THANK YOU!
for attending the Empathy festival February 11th.
Follow us on Facebook for announcement of winning films, dates for the next festival plus info about ways to participate!
FLM FWD is a small-town film festival conceived to encourage community building through art, performance, education, cultural enrichment, and entertainment.
Following our launch in 2021, we have created annual festivals on two subjects: Empathy and Environment. We hope to add a third annual festival on Youth to our line up.
Our festival aims to encourage our community to start conversations and build dialogues
Follow us on Facebook. Our program includes multiple festivals, mini-festivals, and other arts events & happenings.
Our Mission
List of films shown at the February 11, 2023 FLM FWD Festival at
Barrington Middle School, in the order that they were presented. Out of 1840 submissions, we we showed 19 finalists, roughly half of which are foreign films and roughly half of which are student films and all of which were awesome!
Film/Director
Synopsis/duration
A Remnant directed by robin iff and Cedrick Spinassou.
It’s the year 2050, a young girl finds something unusual on the beach.
(Selected film from the 2022 FLM FWD Environmental Festival)
Reviving Rivers directed by Christopher J Carter, Raleigh E Latham
Can desertification and drought be reversed? Exploring a successful example.
(Winning film from the 2022 FLM FWD Environmental Festival)
These Truths directed by Don Mays
Written in the wake of the George Floyd murder, this film documents protests in 2020.
(Invited Film to the 2021 FLM FWD Empathy Festival)
Bubby and Them directed by Hazel Field, Je'Jae Cleopatra Daniels
A docufictional about a college student, their adoptive grandmother and how they take care of each other.
(Winning film from the 2021 FLM FWD Empathy Festival)
New Selections for the 2023 FLM FWD Empathy Festival, finalists out of 1840 submissions.
Santa Woman directed by Ari W.
A young woman wants to be Santa. (8 mins).
Still Typing directed by Jonah Creaney (Swansea, Mass resident!)
A day in the life of a texting teenager experiencing the highs and lows of young love. (3 mins).
Dammit! directed by Narragansett native Stanley McNeiece
An animated film about being a good sport and friendship. (2 mins).
[ PenUltimate ] - Cayden's First Day. directed by Katie Brooks
Animated film about a high school student feeling like an outsider at his new school. (4 mins)
BULLY directed by Alejandro Mendoza Llopis
Professional PSA-style short with a sensitive and polished data-informed look at bullying viewed from many perspectives. (10 mins).
Different. directed by Alexsys Giraud.
A narration. The self awareness and self consciousness of an adolescent. (2 mins)
ThankYou Riju. directed by SD Dey.
The love, sacrifice and frustration of a young man who is the full time caretaker of his adult autistic brother. (14 mins)
Look at you, black sheep! directed by Milica Denkovic.
Highly acclaimed short film takes insults and slurs and presents them as a poem. (2 mins),
Threads & Bangles, directed by Uzair Surhio
Rahat, a young artisan, hides his true identity and mourns his lost love. (3 mins)
Dak dia jai (A story of humanity ) directed by Dabasish Kishor
The person who receives the least empathy ends up demonstrating the most. (5 mins).
Calm Remains, directed by Chap Edmonson
An experimental film that seeks to evoke the emotion utilizing historical footage from the American civil rights movement. The film explores a duality of consciousness. (3 mins)
If There Is No Struggle directed by Jared Katsiane
Film by an award-winning filmmaker. A young photographer celebrates historical figures via Boston’s public art. (14 mins)
Another Swell Day directed by Evens Yurvie Angulo-Duvil
An animation about how optimism can help overcome the affects of chronic illness. (3 mins)
Imaginings directed by Anja Hiddinga
A group of accomplished deaf poets express their feelings of isolation. (13 mins)
Solpor (Sunset) directed by Susana Alba
A father's pride prevents him from accepting help to address his precarious living situation. (15 mins)
On the Other Side of Rainbow directed by Milica Spasojević
A sensitive portrait of a trans woman recounting how she maintained hope in various stages of her journey. (9 mins)
Seek directed by Mong Vang.
A woman is awash in long-term grief over the death of her husband until she realizes she's met the living recipient of his heart. (9 mins)
Malamore directed by Pierluigi Braca
Being in love with someone is the ultimate empathy. (4 mins).
Before directed by Arlo Jhan Bayot
Animated film about environmental justice showing the tragic results for humans and animals when natural habitats are exploited. (8 mins)
Our most recent venue, the stunning auditorium at the new Barrington Middle School
The FLMFWD family includes people who are passionate about art, science, business, health, government, communications, youth, veterans affairs. We need you!
Get Involved
Attendees at our inaugural festival on Empathy and the Environment enjoyed summer evenings of Family Fun: Films, Food, Music and More! Across seven screenings and major events, over 1300 residents have seen dozens of films selected from thousands of submissions to our film festival juried by five Rhode Island artists and a panel of fifteen of your neighbors, our ‘community reviewers’.
At all of our festivals and some of our smaller events we’ve host local bands and Rhode Island food vendors . We also always bring something for our young guests. At our major festivals, our community partner, the RI Army National Guard, has brought a 35-foot rock climbing wall !
All of our festivals include live music!
Come find awesome Food Truck Eats!
And there’s something for Everyone!