Films

32°

This short documentary explores the economic impact of climate change on the Appalachian ski industry and offers insight into what the future holds for a…
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Afterward

In this incredibly personal film, director and subject Ofra Bloch, a Jerusalem-born trauma expert, forces herself to confront her demons in a journey that takes…
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Always in Season

When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina in 2014, his mother, Claudine Lacy, wants answers and is…
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American Factory

In 2014, a Chinese billionaire opened a Fuyao factory a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant in Dayton, OH, hiring…
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As in Death

In the wake of a community tragedy, Sidney Brodie begins the Durham Homicide and Memorial Quilt. Every time someone is killed in Durham, he adds…
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Astronaut Starbright

Taylor Richardson is a young girl of color who aspires to be an astronaut when she grows up. She advocates for girls of color interested…
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Bathtubs Over Broadway

When he started as a comedy writer for the Late Show with David Letterman, Steve Young had few interests outside of his day job. While…
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Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché

Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, this film is a testimony to one of the most under-recognized, yet important filmmakers. Alice Guy-Blaché was active beginning…
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Bei Bei

This high-stakes legal drama focuses on Bei Bei Shuai, a depressed, pregnant Chinese immigrant who is put on trial for the murder of her unborn…
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Blind Adventure Camp

This uplifting and experiential film tells the story of Industries for the Blind’s Adventure Camp for visually-impaired youth. Every summer, teenagers from around the U.S.…
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Buddy

In this poignant and carefully composed portrait of six guide dogs and their owners, Heddy Honigmann explores the close bond between animal and human. One…
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Calm Before...The Rising Storm

In this short film we piece together the story of Massachusetts band The Rising Storm’s unlikely rise to fame. Many years after pressing just 500…
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Campesino

Campesino celebrates the lives of the Cuban tobacco farmer as introduced to us by one American whose passion has been photographing them for over a…
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Care to Laugh

From his humble beginnings parking cars at the Comedy Store, Jesus Trejo is relentless in his pursuit of stand-up stardom. For Jesus, who drives hours…
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The Derby

Following the haves and the have-nots during Kentucky Derby weekend, The Derby explores unseen sides of Kentucky’s biggest sporting event and offers a thoughtful yet…
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Documentary Shorts 1

Films in this program of short documentary works include: The Derby Edgecombe Forced A Jew Walks into a Bar My Grandfather’s Memory Book On the…
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Documentary Shorts 2

Films in this program of short documentary works include: El Desierto Forgotten The Grey Zone Hamama and Caluna Landing on Airwaves Teeth Filmmakers in attendance…
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Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops' Story

Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Story documents the journey of three African-Americans from the hip-hop generation who found a mentor…
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Edgecombe

Crafted as a character exploration, Edgecombe renders a mosaic of the lives of three residents of Edgecombe County, a predominantly African-American agricultural community in the…
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El Desierto

Amid a formidable winter drought, a lone migrant worker struggles with his task of caring for thousands of sheep in the Great Basin desert. El…
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Extraordinary People

Extraordinary People chronicles a business that inspires its staff, families and neighborhood with the belief that meaningful jobs change lives. It explores the lives of…
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F/11 and Be There

Photographer Burk Uzzle’s singular vision and dedication led him from a small, homebuilt darkroom on his father’s porch in North Carolina into the company and…
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Feast of the Epiphany

Two halves form a harmonious whole in this ingenious documentary-narrative hybrid film. In part one, Abby, a 20-something Brooklynite, prepares to throw an intimate dinner…
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Films With Class Shorts

This collection of varied short films shows how many great films we get for young audiences. Made up of six short films, this program takes…
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Fine Lines

For nearly three years, director Dina Khreino interviewed world-class mountain climbing athletes, listening to what compels them to leave behind families, friends, and everyday comforts…
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Five Minutes

Baptiste Touissant’s dreams of opening a Cajun restaurant ended when a suicide bomber detonated an explosion only feet from him in Afghanistan. Five Minutes is…
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Float

Officially known as the F1D World Championships, pilots representing over twelve countries attempt to keep their plane flying as long as possible. After devoting years…
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For Sama

Directed by Emmy award-winning filmmakers Waad al-Khateab and Edward Watts, this feature documentary tells the astonishing story of 26-year-old Syrian filmmaker Waad, who filmed her…
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Forced

Three women–Ruth, Esther and Saratu–were forced to flee their homes when the dreaded militant group Boko Haram invaded their village in northeast Nigeria. Their powerful…
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Forgotten

After 26 years as a professional in the sport of jai alai–the fastest ball game in the world–Tevin is trying to bring back the crowds…
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Gimme a Faith

Each August, Steve Wong drives to the Raleigh International Airport to welcome new students as they arrive from China to begin their studies at North…
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The Grey Zone

The last land dispute between the US and Canada involves a 20-acre island in the Gulf of Maine, known to the lobstermen who compete over…
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Hamama and Caluna

Two young friends, Hamama and Caluna, leave everything behind to flee their home country and end up stranded in a camp in northern Italy. One…
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Harvest Season

Harvest Season delves into the lives of people who work behind the scenes of the premium California wine industry, during one of the most dramatic…
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In Saturn's Rings

In Saturn’s Rings is the first ever long form multiplane animation film in history. Made with over 7.5 million images from various explorations and narrated…
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The Interpreters

More than 50,000 local interpreters helped protect U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, enabling soldiers to communicate with the local population. But…
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A Jew Walks into a Bar

