2023 Festival Schedule 

Only a year after losing her daughter Olivia to brain cancer and her husband who died suddenly after Olivia's diagnosis, Daphne and her two children remain lost in the most painful fog of grief. Cultural clichés of how she should let go and move on agitate and simultaneously motivate her. Daphne had always followed her instincts as Olivia was sick and here again these instincts lead her to take action. She begins by starting up a one way conversation with her computer, releasing all forms of emotion into a void which seems to be more understanding than the world around her. Reflecting upon this trauma and pain becomes one of Daphne's survival strategies. Driving out onto the dessert road is the next step she takes to survive. She gathers up 50 of Olivia’s Barbies and retraces the last road trip she and her children took after all the doctors told her Olivia would not make it. It was a trip starting from Milan, Italy reaching to Las Vegas and finally ending up in Zion, Utah. On this new trip, she is on her own as a filmmaker. Daphne mourns two different loves in her life in two compltetly different ways. While exploring the great divide between how we "should be" and who we really are, she creates her own individual visceral vocabulary for trauma in search of renewed hope and balance. Venturing out on a very raw and powerful cinematic journey, she turns the idea of "letting go" and how we deal with grief upside down. She takes us with her out onto the road, weaving fragments of the past into her present, unearthing the extremes of loss and love, and carries us into the heart of what it means to be alive. 
Director: Daphne Yeager Ostendorf, Rockaway Park, NY   Category: Feature Documentary

A slice-of-life look at how kids in the former mining town of Silverton, Colorado stay busy in the summer by “mining” and selling rocks to tourists. Through this time-honored rite of passage, these “rock stars” learn history, social skills, and become little entrepreneurs while delighting tourists from around the world.

Director: David Dibble, Hanford, CA   Category: Colorado Documentary

A Good Neighbor is a short documentary about a Latina single mother’s fight against racism and climate change as she campaigns for city council in one of the nation’s most polluted zip codes.

Director: Maggie Hart & Brittany Zampella, Lafayette, CO   Category: Colorado Documentary 

Danielle McCarthy, a Gold Star wife, unexpectedly lost her husband, David, a U.S. Veteran, in 2017. His body was brought to Sunset Mesa in Montrose, Colorado to be cremated. One day, she received a call from the FBI informing her that the cremains she had may not be her husband after all. As a result of the FBI investigation, Danielle learned David’s body had been sold without her consent and later learned it's not considered illegal in the state of Colorado. This is Danielle’s story.

Director: Jake Dagel, Colorado Springs, CO   Category: Colorado Documentary

Overwhelming Majority is an experimental documentary short dealing with issues of loneliness, alienation, and social anxiety. A young woman recounts a suicide attempt, muses on the nature of connectedness, and ultimately yearns for understanding.

Director: Joseph Irvin, Colorado Springs, CO   Category: Experimental Documentary 

Older than the Roman Empire, the giant sequoia trees have stood thousands of years and weathered every force mother nature has thrown their way, that is, until now. From the logger’s ax to climate change-induced fire storms, the famous Big Trees of the Sierra Nevada need our help to survive, so they may continue to thrive, and for countless generations to walk their groves in wonderment.

Director: Daniel J. Richardson, East Aurora, NY   Category: Experimental Documentary

Our newest collaboration with renowned poet Lucy English combines footage shot on location In Cancer Alley with images of nature, especially cypress groves, which are as fragile and as threatened as the Cancer Alley communities. The visuals are accompanied by a poem about what it is like to live in the small towns near the Mississippi River, between East Baton Rouge and New Orleans, which are now dominated by more than 200 chemical plants and oil refineries, sometimes literally located in residents' back yards. The cypress trees can live for more than 1000 years, if they are not chopped down for cypress mulch or their habitat destroyed. Human lifespans are much shorter, but we may not survive as a species unless we stop living as if all that matters is today, and learn to think on the time scale of the trees.

Director: Pamela Falkenberg & Jack Cochran, Austin, TX   Category: Experimental Documentary

Music video that tells a story about migration and Cape May, New Jersey's unique location and the new Cape May Point Science Center's desire to study, preserve and protect this place.

Director: James Robert Hannah, Catonsville, MD   Category: Music Video

The Nest is a documentary short film about the impact of a unique tattoo studio, "Nest Art Collective". Owner Lora Bird founded & built Nest to fit her vision of a safe and inclusive place for all people to receive tattoos.

Director: Connor Gawkoski, University of Colorado Denver   Category: Student Documentary

Backcountry Search and Rescue volunteers in southern Colorado fight through both the mental and physical demands needed to keep the backcountry safe and accessible for all people.

Director: Tristan Owen, Florida State University   Category: Student Documentary

The official music video for Carly Hanley's "Ooh La La".

Director: Jason Knade, Palos Park, IL   Category: Music Video

Director: Jordan A. Johnson, Colorado Springs, CO   Category: Music Video

This video was created over the course of a weekend as filmmakers were paired with bands in a unique creative experience.

Director: Chad Weber & Steve Vanderheide, Longmont, CO   Category: Music Video

A story about revenge, high-school drama, and what it means to follow your dreams. 

Director: Hudson Bloom, Fort Collins, CO   Category: Music Video

On this trip, we left trails and guidebooks behind, and set out to find our own path from North America's lowest point to the Pacific Ocean. On the way, we pass through the incredible landscapes for which the state of California is known. We had only one goal: Reach the coast. How long it took, or how we got there was not important. For the next month we follow the sun, the moon and the stars to the west. Until there's no more west to go. 

Director: Andrew Pike, Boulder, CO   Category: Short Documentary

The last dog musher of a Yup'ik Alaskan village meditates on what drives him to continue his passion.

Director: Silas Karbo, Colorado Springs, CO   Category: Short Documentary

This short documentary film tells the story of a man who uses his talents to support and lift his community. When the "Black Lives Matter" movement grew in awareness, Marcus Baskerville head brewer of Weathered Souls Brewing Co. wanted to shed light on the growing problem of inequality and police brutality. This is where the "Black is Beautiful" project was born. We follow the impact of the initiative and where it is today.

Director: Marco Antonio Ortega, San Antonio, TX   Category: Short Documentary

Unbeknownst to many, Rensselaer, Indiana is a street art destination--boasting over 50 murals on its downtown walls painted by world renowned street artists. Narrated by the festival's curator, Cameron Moberg, "Art Week in Rensselaer" follows this year's group of muralists and how the festival affects not only the town its in, but the artists as well.

Director: Mike Kryzston, Demotte, IN   Category: Short Documentary

Filmed and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Sounds of Tomorrow is a documentary featuring ecology researchers with eco-acoustics careers. How can we explore and explain nature's hidden voices around us in our increasingly noisy world? Here we gain insight from professionals Jacob Job, Timothy Weaver, and Dr. Sharolyn Anderson.

Director: Chloe Smith, University of Denver   Category: Student Documentary 

A new drug could be the cure for the Elephant Man disease, Proteus Syndrome. But, for some patients it could come too late.

Director: Alex Fahl, Colorado Springs, CO   Category: Feature Documentary