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Watch Now: Festival Favorites

As we continue to celebrate our 30th Anniversary, we will be taking time to highlight some of the most beloved Festival Selections from the past three decades of DCEFF. Keep an eye on this page as we will be adding new "Favorites" over the coming months. Click on the picks below to learn more and for streaming info.

Pride

Festival Year: 2015

Explores the cultural relationship between residents of Gujarat, India and the last remaining population of Asiatic Lions in the world.

Roshan Patel | US | 15 min

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DamNation

Festival Year: 2014

Watch dam opponents as they dangle hundreds of feet in the air while painting signs of protest on dam walls. These activists are part of the growing momentum behind river restoration. Find out what else is going on in the controversial movement to remove dams and restore rivers in this vibrant documentary.

Travis Rummel & Ben Knight | US | 94 min

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Person of the Forest

Festival Year: 2018

In the vanishing lowland rainforests of Borneo, new research is underway to uncover and understand the unique cultural behaviors in wild orangutans, before it’s too late. The project, 20 years in the making, offers a fascinating glimpse into the habits of wild orangutans, as well as a window into human evolution.

Melissa Lesh & Tim Laman | US | 17 min

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King Corn

Festival Year: 2007

Best friends Ian and Curt move from the East Coast to the heartland to learn about where their food comes from. As they follow their self-grown harvest into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about what we eat and how we farm.

Aaron Woolf | US | 92 min

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Yochi

Festival Year: 2018

Yochi, a non-verbal nine year-old Mayan boy, guards a nest of endangered Yellow-Headed Parrots in Belize’s pine savannah. When his beloved older brother, Itza, returns from the city, Yochi learns that he’s in debt and has turned to poaching — setting the brothers on a collision course.

Ilana Lapid | US | 25 min

Kerry Johan Landero

Whale Rider

Festival Year: 2003

A contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.

Niki Caro | NZ | 101 min

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The Mirnavator

Festival Year: 2018

Ultra-runners overcome obstacles on every trail. While competing in her first 50K trail race of the season, Mirna Valerio must overcome the negative voices that don’t believe she belongs in the sport.

Sarah Menzies | US | 11 min

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The River and the Wall

Festival Year: 2019

Realizing the urgency of documenting the last remaining wilderness in Texas as the threat of new border wall construction looms, five friends set out to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a wall on the natural environment.

Ben Masters | US | 108 min

River and Wall

The Babushkas of Chernobyl

Festival Year: 2016

Inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a defiant community of women lives on some of the most toxic land on Earth.

Holly Morris & Anne Bogart | UA | 72 min

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Treeline

Festival Year: 2019

Quietly, patiently, trees endure. This spellbinding short follows snowboarders, scientists, and healers as they move among giants and explore a connection older than humanity.

Jordan Manley | US | 40 min

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Chasing Coral

Festival Year: 2017

Coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. A team of divers, photographers and scientists set out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why.

Jeff Orlowski-Yang | US | 93 min

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Lowland Kids

Festival Year: 2019

As climate change erases the Louisiana coast, the last two teenagers on Isle de Jean Charles fight to stay on an island that’s been their family home for generations.

Sandra Winther | US | 22 min

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