No Pain, John Picklap

"What started as an idea for a quick video that I could pitch to AJ+ turned into a three year rollercoaster of challenges as the story that I thought I was telling continuously changed. While this film was a challenging one and made me question my own motivations and assumptions, it also led to a great friendship with Ricky and the opportunity to work with some incredible collaborators including producer David Terry Fine, cinematographer Tyler McPherron and the production company Little Movie Pictures."

— VC member John Picklap

My Duduś, Nick J. Santore and Tom Krawczyk

"My mother had found the baby squirrel abandoned in her yard. She contacted animal shelters nearby, but they were struggling to take in more animals during the Covid pandemic, so my mother began caring for him herself. My intuition told me to pick up a camera. I knew something special was happening. My mother, a Polish immigrant who had raised me by herself, had been dealing with her newly empty nest after I left for school, and I knew the joy that raising the squirrel would bring her."

— Nick J. Santore

What Remains, Paavo Hanninen

A look at how oyster shells are being utilized to help slow and reverse coastal land loss in South Louisiana. This short documentary follows the oyster'' journey, from being harvested right through to returning to the water as part of an artificial reef.

"I learned every minute detail I could about this process to plan out what to show and how to show it. Through this research, I became interested in the people involved in this noble (potentially futile) effort feel about their relationship to the oysters, and the natural world more generally."

— VC member Paavo Hanninen

12:15, Kate Villevoye

" During the first month of the covid-19 lockdown I called Lynn, an 86-year-old writer, comedian and a new friend, to see how she was coping during self-isolation. It kickstarted an endless stream of consciousness between two women of entirely different generations. This was an entirely spontaneous project, born out of lockdown boredom and a new friendship - and as Lynn has sadly passed away now, I couldn't be more grateful that it exists. I learnt so much from her. It has its obvious limitations as a Zoom-recorded film but I think that's kind of the beauty of it too."

— VC member Kate Villevoye

Desert Meditation, Calvin Florian

Shot on a day trip to Joshua Tree, California. Inspired by the landscapes and environment of this great park.

"Reminder to self....Keep making things for you. Not always easy to execute when you're busy, working full time for someone else, or life is getting in the way, but the follow through is always fulfilling."

— VC member Calvin Florian

Senior Prom, Luisa Conlon

For so many high-schoolers, prom is a rite of passage in all of its love-filled, well-coiffed, abundantly photographed glory. But for generations of LGBTQ+ youth, prom has been emblematic of an exclusion from a world they could not experience as their authentic selves. In Senior Prom, we follow a community of LGBTQ+ retirees celebrate life, love, and legacies of resistance, at the prom of their dreams.

The Definition of Beauty, Nikita Mandhani and Prem Boominathan

Beauty is usually defined as something that pleases our visual senses. But what happens when society’s idea of beauty excludes some people based on how they look? For this documentary, these journalists spoke to three Indian citizens with vitiligo - a condition that leads to white patches on the skin - to find out what beauty means to them.

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