Local Shorts

Celebrate the creativity of our community with a collection of short films made by local filmmakers, each bringing their unique stories to the big screen.

Approximate Runtime: 89 mins

THE VALLEY BETWEEN
“We do not have that authority and that right to decide the fate of a continent. We are not the only ones on this place.” Eamon Harrity talks about wildlife migration across the border in the San Rafael Valley in Arizona. Eamon has headed a study of the species that migrate and their responses to border barriers that began in 2020. The barriers ,until this year, consisted of barbed wire and vehicle barriers set up to allow for animal movement. Now, a 30-foot steel wall is being built across the valley. In this short documentary, you will see the San Rafael Valley before the 30 foot wall and learn about the variety of wild animals, including jaguars, that cross the border in their search for food, water and mates.  Directed by Leslie Ann Epperson, 2026, USA, 4 mins.

BUFF
After being released from jail for climate activism, a woman encounters an abused rodeo Buffalo for which she will trek the American Southwest in an attempt to free it and herself.  Directed by Christopher Gessner, 2026, USA, 15 mins.

FLAG SONG
Flag Song is a short form film created around a poem written by the Indigenous Nations Poets Fellows and Faculty at an In-Na-Po retreat at Amerind Museum & University of Arizona Poetry Center.  Directed by Dusan Harminc & Andrew Blue Sky, 2026, USA, 6 mins.

TRUNCATED SOUL (ALMA TRUNCADA)
The final thoughts of a sicario unravel in the moments before his soul becomes trapped in the in-between, a liminal space where regret, memory, and judgment collide.  Directed by Pedro Perez Nuñez, 2026, USA, 12 mins.

TOKA: THE GAME MUST GO ON
Rolanda trains a group of Tohono girls in the game of Toka on the Tucson reservation. Through this ancestral tradition, she seeks to keep the memory of her ancestors alive and reconnect with the deeper meaning of her last name. At the same time, Tai, one of her eleven year old students, weaves together through her life experiences what it means to be a Tohono girl, and how Toka embodies part of the strength, wisdom, and spirituality that sustain their community.  Directed by ohono O’odham Nation’s Documentary Film Collective, 2025, USA, 17 mins.

SMILE, PLEASE
When a long-running sitcom show faces its final episode, a supporting actress must confront what comes next, searching for her own identity among societal pressures and the large changes that await her.  Directed by Caroline Rosen & Madeline Heinrich, 2026, USA, 7 mins.

THEY WAIT
When the law fails, and every other option runs dry, a desperate grandfather seeks revenge through an Indigenous spirit broker, only to discover that spoken fury can awaken ancient forces beyond anyone’s control.  Directed by David J Aberle, 2026, USA, 11 mins.

BE STILL, BOONE
A character driven revisionist western, Be Still, Boone follows a hardened cowboy haunted by years on the trail as he struggles to reconnect with his estranged daughter before the weight of his past costs him what little he has left. Beneath its rugged exterior, the film is an intimate story of regret, masculinity, and emotional inheritance.  Directed by Clinton Lee Willis, 2026, USA, 14 mins.