Shorts Lineup:
The Other Side
Dana Tiger: Beauty Flows
Painting with Omauri
Art21: Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Art21: Lubaina Himid
Arthur Jafa: Sequencing the Notes
The Hardest Working Man
Followed by:
Q&A
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THE OTHER SIDE
Directed by Nikita Hattangady (USA, India 2025, 28:12 mins).
Set in the heart of Mumbai, "The Other Side" is a compelling portrayal of the struggles endured by a Mumbai street artist aspiring to attend one of the country's finest art academies. When he is faced with the decision between his desires and a friend's needs, he must choose between his heart and his conscience. -
DANA TIGER: BEAUTY FLOWS
Directed by Riley Morris (USA, 2025, 6:08 mins).
Lone Star Emmy nominated documentary. Dana Tiger is an internationally acclaimed artist who has had a lot of tragedy in her life. She paints strong women, trying to show people how unbeatable she knows women can be. She is indigenous, native to the Muskogee Nation in Oklahoma and has lived with Parkinson's for thirty years and adapted her art style to fit with her movements. -
PAINTING WITH OMAURI
Directed by Mackenzie McCree (USA 2024, 9:56 mins).
Within this video Omauri explains his journey as an artist, specifically as a painter and sketch drawing, and how he reached the skillset he's achieved. -
ART21: NJIDEKA AKUNYILI CROSBY
Directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal (USA 2026, 12:24 mins).
In a bright and spacious studio, artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby is surrounded by photographs and ephemera from her youth in Nigeria, reflecting on her current life in the United States while weaving the two worlds together in intricately layered paintings. Moving fluidly between memory and the present, this documentary short tracks the personal and creative development of an artist who has found her footing between cultures and mediums. -
ART21: LUBAINA HIMID
Directed by Sana A. Malik (USA 2025, 12:37 mins).
Painted in bright colors and adorned with lush fabrics, the often forgotten and marginalized figures in artist Lubaina Himid’s Street Sellers (2024) stand proudly with their assorted wares as life-sized portraits hung at New York’s Greene Naftali Gallery. After decades of pioneering work in painting and sculpture alongside curating groundbreaking exhibitions for Black women artists, recent years have brought long-deserved recognition for Himid, whose career challenges dominant histories of art and society through uniquely democratizing approaches. This documentary film dives deep into the artist’s process as she sifts through used furniture at flea markets to find the raw material for her paintings, listens to football matches while working in her studio, and pushes to find new ways to invite viewers to participate in the vital and provocative conversations at the heart of her work. -
ARTHUR JAFA: SEQUENCING THE NOTES
Directed by Jurrell Lewis (USA 2025, 10:19mins).
Throughout his practice, artist Arthur Jafa appropriates materials mined from the entirety of American culture, ranging from iconic films and photographs to videos posted on social media, sequencing and juxtaposing them to reveal qualities, connections, and absences that otherwise remain unseen. In this documentary short, we watch Jafa explore the rich landscape of Black cultural production by identifying and utilizing Black methodologies and aesthetics, uncovering the nuances of Black identity. -
THE HARDEST WORKING MAN
Directed by Aaron Cassara (USA 2025, 14:22 mins).
Having a good shoe repairman in New York City is like having a good mechanic in LA. You just can't negotiate life on the streets without one.
Lorenzo Powell first learned his trade working in his father's shoe repair shop in Harlem in the late 70's and 80's. Back then, Harlem was acutely economically depressed. People wore their shoes until their feet touched the sidewalk—and they brought them right to Lorenzo's family shop.
Lorenzo has been a longtime fixture in the midtown Manhattan community for almost 20 years. People who have moved to other neighborhoods travel far and wide to have him fix their beloved soles. He services many of the major theaters on Broadway. He is a true artisan and master of his craft—not to mention a small business owner, surviving in a time when the mom-and-pop shops are dropping like flies in a rapidly changing metropolis.