Tranças

La Lucha: Getting Schooled in America

La Lucha follows five students navigating trauma, poverty, and broken systems as they fight to graduate. With expert voices and national stats, the film challenges us to rethink education from the ground up

This Temporal World

2022

A haunting story of the FBI's dark hand in American life. In 2015, Khalil Abu-Rayyan was just a young Muslim man in Detroit, Michigan: to get by, he delivered food for his family's pizzeria. Depressed and lonely, Khalil found solace in smoking weed and looking at extremist material online. Then two young women started messaging him, and he fell in love. But one of them suggested he start doing increasingly violent things. Nothing was as it seemed. And Khalil's life would never be the same. A documentary by Garret Harkawik for the Gravel Institute.

The Hundred Squares, the Blooming Equalities

2025

The Hundred Squares: "No more delays," the cry of citizens echoes from the lives of those barely holding out against discrimination and hatred. Struggling with diverse identities in their daily lives, citizens reflect on the meaning of "discrimination" through their own experiences and testimonies. They question and reflect on what is needed to eliminate it and speak out before the camera. The Blooming Equalities: discrimination law that has been on hold for 20 years. A lawyer, a researcher, a religious figure, a writer, and an activist stand in the square again after a year, and, in this time of rampant right-wing extremism and hate, they speak of an anti-discrimination law as "the right answer to ending the insurrection, the last line of defense for human dignity, a current that can no longer be held back, a square that cannot at all harm families, churches, and the nation, and a place where the voices of the less fortunate can be heard."

Neighbor by Neighbor: Mobilizing an Invisible Community in Lewiston, Maine

2009

In the summer of 2004, the Mayor of Lewiston, Maine announced a plan to develop a four-lane boulevard across downtown's low-income neighborhood. This project was called "The Heritage Initiative." Contrary to its name, this plan was going to eliminate the downtown's heritage by displacing 850 people from their homes as well as destroy playgrounds, vegetable gardens, and historic buildings. Moving residents out of the city and improving traffic flow was at the heart of this proposal... It was 1960's Urban Renewal all over again. As tragic as the circumstances were, the threat of a road destroying the neighborhood required residents to rise to the challenge of becoming *community organizers. This movie documents 5 years of development and community organizing in Lewiston. It's an exceptional story about the people of Lewiston, but it's also a universal story about the challenges faced by many urban neighborhoods across the United States.

Tarik Shah: Don't Play Like Them

2025

Tarik Shah, supremely talented Muslim American jazz bassist, endured 15 years of unjust imprisonment. Shah toured with jazz legend Betty Carter and was invited to play at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, only to be unfairly targeted by the FBI after 9/11. This is the inspirational true story of his music, resilience, and unconquerable spirit

Phoolan

★ 10

Phoolan is a documentary film about the extraordinary life of a village girl, gang-rape survivor, bandit leader, and finally parliamentarian. This is the story of one woman’s fight against incredible odds for justice and dignity. Known as India’s Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi is considered by many to be one of the most extraordinary and controversial women of our time.

That World Is Gone: Race and Displacement in a Southern Town

2010

Kathy's family left on a Saturday morning in 1965. The rumble of bulldozers echoed through the neighborhood, and her block was empty. Federally-funded urban renewal had arrived in Charlottesville, scattering dozens of families like Kathy's. The once-vibrant African American community, built by formerly enslaved men and women who had secured a long-denied piece of the American dream, disappeared.

UNSPOKEN

2022

An intimate insider’s journey to uncover buried truths and explore how the community in Monroe, Georgia has been impacted by the 1946 quadruple lynching and decades of racial injustice, shattering a code of silence that has distanced neighbor from neighbor for generations.

Rainbow Elders

2020

Elders in the LGBTQ2+ community come together to navigate concerns around inclusion late in life, while learning how to support each other in a safe space that celebrates their sexuality.

The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp

2024

Three men seeking asylum in Ireland find themselves on the streets, caught between restrictive migration policies and an increasingly aggressive far-right movement. Dennis Harvey captures an explosive sequence of events on the streets of Dublin.

Ricochet

2021

When a young woman is shot by an undocumented immigrant on Pier 14 in San Francisco, the incident ignites a political and media furor that culminates in Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. In the eye of this storm, two public defenders fight to reveal the truth.

Breathe Freedom: the John McNeil story

2026

John McNeil's life turns upside down when he's unexpectedly arrested for a self-defense incident that occurred months earlier. Despite initial police clearance, he faces a harrowing journey through the justice system.