Award-winning! - Honeyjoon - Director Lilian T. Mehrel

Award-winning! - Honeyjoon - Director Lilian T. Mehrel

In this light-and-dark comedy, HONEYJOON, June and her Persian-British mother Lela travel to the romantic Azores islands for a grief anniversary, with contrasting ways of coping. A charming surfer takes them on a tour as we surf the waves of life, loss, flirting… an unforgettable ride. A surprisingly sexy, darkly funny, emotional rollercoaster. We are joined in conversation with Director, Producer and Screenwriter Lillian T. Mehrel. *WINNER: SFFilm Rainin Award* *WINNER: Audience Award, Top 3, Tribeca AT&T Untold Stories Award – 2025 Tribeca Festival* *WINNER: Audience Favorite US Cinema – 2025 Mill Valley Festival* *WINNER: Audience Choice Narrative – 2025 New Hampshire Film Festival* *WINNER: Jury Award: Best Feature – 2025 Three Rivers Film Festival* *WINNER: Narrative – 2026 Spokane Film Festival* *WINNER: Jury Award: Best Feature – 2026 El Dorado Film Festival* *WINNER: Jury Award: Best Feature – 2026 Spokane International Film Festival* *WINNER : Jury Award: Best Feature, Women Director, Official Selection – 2026 Poppy Jasper International Film Festival* About the filmmaker - Director, Writer, Producer Lilian T. Mehrel is an award-winning writer & director with a visionary sense of feeling and humor. She is the winner of the Tribeca AT&T Untold Stories Award for her debut feature, Honeyjoon, which premiered at Tribeca. Lilian’s films have also screened at Palm Springs, Sao Paolo Mostra, Clermont-Ferrand, and the AmPav Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes. She was selected for the SFFILM Rainin Grant, TorinoFilmLab ComedyLab, Film Independent Episodic Lab, Sloan Award, Nancy Malone Directing Award, Geri Ashur Screenwriting Award, NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, CineQuaNonLab, Film Fatales Episodic Directing Shadow Workshop, TFI Labs with YouTube/Google and Warner Media, and the Marcie Bloom Fellowship. Lilian earned her MFA from NYU Tisch Grad Film with a PDS Fellowship, and her BA from Dartmouth with a Senior Fellowship. She also enjoys hip hop dance.

Award winning Doc! - The Gas Station Attendant - Director Karla Murthy

As a young boy, H.N. Shantha Murthy ran away from home to escape the extreme poverty of his Indian village. He travelled the country in search of work, holding onto the belief that one day his life would change. It did, following a serendipitous encounter with a Texan couple. With a sponsored visa, he travelled to the US, but his American Dream was not to be fulfilled. Karla Murthy’s film weaves together home videos and phone conversations recorded during her father’s stint as a gas station attendant, while also reflecting on her own identity as a first-generation American. What emerges is an intimate love letter – a meditation on a complicated father-daughter relationship and a poignant tribute to the immigrant working class. - Emmy-nominated director Karla Murthy's The Gas Station Attendant, world premiering in Sheffield Doc/Fest's International Competition (as the only American film). Executive Produced by Carrie Lozano, Geeta Gandbhir (The Perfect Neighbor), Rekha Maholtra, Stanley Nelson, Marcia Smith, Stephen Gong, Donald Young. About the filmmaker - Karla Murthy is a director and Emmy-nominated producer. She began her career working for the veteran journalist Bill Moyers and has been a producer, shooter and correspondent for several news programs on PBS. Her award-winning work was described in the Columbia Journalism Review as “compelling, informative and compassionate.” Her directorial debut, the feature documentary The Place That Makes Us [https://www.ytownfilm.com/] won Best of the Festival at Arlington Film Festival, Best Feature at Better Cities Festival and Emerging Documentary Filmmaker at Woods Hole Film Festival, and screened at the United Nations World Cities Day Event. The film had its national broadcast premiere on the WORLD Channel/PBS series America ReFramed [https://www.amdoc.org/america-reframed/]. Most recently, she directed and edited the short film Love, Jamie [https://lovejamiefilm.com/] about a transgender artist incarcerated in Texas which premiered at OUTFEST LA and won the Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Documentary Short [https://www.outfest.org/outfest-award-winning-love-jamie-paints-picture-of-trans-liberation/] and was called “one of the best short documentaries” by Texas Monthly [https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/jamie-diaz-houston-artist-painting-trans-prison-christian-experience/]. The film is now streaming on PBS American Masters [https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/announcing-american-masters-shorts/31542/]. Karla is of Filipino and South Asian descent. She studied classical piano at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Houston and graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in Religion and Computer Science. Her work has been supported by Women Make Movies, the New York State Council of the Arts, Vital Projects Fund, the Firelight Media Residency at Slough Farm on Martha’s Vineyard, and the Yaddo artist residency.