David Finklestein is an ultra-Orthodox Jew who belongs to a secluded Brooklyn sect. He’s also a talented, aspiring stand-up comedian who finds comedy an essential…
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Kifaru

Kifaru (winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Awards at Slamdance 2019) follows the lives of two young, Kenyan recruits that join Ol Pejeta…
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Laila at the Bridge

Laila Haidari survived child marriage and her own traumatic past to battle one of the deadliest problems in Afghanistan: heroin addiction. As the “mother of…
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Landing on Airwaves

Landing on Airwaves includes a series of interviews from those who remember watching the Apollo 11 moon landing on television on July 20, 1969. The…
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Live the Stream: The Story of Joe Humphreys

Live The Stream is an intimate and beautiful biography about the internationally renowned 86-year-old fly fishing legend, Joe Humphreys: a man who was born to…
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Memory Games

Memory Games offers a thrilling insight into the lives of four athletes as they compete for the title of World Memory Champion. Their unique approaches…
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Midnight Traveler

In 2015, Hassan Fazili’s documentary Peace in Afghanistan aired on Afghan television and soon after he found out the main subject was assassinated and there…
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Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

Miles Davis: Horn player, bandleader, innovator. Miles was a singular force of nature, the very embodiment of cool. The central theme of Miles Davis’ life,…
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Moments of Truth

Directed by 2018 RiverRun Master of Cinema honoree Chuck Workman, Moments of Truth is a short montage documentary with over 125 moments from significant documentaries…
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My Grandfather's Memory Book

This personal reflection animates an unusual sketchbook that captures a lifetime of memories, connecting three generations through drawings, writings and dialogue. This work screens as…
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NC Shorts 1

Films in this program of short documentary works include: 32° As In Death No Sanctuary Peripheral Visions Santuario Walker’s Filmmakers to be in attendance for…
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NC Shorts 3: Close to Home

In this documentary shorts program we learn more about the people and organizations making a tremendous difference in our local community. Films featured in this…
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No Sanctuary

Through a collection of interviews, trial footage, home videos and personal testimonies, this documentary explores the lives of those who lost loved ones in the…
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Olympia (documentary)

This revealing and unfiltered documentary follows the life and career of Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis. Starting on the day she turns eighty and continuing…
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On the Bit

After exhausting all medical and therapeutic efforts to alleviate her anxiety and PTSD, Jenny, an Iraq War veteran, attempts one last means of healing; working…
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Panel and Film: Multi-plane Animation and In Saturn's Rings

After the screening of the short film In Saturn’s Rings, made by Greensboro native Stephen Van Vuuren, there will be a panel discussion with the…
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Peer Pitch South

RiverRun will be a site for this year’s Peer Pitch South, a professional development event for filmmakers organized by our friends at Docs In Progress and…
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Peripheral Visions

Peripheral Visions is a look back at the work of North Carolina political cartoonist V.C. Rogers, who recently retired from The Independent after a decades-long…
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Pitch Fest and Panel

In an effort to further promote the development of new filmmaking talent, RiverRun is again joining forces with a consortium of universities around the south…
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Preserving Historic Places: Panel and Film

We are partnering with our neighbors in Elkin to highlight the great preservation work that was done on the Reeves Theater. Once a vibrant 700-seat…
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The Raft

In 1973, six women and five men climbed aboard a small raft to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It was part of a radical experiment by…
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Reeves: A Home for Music

Once a vibrant 700-seat movie theater, the Reeves Theater in Elkin, NC fell into disrepair until a group of local citizens decided to renovate it.…
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The River and the Wall

Five friends embark on an immersive adventure through the unknown wilds of the Texas borderlands as they travel 1200 miles from El Paso to the…
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Rooftop Kiters

This short documentary explores the beauty of flying kites in the Brazilian favelas, and how this simple activity has changed their hard lives for the…
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Sandoval's Bullet

Isidro Vargas reminisces on his various encounters with death as he meanders through the tropical rainforest. This work screens as part of the Documentary Shorts…
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Santuario

Juana Luz Tobar Ortega immigrated to the United States over 25 years ago as an asylum seeker from Guatemala. But in 2017, she was told…
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Teeth

Hawaiian grandmother Angelica’s healing from sexual abuse as a child parallels the fixing of knocked out and rotten teeth. Aloha is replacing her pain and…
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A Texas Myth

The Glover family invites an indigenous activist group to start a protest camp on their land in West Texas. They call the camp Two Rivers…
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This Changes Everything

In this timely follow-up to his documentary Casting By (RR ‘13) Tom Donahue explores systemic sexism in Hollywood through the voices of many marquee celebrities,…
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This is Love

You may not know Rudy Love’s name, but you will almost certainly know his voice. Mick Fleetwood, Sinbad, and George Clinton unveil an unsung hero…
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Walker's

This observational portrait trains its lens on Walker’s, a historic black barbershop in Wilmington, North Carolina. This work screens as part of the NC Shorts…
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Well Groomed

Competitive creative dog grooming is the most colorful competition in America and this film captures the hearts, minds and imaginations of the artists involved. Follow…
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While I Breathe, I Hope

While I Breathe, I Hope is a feature documentary film that explores what it means to be young, Black, and Democrat in the American South…
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Who Killed Lt. Van Dorn?

Lt. Wes Van Dorn, a 29-year-old United States Naval Academy graduate, died when the helicopter he was piloting crashed during a 2014 training exercise. Motivated…
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