Date: Thursday, June 4th
6:00 PM – reception with refreshments
7:00 PM – film screening, followed by Q&A
Location: Annie May Swift Hall, Northwestern University, 1920 Campus Dr, Evanston IL 60201, click here for campus map. Free and open to the public. Free on-campus parking available after 4 PM in the open-air lot.
Join us for the premiere of nine short films by the Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab’s 2026 Fellows! Spanning fiction, personal documentary, animation, hybrid and experimental film, these diverse projects engage with mental health in original and unexpected ways. Through humor, poetic imagery, and cinematic experimentation, each film offers an evocative exploration of grief, depression, anxiety, and the need for connection.
Included in the program are:
Forgiveness by Hunter Bachrach
fiction, 16 min
Two roommates try to process the death of their third, finding a new way to connect with each other through food.
Adiós Colibrí by Alicia Dinwiddie
animation, 4 min
Adiós Colibrí is a gentle, animated fairy-tale exploration of grief as an older woman processes the loss of her husband with the help of her daughter.
Remember Her by Alicia Echavarria
fiction/documentary hybrid, 19 min
The day before her first visit to her family’s home country, Yajaira is haunted by a Dominican folkloric creature with backwards feet. Navigating the blur between the real and the fantastic, Yajaira must confront and accept the hybrid nature of belonging.
Hypomimia by Inés Gómez
documentary, 16 min
In this poetic personal documentary, the filmmaker and her mother, who has Parkinson’s Disease, are in conversation about time, their relationship, and a present that is in constant motion.
Reversal by Luca Hirsch
experimental, 4 min
Shot on 8mm, Reversal uses formal experimentation to follow a man trapped in the numbing routine of his 9-to-5, and the life he dreams of instead.
Plight of the Honey Bee by Abdeljaleel Ismail
fiction, 16 min
Shot on 16mm, this tender fiction film follows Nahla, a 60-year-old woman, who has been avoiding moving. Once she has her cup of tea, she can start her day. Though when she realizes she’s run out of honey, a meditative journey to get it helps her face exactly what she’s been avoiding.
Crying Laughing by Zoe Kritzer
animated documentary, 7 min
Based on a real life conversation, this short animated documentary uses humor to tell the story of two friends who were struggling through a difficult time during their freshman year of college.
Opaline by Angelina Randazzo
fiction, 14 min
When teenage siblings shelter in their grandmother’s abandoned house from an exterior contamination, Opaline slips into her interior self. Shot in gritty black-and-white Super 8, the film takes us into a grungy spiral of dreams and paranoia.
Slingshot by Aidan Venneman
fiction, 15 min
After scratching his family car, a teenage boy experiencing violent growing pains must find a way to stop breaking things as his strained relationship with his Mom comes to a head.
Cost: Free and open to the public
Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts
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