2021 Bethesda Film Fest Docs Streaming Now

BETHESDA, MD —The 2021 Bethesda Film Fest currently is streaming online and features seven short documentaries between five and 20 minutes in length. On Friday, the filmmakers and some of the films' subjects will be part of a virtual discussion about the films.

The festival's website contains information ab0ut watching the films and joining the discussion. The films are free, though donations are accepted.

Filmmakers submitted their documentaries to the festival, and a panel of judges chose the finalists. To be eligible, films had to be between five and 30 minutes and be done by filmmakers from Maryland, Virginia or Washington D.C.

The films featured at this year's fest are:

A Mirror of the Earth

The 11-minute film directed by Rockville-native Isabelle Carbonell is about a mining town in southern Spain that is riddled with cancer. The film tells the larger story about capitalism's cumulative effects on an environment over time.

The Good Candidate.

This 14-minuted film by filmmaking collective 5Doc Productions is about the June 2020 Congressional Republican primary in Virginia and its aftermath. After the incumbent officiated a same-sex wedding, the question was whether the voters would choose a big-tent, inclusive party idealist or support an upstart candidate who advocates "traditional Judeo-Christian values."

Lipstick and Leather

Amy Oden's 20-minute film explores the "alt-drag" community in Washington D.C. and how its performers are spreading their influence across the East Coast. Oden is from Baltimore and works for Maryland Public Television.

Squeegee

A 14-minute film by Baltimore's Khalid Ali is about the squeegee boys best known for washing windshields of cars stopped at intersections around Baltimore. Ali sheds light on the actual circumstances that drive these young men to pick up a squeegee.

West Virginia - Covid and Hunger Collide

This film explains what happens when a state like West Virginia, in which one in seven adults and one in five children are hungry, gets hit with a pandemic. The 10-minute film was done by Brian Boenau, who is from Fairfax Station, VA.

Shi Fu Paul

This seven-minute film was selected for the fest in the High School Filmmaker category. The director is Pearl Sweeney, a Timonium resident who attends the George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology. Sweeney's film is about Paul Jakubowski, a kung fu instructor and co-owner of a martial arts academy in Maryland.

You Think You Know Me

Mikayah Lee's five-minute film also was selected in the High School Filmmaker category. Lee said the film actually is a video for the Mr. Sammy Rabinowitz song "You Think You Know Me," which is about equality, empowerment and unity. Lee is from Washington D.C. and attends the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

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