Join us as we celebrate another year of insightful storytelling, amazing visuals, and memorable moments in social justice film.
The Social Justice Film Festival is a unique celebration of social justice storytelling. We are more passionate than ever about championing social justice films and independent voices, providing a platform for diverse artists. Our festival is not just about entertainment but also about highlighting activism and the work that challenges us to be better, reflecting the diversity of our world.
Artists and the audience come together to celebrate and discover new films, have constructive conversations, and learn about social justice issues in their community. Through the Social Justice Film Festival, the public has access to narratives and documentaries introducing them to different ethnicities, lifestyles, cultures, languages, religions, and thought-provoking themes and perspectives.
Schedule of Events:
11:00 am - 12:30 pm: SJFF 2025 - 11:00 am Film Block - Drama Room
THE HAPPINESS SHOP is more than a retail shop on the streets of Vietnam. It was founded with the unique mission of providing meaningful employment opportunities for women with disabilities. - Lauren shares her story of pregnancy loss and her journey to build a family. - Returning to the IL-Laikipiak Maasai village that her parents left when she was a child, Malih experiences ancestral ways of passing down essential knowledge and modern education methods.
12:30 pm - 2:15 pm: SJFF 2025 - 12:30 pm Film Block - Auditorium
I WISH YOU LOVE reflects that everyone can love others, the world, and themselves. The filmmaker hopes that making great wishes and taking action can fulfill our lives and build a beautiful future for the world. - The story of one man's legal battle to regain american citizenship for more than 5,000 americans of Japanese ancestry forced to renounce amidst turmoil and violence at the Tule Lake Segregation Center.
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm: SJFF 2025 - 2:00 pm Film Block - Drama Room
An animated dream of displacement and apocalypse. - Dadaab is the world's second-largest refugee camp. Fardowsa, a stateless journalist born and raised in the camp, uses the camp's radio station to become a voice for the voiceless. - The film's hero is an ordinary Moscow schoolboy who experiences what the children in Russia experienced and are experiencing both today and 70 years ago.
3:00 pm - 4:45 pm: SJFF 2025 - 3:00 pm Film Block - Auditorium
Set in Portland, Oregon, NO PLACE TO GROW OLD is the first documentary to capture a growing crisis unfolding quietly across america: older adults aging into homelessness. - A playwright and advocate brings new life into a long-abandoned theater, creating a visual metaphor of recovery and rehabilitation for both the theater and those living in the opiate crisis in Maine.
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm: SJFF 2025 - 4:00 pm Film Block - Drama Room
This surfing documentary depicts the timeless connection between Great-Great-Grandmother Ocean and her great-grandchildren. HAAGUA recognizes a cultural practice and recreates an original lifestyle. - Niitstitapi (The Real People) journeys across the vast ancestral territory of The Blackfoot Confederacy - an ancient alliance of Blackfoot speaking people bound together by land, language, and culture. - WAITING FOR JUSTICE tells the story of the Isle a la Cross Residential School.
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm: SJFF 2025 - 5:00 pm Film Block - Auditorium
The Strike is a feature documentary that tells the story of a generation of California men who endured decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launched the largest hunger strike in U.S. history.
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm: SJFF 2025 - King County Reparations Project - Auditorium
Produced at Cascade PBS, this documentary is the first chapter in a series dedicated to capturing the stories of Black individuals who have seen their homes, businesses, and cultural landmarks vanish.
8:30 pm - 10:00 pm: SJFF 2025 - 8:30 pm Film Block - Drama Room
In Almeria Province, Spain, a sea of plastic covers the land, creating the largest collection of greenhouses in the world. These hothouses are staffed by African migrants who work in extreme heat conditions. - The intimate story of one woman's attempt to uncover the truth about her father's participation in a lynching, find a way to hold her family accountable, and face the dawning awareness of her own unconscious racism.
Additional Dates:
