Presented by Reel Friends

Includes the following documentary films: 

And Again I Dream

Directors: Catherine Gund, Mariah Norman

Runtime: 39 minutes

Ivy Young (1947-2023), a journalist and organizer, knows that mainstream society will not preserve her story after she's gone, so she rallies friends and her niece Jade – a history teacher whom she inspired with her vision and her grit – to defy the past for the sake of a shared future of resilience, compassion, and love. Together, with history student Mariah, and lifelong friend Catherine, they explore Ivy’s archive of experience, illuminating her life across queer generations, forging a bridge between memory, activism, and identity.

AND AGAIN I DREAM is nominated for the Lost Weekend Best Documentary Short Award

Constant Battles

Director: Mackenzie Stannard

Runtime: 38 minutes

Every moment of Nyousha Nakhjiri’s focus is trained on a singular goal: becoming the first Iranian-born female boxer to step into the ring at the Olympics. The path to achieving her dream, however, is filled with physical and mental hurdles that require strength and determination to overcome. Through boxing, she’s found a way to navigate her ADHD and anxiety and become the number-one ranked athlete in her weight class. After she spent her childhood in Iran, Nyousha and her parents emigrated to Canada, escaping the gender-based persecution her mother Elehah knew all too well: at the age of 16, Elehah was sent to the notorious Evin Prison for her activism against the Islamic Republic. Working her way through the national qualifying bouts in a sport she’d be banned from in her motherland, Nyousha grows closer to her mother, and the two come to understand each other's sacrifices and learn that winning can be defined in many ways in the fight for something bigger than oneself.

CONSTANT BATTLES is nominated for the Lost Weekend Best Documentary Short Award