Schedule Of Events

April 3, 2025

Programmed by cinéSPEAK 

5 - 6:30 p.m. Opening Night Gathering with music, food, drinks, organizational partners In Dino Hall

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Film Program: Screening followed by Q & A

Two Philadelphia Premieres: a short film and a documentary feature

Soft In the Shell, (2024, 4min) an experimental short, by dir. Ingrid Raphael

The film is a meditation on forgiveness, shedding, and letting go through the poetics of scorpions, water, song, flora, and nature.

Holding Back The Tide, (2023, 77min) a documentary feature film by dir. Emily Packer

Through interviews, recited poetry, and quirky interstitials, this engaging documentary charts the unlikely presence of oysters in NYC, the myriad waterways surrounding the city, the scourge of pollution, and triumphant revitalization efforts. Poetic filming of familiar city scenes combine with fascinating archival photos for a watery love letter to the city. Lovingly crafted and scored with flair, the film both embraces humor and nods to the gender-fluid nature of oysters. - Karen McMullen

Q&A with Ingrid Raphaël, director of Soft in the Shell and Emily Packer, director of Holding Back the Tide, moderated by Vernon Jordan III, filmmaker, poet and curator at-large, cinéSPEAK.

April 10, 2025

Programmed by BlackStar Projects

5 - 6:30 p.m. Pre-screening gathering with organizational partners In Dino Hall 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Film Program: Screening followed by Q & A

Family Tree, (2024, 97min) a documentary film by dir. Jennifer MacArthur

Family Tree explores sustainable forestry in North Carolina through the stories of two Black families fighting to preserve their land and legacy. Family Tree’s cinéma vérité approach reveals the vast task of maintaining the land while navigating challenging family dynamics, unscrupulous developers and changing environmental needs. The forest itself and the beauty of its changing seasons become a primary character in this family drama.

Q&A with Nikki Jefferies, a subject in the film Family Tree, moderated by Sydney Alicia Rodriguez, BlackStar Program Manager.

April 17, 2025

Programmed by PAAFF (the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival)

5 - 6:30 p.m. Pre-screening gathering with organizational partners In Dino Hall 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Film Program: Screening followed by Q & A

Afterearth, (2017, 14min), short film by dir. Jess X. Snow

Hailing from Hawai’i, the Philippines, China and North America, four women give offerings of song, poetry and gardening to preserve the volcano, ocean, land and air for future generations. They draw their understandings of motherhood through connections with their homeland environment.

Heaven Rain Flows Sweetly, (2023, 68 min), a documentary film by dir. Shasha Li

After wildfires force her to leave her home in Oregon, a young filmmaker reconnects with the rituals and the landscapes of her maternal tribe in Himalayan China. In a poetic and contemplative revisiting of her family and her ancestors’ history, director Shasha Li reflects on their animistic traditions while visiting her childhood hometown, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, transformed beyond recognition into a bustling tourist attraction.

Q&A with Hongwei Rose Niu, director Shasha Li's mother, who has worked in field of environmental conservation for many years, moderated by Arzhang Zafar, PAAFF's Festival & Programming Director.

April 24, 2025

Programmed by PHLAFF (the Philadelphia Latino Arts and Film Festival)

5 - 6:30 p.m. Pre-screening gathering with organizational partners In Dino Hall

6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Film Program: Screening followed by Q & A

Todavia La Semilla (and still the seed), (2023, 15min), a short film by dir. Llaima Sanfiorenzo 

Todavía la Semilla, written and directed by filmmaker Llaima Suwani, and narrated by singer and composer iLe, tells a captivating story about the importance of reforestation, with Puerto Rico's native and endemic trees as the protagonists.

A Thousand Pines, (2023, 74min), a documentary film by dirs. Noam Osband and Sebastián Diaz

A Thousand Pines shows the lives of migrants who depend on the controversial guest worker visa program, following a crew of workers from Oaxaca, Mexico over the course of a season planting trees throughout the United States. The crew struggles to balance the job’ s physical demands and its extreme isolation while remaining connected to their families back home. As the season progresses, they become a small family, cooking and caring for each other in order to endure the punishing work. The film centers on the crew foreman, Raymundo Morales, who is in his 19th season working for the largest reforestation company in the US. When he began, he was single and had few responsibilities. Now, however, he must balance his obligations to his wife, his children, and his elderly mother with a heart condition, while also tending to the needs and emergencies of the planting crew. Spending only three months at home during the off-season, Raymundo’s job is both the family’s salvation and its heartbreak.

Q&A with Noam Osband, co-director of A Thousand Pines, moderated by Kirsten Senske, PHLAFF’s Senior Programmer.

Date : April 3,10,17,24 - 2025

Time : 5:00PM - 8:30PM

Location :

The Academy Of Natural Sciences,

1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Philadelphia, PA 19103

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