Saturday, November 5 at 6pm | The DOC CHICAGO mini-conference brings regional documentary filmmakers together to exchange ideas, learn, and connect. This special screening at the Film Center caps off a day of panels and conversations at the Cultural Center and invites audiences to discover an enlightening and diverse program of new short documentaries by local makers. Donald Conley’s lyrical documentary MATRIARCH (29 min.) celebrates his two grandmothers, both Southern Black women hoping to maintain their independence during what could potentially be the final year of their lives. While her son studies abroad in Poland, a suburban Chicago mom befriends a baby squirrel and raises him as if he were her own child in Tom Krawczyk' award-winning, humorous MY DUDUŚ (8 min). Meditative and carefully observed, Dinesh Sabu's SRKANA (13 min.) takes us to rural Oklahoma, where a truck stop run by a Punjabi family is a nexus for a small but growing community of Indian long-haul truck drivers. In the fearlessly frank and personal SPONTANEOUS (14 min), director Lori Felker relives the tangle of emotions she felt while attempting to hide a miscarriage in plain sight. Erika Valenciana's LA MITAD DEL MUNDO/THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD (20 min.) incorporates stop motion animation to explore the harrowing and painful stories of young survivors of sex trafficking in Ecuador. Filmmakers in attendance for post-program Q&A; learn more at docchicago.com
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