FLAG DAY - Co-directors Melissa Shea & Andrew Shea

Set in the small farming community of Three Oaks, Michigan — home to the nation’s largest Flag Day parade — Flag Day is a verité portrait of ritual, identity, and belonging in an era of deep political division. Somewhere between tradition and transformation lies this village, whose annual parade has become a pageant of American aspiration and memory. Over the course of Flag Day weekend, the film immerses viewers in the lives of a diverse cross-section of townspeople: veterans, local business owners, marching bands, and volunteers who, for one weekend each June, create an event that is at once nostalgic and reflective of the tensions of our time. Their stories reveal both the beauty and the fragility of community life in a time of polarization. Flag Day was filmed in an observational, verité style, capturing moments of humor, conflict, and grace as the community prepares for its defining ritual. The film offers a ground-level portrait of civic life — a portrait that holds both the good and the hard truths of being American. The project asks what binds us together today and whether those bonds can still be renewed. About the filmmaker - Andrew Shea (Director, Producer, Editor) is an award-winning director, producer, and screenwriter who has enjoyed success in film, television, and theatre. His films have screened at several of the most prestigious and selective film festivals in the world: the Cannes Film Festival Critics Week, the Sundance Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, DOC NYC, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the Austin Film Festival, and SXSW. Andrew is a professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. About the filmmaker - Melissa Shea (Director, Producer, Editor) is a creative and versatile filmmaker who worked in commercials in Los Angeles before making the switch to feature films. Her narrative and documentary work has screened at major film festivals including Cannes, Sundance, SXSW, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), DOC NYC, Austin, and Tribeca. Her creative partnership with co-director Andrew Shea began at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where they collaborated on the short film Take My Breath Away, which was invited to screen in the International Critics’ Week section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Cabali & the Tiki Mug Obsession - Director Joshua Dragotta & Subject Doug “Fini” Finical

In this wildly entertaining documentary Cabali & the Tiki Mug Obsession Director Joshua Dragotta explores the colorful subculture of Tiki enthusiasts who celebrate and collect ceramic drinking vessels known as Tiki mugs as well as the artists that create them. The film follows Doug “Fini” Finical – a man with a dream – as he assembles a team of craftsman and artists to build a Tiki bar dedicated to his overwhelming collection of mugs. At its core Cabali and The Tiki Mug Obsession is about community, passion, and purpose. About the filmmaker - Josh Dragotta has been directing and editing films over the past two decades. His films have been selected in festivals both nationally and internationally and his editorial work has garnered him Clio Awards in theatrical advertising. His editorial career started in short form documentaries including such titles as Murder On The Orient, The Magnificent Seven, and La La Land. His theatrical and television marketing creative work has included such titles as Percy Jackson and The Olympians, and Bullet Train. His last film Satan’s Angel: Queen of The Fire Tassels was an official selection of Outfest. As an editor his most recent work includes short films for The Carter Center celebrating the late President’s 100th birthday, The Kennedy Center Honors honoring Barry Gibb, Renée Flemming, and The Grateful Dead as well as The Mark Twain Prize For Comedy honoring Kevin Hart and Conan O’Brien. Josh was honored to be part of the editing team that brought the 2026 Oscars In Memoriam to life.

About Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul - Director James Keach & Producer Michael Lehman

This enthralling music documentary traces the turbulent, transcendent life of Gregg Allman — from a childhood ruptured by his father’s murder to the soulful emergence that reshaped American music. Through archival recordings, candid interviews, and electric performances, the film follows Gregg’s musical awakening amid the blues he worshipped, the creation of the Allman Brothers Band with his brother, Duane that would birth Southern Rock, and the grief that followed Duane’s fatal motorcycle crash. The Music of My Soul explores Gregg’s lifelong battle with addiction, his seven marriages, and the late-life sobriety that allowed him to reckon with his past. The film examines not just the artist’s private wounds but the wider American psyche — race, loss, longing, and reinvention — during Gregg’s lifetime. Musicians, friends, and family illuminate how an integrated band in the segregated South challenged boundaries while forging a sound that was both raw and redemptive. Anchored by Gregg’s gritty, emotive vocals, the Band’s brotherhood, and never before seen interviews, the documentary offers a profound portrait of Gregg Allman: a luminous figure whose life and songs mirror his struggles and salvation.