2025 FESTIVALApril 2-12, 2025Lansing, MI

Updates

You heard it here first! Check out the latest Capital City Film Festival announcements below.
POSTED: Feb 20, 2025

The Palestine Exception

As students across the country organize protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, decades-long taboos in academia around criticism of Israel–the “Palestine exception”–are shattered. This film features professors and students as they join calls for a ceasefire and divestment from companies that do business with Israel and face waves of crackdown from administrators, the media, the […]

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Power Lines

Redistricting isn’t about lines. Redistricting is about power. Who controls that power? That’s up to you. “Power Lines,” created with the support of The Carter Center, is a non-partisan blueprint for a more perfect democracy. In 2018, Michiganders voted to amend the state constitution, ending a system where redistricting was controlled behind closed doors. The […]

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The Compatriots

Javi, an undocumented immigrant facing imminent deportation, unexpectedly reunites with his long-lost best friend, Hunter, a vivacious bachelor seeking deeper connections. Together, they embark on a heartfelt journey to prevent Javi’s expulsion from the only country he has ever called home.

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The Concert

*CONTENT WARNING: Domestic Violence* Farrah and Lisa hang out in Angie’s basement, waiting on her dad to give them a ride to their first big rock concert. Safe in their warm, wood paneled hang-out, they talk about boys and even rehearse their own fledging metal band – The Giant Feminist Electric Mares! But their fun […]

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Kalamazoo Gals

When music journalist John Thomas discovers a mysterious archival photo, the ensuing odyssey reveals a shameful chapter in the history of the iconic Gibson guitar company. During World War II, with instrument production supposedly suspended, an extraordinary group of women toiled secretly behind the scenes, creating the “Banner Gibsons” that are cherished to this day […]

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Alleyways

A teenage boy (Espiritu) is facing transphobia toward his best friend (Wohlwend Zegri) and has no idea how to come face-to-face with the situation.

POSTED: Mar 26, 2024

Through Our Eyes: Apart

America has the world’s largest prison population, and 1 in 14 children in the country will experience the incarceration of a parent. Apart follows Lyric, Eric, and Nnadji as they contend with the incarceration of parents with whom they maintain a deep connection despite physical distance. Directed by Geeta Gandbhir and Rudy Valdez. Through Our Eyes is a four-part docuseries […]

POSTED: Mar 24, 2024

The First Bluebird in the Morning

The First Bluebird in the Morning is composer Carlos Simon’s newly-commissioned setting of verses by Sandra Seaton—sobering, heartfelt and moving. Shot in stunning black and white, the film is created by director and choreographer Jamar Roberts. In a breathtaking performance, solo dancer Lloyd Knight, a principal dancer for the Martha Graham Dance Company, brings life and movement to the piece in combination with the voice of tenor Joshua Blue.

POSTED: Mar 2, 2024

Tuhaymani’chi Pal Waniqa (The Water Flows Always)

Tuhaymani’chi Pal Waniqa (The Water Flows Always) follows a Cahuilla, Cupeño father and daughter attempting to reconnect in a journey through their Indigenous roots in the ancient springs of the Mojave Desert, just as a new water-mining project threatens their very existence. The film addresses the efforts of protecting water resources and the sacred places […]

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ULTIMATE CITIZENS

In ULTIMATE CITIZENS, Jamshid is an Iranian who came to study in 1970’s America, and due to the Revolution, never went “home.” As a guidance counselor in Seattle Public Schools, Jamshid’s best work takes place on the playing field with “his kids,” the children of refugees and immigrants. Their parents are in the grips of […]