Best of Gorge Impact Film Festival 2024

Featuring Short and Full Length Film Screenings at 2 PM & 6:30 PM

2pm: In the Dirt, In the Grey Wild and Join or Die

6Pm: Failing,  The World is Ours and Between the Mountain and the Sky or Singing Back the Buffalo

• Between The Mountain And The Sky

  Directed by: Jeremy Power Regimbal

  In 2005 after graduating high school, Maggie Doyne embarked on a gap year, where she met Tope, a now grown Nepalese orphan, caring for orphaned children. United in purpose, Maggie and Tope pooled resources to establish a children’s home, women's empowerment program, and school in Nepal. Years later, their relentless efforts led to being honored as the 2015 CNN HERO OF THE YEAR. But days after the award ceremony, Maggie, by then guardian to over fifty Nepalese children, faced the unthinkable when her youngest child was suddenly taken from her, plunging the family into disbelief and despair. After a chance encounter amidst her grief, Maggie allows a filmmaker into her life to document herself, her family, and soon enough, their falling in love. "Between the Mountain and the Sky" explores resilience, love's impact in loss, and a family's enduring strength to find hope in the darkest times.

  🏆 Best Overall Impact Film: Recognizes the film that best combines compelling storytelling, technical excellence, and potential for creating meaningful change.

  Website | Watch Trailer

• The World is Ours

  Directed by: Nadia Louis-Desmarchais

  Currently, post pandemic, one in two young people show symptoms of anxiety and depression. The World is ours is a film that gives the opportunity to six Montreal teenage girls to leave their urban environment for the first time to take part in a nature canoe-camping expedition. By presenting their struggles and small victories, the film poetically and luminously embraces their vulnerability, emphasizing in broad strokes the power of female sisterhood and therapeutic intervention by nature. In an intervention cinema approach and seeking to democratize access to the outdoors for marginalized communities, the production of the film took on the responsibility of defraying the costs of the expedition for these six young women.

  🌍 Changemaker Award: Honors the film that most effectively addresses and raises awareness about issues with local to global relevance and social impact.

  Website | Watch Trailer

• Join Or Die

  Co-directed by: Rebecca Davis and Pete Davis

  Join or Die is a film about why you should join a club and why the fate of America may depend on it. In this feature documentary, follow the half-century story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking "Bowling Alone" research into America's decades-long decline in community connections could hold the answers to our democracy's present crisis. Flanked by influential fans and scholars from Hillary Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Eddie Glaude Jr., Raj Chetty, and Priya Parker as well as inspiring groups building community in neighborhoods across the country, join Bob as he explores three urgent civic questions: What makes democracy work? Why is American democracy in crisis? And, most importantly: What can we do about it?

  💡 Innovation in Impact Storytelling: Recognizes the film that employs the most creative or innovative approach to conveying its message and inspiring action.

  Website | Watch Trailer

• In The Grey Wild

  Directed by: Nili Yosha

  Youth experiencing homelessness write a song with Gabriel Kahane, Creative Chair of the Oregon Symphony and perform it with the entire 75 person Oregon Symphony Orchestra. The performance was at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on April 15, 2023.

  🌱 Youth Visionary Award: Celebrates the most impactful film created by young filmmakers highlighting fresh perspectives and emerging talent.

  Website | Watch Trailer

• In The Dirt

  Directed by: T.C. C. Johnstone

  "IN THE DIRT" is a documentary film about a group of passionate Native American cyclists who attempt to bring the sport of mountain biking to the Navajo Nation, where no bike shops exist. In 2018, retired pro cyclist Scott Nydam and his family moved to Gallup, New Mexico, to pursue a healthcare job for his wife. Soon after their arrival, Scott began meeting passionate mountain bikers across the 28,000-mile expanse of the Navajo Nation who loved the bike and wanted to bring the sport to their communities. The only problem is no bike shops existed. Through a grassroots native-led effort, this group of dedicated cyclists and their families have overcome countless odds to build a cycling culture that today has become the fastest-growing recreational sport on the Navajo Nation.

  🎖️ Honorable Mention: Recognizes a notable achievement deserving special acknowledgment.

  Website | Watch Trailer

• Failing

  Directed by: Oscar Peck

  A documentary taking place in an American high school that delves into why three students are failing their classes, and the way the system has failed them.

  👏 People’s Choice: Awarded to the film that resonates most strongly with audiences.

• Singing Back the Buffalo
• Directed by: Dr. Tasha Hubbard

• Dr. Tasha Hubbard is a filmmaker and an associate professor in the Faculty of Native Studies/Department of English and Film at the University of Alberta. She is from Peepeekisis First Nation in Treaty Four Territory and has ties to several First Nations in Treaty Six Territory through her father. She is also the mother of a seventeen-year-old son. Her academic research supports Indigenous efforts to return the buffalo to the lands, as well as Indigenous narrative sovereignty in North America. She has been working to support the Buffalo Treaty since 2015 and is one of the founding directors of the International Buffalo Relations Institute.

  Her first solo writing/directing project Two Worlds Colliding, about Saskatoon’s infamous Starlight Tours, premiered at ImagineNATIVE in 2004 and won the Canada Award at the Gemini Awards in 2005. In 2017, she directed an NFB-produced feature documentary called Birth of a Family about a 60s Scoop family coming together for the first time during a holiday in Banff. It premiered at Hot Docs International Film Festival and landed in the top ten audience choice list. It also won the Audience Favourite for Feature Documentary at the Edmonton International Film Festival and the Moon Jury prize at ImagineNATIVE. Her last film was nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, an exploration of the impact of the death of Colten Boushie that premiered in the spring of 2019. It was the first Indigenous-directed film to open the Hot Docs International Film Festival and it won the top Canadian documentary prize. It also won the Colin Low Award for the top Canadian film at the DOXA International Film Festival and the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2020. Hubbard was awarded the DGC Discovery award in 2019.

  Website/ watch trailer