PARKER invites you into one family’s intimate journey that has been decades in the making. Centered around three tight-knit generations of the Parker family, this short documentary will leave you wanting to hold your loved ones a little closer. Sedoria and Adolphus Parker met when they were both serving in the military. Sedoria was technically married at the time, but Adolphus couldn’t keep from watching her as she walked through the armory. Though separated from her husband, Sedoria wasn’t immediately impressed with Adolphus’s reputation as a player. But with a little persistence, Adolphus was able to catch her attention. The two struck up a romance and eventually became pregnant with their son, Matt. Even though she was separated, Matt legally had to have Sedoria’s then-husband’s last name of Harris. Years of misunderstanding and decades of delay caused Matt to still have the last name Harris when he married and had kids of his own. Now, determined to carry on the dwindling Parker name, two generations of this family are taking the step to change their last name as they wrestle with what legacy really means. PARKER is a cinematic experience with handheld shots that take us into the Parker’s homes and make us feel a part of the family. Archival photos come alive with playful animations that teleport us to the disco with Adolphus and Sedoria in the early days of their romance. Levity abounds in the conversations between family members. This film reflects a theme sorely missing on screen - Black joy. Though PARKER grapples with some of the complicated themes of naming in the African American community, the Parker family navigates it all with charm and a love that radiates off the screen.

English

Parker

A decision delayed for decades allows three generations of a Kansas City family to finally unify when they do something that countless African Americans before them could not do—choose their own last name.

At the heart of Breaking Silence is the ever-evolving relationship between Walker, a deaf father, and his hearing daughter, Leslie, as they build new bonds through their experiences in the criminal justice system. Leslie has just completed her parole in Houston, TX and returned to Baton Rouge, LA; Walker serves as a chaplain in Texas’ Estelle Prison where he talks with deaf men about their ongoing struggles within the prison system. During Leslie’s imprisonment, Walker found it difficult to communicate with his daughter during his visits—he communicates through ASL and the guards required Walker to pick up the phone and speak through the glass—so he began volunteering at Angola State Prison, as well as teaching sign language at men’s and women’s prisons in Louisiana. He learned that for deaf people who are incarcerated, language is taken away. Through personal interviews and father-daughter conversations, Breaking Silence explores their joint memories of Leslie’s childhood, Leslie’s experience of being a hearing-abled child with deaf parents, the regrets that fuel Walker’s activism, and the traumas Leslie experienced in adolescence triggering her cycle of incarceration. Throughout the film, Walker and Leslie share how imprisonment and re-entry have reshaped their relationship and created new pathways toward advocacy.

Breaking Silence

Breaking Silence explores the relationship between a deaf father and his hearing daughter, reflecting on how imprisonment has shaped their relationship and their advocacy.

“I think I know what happened, but we’ve never really talked about it.” In Still Waters, filmmaker Aurora Brachman asks her mother a question she’s always suspected but never known the answer to. When her mother confirms she was sexually abused as a child, they are forced to face its reverberating effects throughout their lives. This intimate, confronting, and cathartic conversation charts a mother and daughter's relationship as they navigate the intergenerational forces of secrecy and silence that have shaped them both. Intertwined with imagery of the elemental forces of water, earth, and fire, they wade through their past and grapple with their present.

Still Waters

Through a series of extraordinarily honest and intimate conversations, filmmaker Aurora Brachman examines the intergenerational fallout of experiences her mother endured as a child. Together, they forge a path forward that offers them a new beginning.

A former military barracks of the Wehrmacht now serves as a refugee camp for people from Ukraine. "waking up in silence" accompanies the children on their journey, where their own history intertwines with that of the barracks. A moment between past and future, war and silence, departure and arrival, which paints a portrait of German past and present through the eyes of its young protagonists.

waking up in silence

Ukrainian children are confronted with their past as they explore their new home in Germany: a former Wehrmacht military barracks.

Nǎi Nai is my grandma. Wài Pó is also my grandma. Together, they are a grandma super team that dances, stretches, and farts their sorrows away.

Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma)

United States of America

Close Knit

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Nashville Film Festival161 Rains AveNashville, TN 37203

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A selection of festival films will be available from Monday, October 2nd through Sunday, October 8th for at-home viewing.  Please note that not all films screening in-person will also be made available in the Virtual Cinema and in limited cases, geo-based restrictions may apply to some viewers outside of Tennessee. Tickets for virtual film screenings can be purchased individually for $15 or are included at no additional cost for all ICON, INDUSTRY and VIP badge holders.  For more information on accessing and optimizing Virtual Cinema content, please visit Eventive FAQs or contact the NashFilm Box Office.  

Welcome! The 54th Nashville Film Festival includes films ranging in genres from narratives, documentaries, animation, horror and much more!

Here's what's coming up soon. Can't make it? No worries. Many live streams will be available for on-demand viewing as well.