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shareDocumentary Shorts 5 brings together powerful stories of perseverance, healing, and the human drive to connect across every kind of divide.
In AMAL | HOPE, two world-class pianists, one Israeli, one Palestinian, use music as a bridge, showing how art can dissolve walls that politics can’t. They Call Me The Tattoo Witch profiles a Hanoi artist who transforms scars into beauty, helping her clients reclaim their bodies and their confidence. Death Education follows a Chinese teacher who dares to confront mortality head-on, guiding her students to understand life by facing its end.
Dears in the Headlights explores grief and transformation as a mother and daughter find different ways to live with loss. Impossible is Just a Word tells the inspiring story of Chris Nikic, a record-breaking athlete with Down syndrome whose determination redefines possibility itself. And AT SEE takes us aboard a cruise ship with a group of blind travelers, offering a fresh perspective on trust, independence, and the joy of discovery.
Together, these films remind us that hope isn’t passive—it’s something we practice, share, and keep alive in one another.
Filmmakers will be present for a post-screening Q&A.
In this program
AMAL | HOPE
Directed by Eros Zhao
Amal / Hope tells the story of the incredible partnership between the virtuoso pianists of Duo Amal, Yaron Kohlberg and Bishara Haroni, who each come from Israeli and Palestinian backgrounds. Through their music, they embody the profound power of art to transcend boundaries and bring people together.
They Call Me The Tattoo Witch
Directed by Lindsay Nyman
In Hanoi, Vietnam, tattoo artist Tran Ngoc specializes in the rare and challenging art of tattooing over scars. Despite the social stigma surrounding tattoos in Vietnam, Ngoc empowers her clients, including breast cancer survivors and women with self-harm scars, to reclaim their bodies and stories.
Death Education
Directed by Yuxuan Ethan Wu
In China, a high school teacher has introduced a death education class for young s. On the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day, they bury unnamed ashes at a public cemetery where they contemplate and contextualize the meaning of death.
Dears in the Headlights
Directed by Julia Jansch
Dears in the Headlights isn’t about death as an end. It’s about death as something to carry, to hold gently, and sometimes, to reshape. What fuels this practice is personal tragedy. After the death of her brother, Philli and her mother take radically different but equally powerful paths toward healing.
Impossible is Just a Word
Directed by Jen Stafford
More than a Special Olympics athlete and Ambassador, more than the first person with Down syndrome to become an IRONMAN and landing in the Guiness World Records, more than finishing the New York and Boston Marathons, and more winning of ESPN and Laureus Awards, Chris Nikic was a young man with dreams of owning a house, buying a car, and marrying the love of his life. With hard work and the help of his father Nik, Chris has already accomplished two of those goals. Learn how this onetime couch potato is going for his dreams, demonstrating true inclusion and slaying naysayers at the same time!
AT SEE
Directed by Serena Dykman
A group of blind travelers navigate a commercial cruise ship with their guide dogs.
