Changing Minds at Concord High (31 min) Director: Susan Weiser-Finley
Concord High is a transfer school - a last chance school for at-risk teens. Most of its students have histories of trauma and academic failure. This film follows them as they participate in a semester-long mindfulness-training program.
The twist is that the students both helped to film the experience and conducted a scientific study - of their classmates! - comparing the effects of mindfulness training with that of a placebo group. Working as research assistants for scientists from Harvard and Hunter College, they posed the question: Would practicing mindfulness for just three minutes a day help their classmates learn to cope with anxiety and destructive emotions? Said one reformed skeptic: Even though you can't change most of what happens in life, you can change your mind.
Shallows (20 min) Director: Zeshawn Ali
What happens when everything you once believed in is gone? The film follows people trying to find their faith again- in each other, in God, and in the great water tower that watches over their town.
The Orphan and The Polar Bear (9 min) Animated Director: Neil Christopher
According to Inuit oral history, long ago animals had the power of speech, could shift their appearances, and could even assume human form. In The Orphan and the Polar Bear, a neglected orphan is adopted by a polar bear elder. Under the bear's guidance, the little orphan learns the skills he will need to survive and provide for himself,