The Fourth Annual Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival (MCHRFF) announced today 26 films spanning six categories that have been nominated for its annual awards including Full Length Documentary, Full Length Feature, Short Documentary, Short Feature, Student Film category, and the all-new Chromatic Black category, named for this year’s presenting sponsor, production company Chromatic Black. Scheduled for September 20-24, 2022in-person on the Morehouse campus and virtually Sept. 20-30, the nominated films provoke discussions about immigration, race, gender identity, politics, health care, and law enforcement, along with many other human rights and social justice topics. Badges are now on sale at a 50 percent discount.
“This year, more than ever, we want to uplift and support human rights storytelling that brings awareness to local, national, and international human experiences,” said Kara Walker, executive director of the MCHRFF. “The Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival reviewed over 200 film submissions and selected 115 films to showcase. The 26 nominated films represent an incredible set of established and budding filmmakers from around the world.”
The following is a list of the 2022 MCHRFF nominated films and their respective categories:
Full Length Documentary
Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard
Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard tells the story of Tamara Lanier, an African American woman determined to force Harvard University to cede ownership of daguerreotypes of her great-great-great grandfather, an enslaved man named Renty. The images are emblematic of the inhumanity of slavery, the racist science that supported it, and the white supremacy that continues to infect our society today. The film focuses on Lanier, following her lawsuit and the growing activism around it, and features Attorney Benjamin Crump and author Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting
Imagining the Indian is a comprehensive examination of the movement to eradicate the words, images, and gestures that many Native Americans and their allies find demeaning and offensive. The film takes a deep dive into the issues through archival footage and interviews with those involved in the fight. The psychological research is clear, the use of Native American mascots is detrimental, not only to Native people, but to marginalized groups everywhere.
Let The Little Light Shine
A high-achieving elementary school just south of downtown Chicago is a lifeline for Black children—until gentrification threatens its closure.
Swimming Against The Current
As most of us dread the idea of getting "older" the seniors of the "Harlem Honeys and Bears" Synchronize Swim Team inspire us to live our best lives regardless of age.
Full Length Feature
THE HORIZON
In Paris’ northern distant suburbs, where asphalt and fields embrace each other, Adja, 18, burns with the desire to live intensely. While her brother is a rising football star, her best friend a shining influencer on social media and her mother is fighting to save her hometown in Senegal, Adja faces a blurry future. With Arthur, who will become more than a friend, her political and environmental awareness will raise, and she will join the struggle of her generation.
Vaillante
The painful past of a child marriage activist intertwines with the uncertain future of a soon-to-be child bride as they both attempt to fight against child marriage. In partnership with UNICEF.
You Resemble Me
Cultural and intergenerational trauma erupt in this story about two sisters on the outskirts of Paris. After the siblings are torn apart, the eldest, Hasna, struggles to find her identity, leading to a choice that shocks the world. Director Dina Amer takes on one of the darkest issues of our time and deconstructs it in an intimate story about family, love, sisterhood, and belonging.
Short Documentary
A Better Place
A Better Place is an in depth look at the toxic legacy of British colonial-era laws, which criminalize consensual same-sex love, while at the same time allowing perpetrators of sexual violence to go unpunished.
Mom's Love
This film captures the journey of five women who have either struggled with conception and/or have suffered from miscarriages. As they speak about their childhood and motherhood aspirations, they begin to share the stories of their miscarriage, healing, partners/family who helped them through it and the grace they've given their body.
Surviving Clotilda
Surviving Clotilda is the extraordinary story of the last slave ship ever to reach America's shores: the brash captain who built and sailed her, the wealthy white businessman whose bet set the cruel plan in motion, and the 110 men, women, and children whose resilience turned horror into hope.
The Defenders
Few in number and with limited resources, lawyers representing African Americans in Mississippi lost more than they won during the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. However, with the country's conscience pricked by violent images, hundreds of lawyers became inspired to work in the state and transformed its legal infrastructure.
Unwavering: The Power of Black Innovation
Unwavering explores chronic underfunding of Black-led organizations, all the while celebrating the optimism and perseverance of Black innovators from across the country.
Short Feature
Intended Parents
Intended Parents is a short film about a Black millennial couple, seeking to expand their family through surrogacy. The film explores the intersections of love, gender, surrogacy, acceptance, and desperation; a powerful couple aims to deflate multiple negative stigmas as they prepare for the life-alternating roller coaster of fertility and surrogacy.
