(Various Directors, 2024, Various Countries, 121 min)

One of the most important traits someone can have is being a lifelong learner. After all, even if you’re not in school, life’s got plenty of things to throw your way that will make you grow and learn as a person. And who doesn’t love being a smarty pants?

This program features one feature-length film and a collection of short films that all highlight the ways that we learn from ourselves and each other, and shows how those relationships remain the most important in our lives, no matter where we are in the world.

Films In This Program Include:

FEATURE FILM: 

Ultimate Citizens (Francine Strickwerda, 2024, United States, 52:00, in English)
In ULTIMATE CITIZENS, Jamshid is an Iranian who came to study in 1970’s America, and due to the Revolution, never went “home.” As a guidance counselor in Seattle Public Schools, Jamshid’s best work takes place out of the building and on a playing field with “his kids,” the children of refugees and immigrants. Their parents are in the grips of their own struggles to make a living and a home in a strange land. Mr. Jamshid is the charismatic, fiery, funny human with a Frisbee in hand, who is the first to show that “love wins” on the field, off the field, at home with family, or boldly forging a new community, in a new country – one kid, chicken, extreme mile and friend at a time.

ANIMATED SHORTS:

Wild Housemates (Armelle Mercat-Junot, 2024, France, 16:01, in French with English subtitles)
A joyful goat decides to build a cabin in the jungle. But the construction process results in sharing it with dangerous roommates. Luckily she succeeds in building a friendship. However, it comes at a heavy price.

Vercors (Lyonel Charmette, 2024, France, 19:40, in French with English subtitles)
In a remote camp on the edge of the Vercors mountains, five Resistance fighters, forgotten by their headquarters, struggle against boredom, frustration and a difficult day-to-day existence. By dint of inaction, Joseph, the new kid on the block, starts to stand up to his uncle in charge of the maquisards. Little by little, madness takes hold of Joseph and spreads to the others.

Simply Divine (Mélody Boulissière and Bogdan Stamatin, 2024, Romania, 14:02, in Romanian with English subtitles)
1939. A soldier meets a young woman. Their love story begins. The soldier is called to the front and their love dissolves in the war. 2014. During a long interview, the 91-year-old woman recounts the secrets of a forgotten time, revealed for the last time. What remains of a love story after three quarters of a century and a world war?

My Name is Edgar and I Have a Cow (Filip Diviak, 2024, Czech Republic, 7:47, in English)
Edgar’s ordinary life is disrupted by a newborn calf he sees on a tourist trip to a slaughterhouse.

SUPERNOVA (Minkyung Kim, Yerim Lim, Youngwoo Joo, and Jiyoon Lee, 2024, Republic of Korea, 7:25, no dialogue)
Soo and Tow, who lived on different stars, meet and share the explosion of their stars together.

Playing Possum (Arts University Bournemouth, 2024, United Kingdom, 3:29, no dialogue)
In a world no longer full of humans, a robot strives to look after his greenhouse – until a sneaky opossum decides to steal one of his precious potatoes. Will the robot succeed? Or will the opossum prevail?