Shorts: Home Land Q&A

Through intimate portraits of those at the frontlines, four films illuminate the complex reality of what stands to be lost when the land is under threat. From Romania to Mexico to the United States, corporate exploitation, illegal logging and rising seas are faced with resilience, spirituality and fervent defence. These courageous, communal accounts invite us to reconsider our responsibilities to each other and to the natural world, offering wisdom on what it means to truly live in relation with the land.

Retorno De Las Animas (Arrival of Lost Souls)
Each year, millions of monarch butterflies migrate over 3,000 miles from Canada to Mexico, arriving in Michoacan on the exact dates of Day of the Dead. To the indigenous communities that greet them, they are the ancestors returning, but this year the butterflies did not arrive.

Wild East
Romania contains roughly 70% of Europe’s last remaining primary, ancient old-growth forests—yet they are being logged toward absolute extinction. But Romanian environmental activist Gabi Paun refuses to look away. 'Wild East' follows him and his dedicated team as they spearhead a meticulous, highly dangerous undercover investigation.
Operating under the shadow of constant intimidation, corruption, and corporate power, they work to expose the collusion between illegal loggers and the world's largest furniture retailer, IKEA, as they clear-cut EU-protected biodiversity sites and National Parks with total impunity.

La Mar
The sea came quietly, not as a wave but as forgetting. In a drowned village on Mexico’s coast, Lupe stays behind among ghosts, memories, and salt. “La Mar” is a lyrical elegy for a place swallowed by water and a woman who refuses to disappear with it.

Some Kind of Refuge
On the banks of the Mississippi, a community of fiercely independent outsiders has built a life from whatever the river gives them. Some Kind of Refuge enters their disappearing world, where survival, freedom and faith are deeply intertwined.