Invisible Borders
Two refugee brothers are hoping to reunite in Berlin after being separated crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Europe.
Perception
A beautiful and uplifting story about generational racism in America, Perception follows the life of a single mother Anna Curtis, and her young daughter Jessica Curtis as they transition from a world filled with oppression and prejudice to one overflowed with cultural diversity.
Silent Partner
Silas Jones is an accomplished, Black trial attorney on the cusp of making partner at a white-shoe law firm. Upon successfully defending a white woman charged with murdering a Black teen, Silas comes to a crossroads with his wife Kosi, an equally accomplished professor, as they prepare to attend the firm’s celebration. As the night progresses, Silas questions the legitimacy of his promotion. Will he make the ultimate sacrifice?
xxVISIBLE
Covering one year of the 2020 pandemic, a successful young Asian American struggle to navigate life during the lockdown.
Student Film
Love IRL (In Real Life)
A 21-year-old filmmaker tries to understand her mother's views on dating by exploring the history of dating for the women in her family.
Man Down
After the racially charged shooting of an unarmed teenager, an officer of color must decide whether to stand on the side of the law or seek justice for his community.
Sell the Girl
Down on her luck during the 2008 recession, portrait artist Lorena answers an ad searching for a young female painter. When wealthy Madam presents an opportunity to livestream her life in exchange for a fruitful career, Lorena takes the bait and finds that the ever-present viewers have their own demands.
Solo
Solo is a short narrative film that details the highs and lows of a past relationship through a retrospective narration and detailed imagery.
Suga Brown
In a world where free health care requires genetic alterations, a pregnant woman, Eden, must go to extreme lengths to ensure her child is born free of mandated modification.
Through Fire
The story follows the struggle of the main character Chris who is battling a weed addiction and aspiring to become a photographer. After getting a call from his mom about failing school and quitting photography, Chris procrastinates from doing his work and takes a walk. Who Chris meets on this walk will lead to a spark igniting his passions and achieving the unimaginable.
Chromatic Black Award
Indigo Child
A fourteen-year-old girl realizes she has special powers and is in denial with her own power.
Intended Parents
Intended Parents is a short film about a Black millennial couple, seeking to expand their family through surrogacy. The film explores the intersections of love, gender, surrogacy, acceptance, and desperation; a powerful couple aims to deflate multiple negative stigmas as they prepare for the life-alternating roller coaster of fertility and surrogacy.
Let The Little Light Shine
A high-achieving elementary school just south of downtown Chicago is a lifeline for Black children—until gentrification threatens its closure.
Silent Partner
Silas Jones is an accomplished, Black trial attorney on the cusp of making partner at a white-shoe law firm. Upon successfully defending a white woman charged with murdering a Black teen, Silas comes to a crossroads with his wife Kosi, an equally accomplished professor, as they prepare to attend the firm’s celebration. As the night progresses, Silas questions the legitimacy of his promotion. Will he make the ultimate sacrifice?
Solo
Solo is a short narrative film that details the highs and lows of a past relationship through a retrospective narration and detailed imagery.
Suga Brown
In a world where free health care requires genetic alterations, a pregnant woman, Eden, must go to extreme lengths to ensure her child is born free of mandated modification.
The Fourth
Eager to celebrate the 4th of July, a group of young Black and Latino friends experience a police encounter that shatters the meaning of the holiday. Based on real-life incidents, the story examines the trauma of being in the shoes of the young men stopped.
The Unwritten Rule
The Unwritten Rule is a film about a Black teacher who fatally stops a white school shooter only to be charged by the state of Missouri for manslaughter.
Through Fire
The story follows the struggle of the main character Chris who is battling a weed addiction and aspiring to become a photographer. After getting a call from his mom about failing school and quitting photography, Chris procrastinates from doing his work and takes a walk. Who Chris meets on this walk will lead to a spark igniting his passions and achieving the unimaginable.
Unwavering: The Power of Black Innovation
Unwavering explores chronic underfunding of Black-led organizations, all the while celebrating the optimism and perseverance of Black innovators from across the country.
For more information about the Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival, visit morehousehumanrightsfilmfestival.com
UPDATE: THE HORIZON will no longer be a part of the 2022 programming for the Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival.
