Rafael.