documentary short Films in 2025 UMFF

2025 Universe Multicultural Film Festival Documentary short  Films
    9066: Fear, Football, and the Theft of Freedom
|United States| 22:08 | Documentary
Director: Chris Jones
When former NFL linebacker and Super Bowl champion Scott Fujita traces his family history back to Japanese internment during World War II, he and his father find reconciliation and discover the unlikeliest of football stories.
   

Benevolence
|China| 4:26 | Documentary | Student-Made
Directors: Bradom Zhang, Sunny Shen
The “Barefoot Doctors” were minimally trained healthcare workers who brought medical care to rural China from the 1960s to the 1980s. Integrated into national policy in 1968, the program ended with the 1985 medical reforms and privatization. Now largely gone, a few still practice the old ways—among them is Wenxin Su, one of the last remaining barefoot doctors

           
   

Monisto
|Russia| 32:15 | Dcoumentary
Director: Gulnaz Galimullina
Monisto traces the life of a Bashkir women’s coin-breastplate—once a protective, status-telling heirloom—through revolution, repression, and World War II, when women surrendered their silver to the war effort. Set around the yurt that marks every milestone in a young Bashkir woman’s life, the film follows the jewelry’s near-erasure and its modern revival by contemporary artisans, revealing Bashkir rites, traditions, and cultural resilience across the ages.

    |Passages: a Video Memoir
|United States| 19:48 | Documentary
Director: Harris Cohen
A VETERAN TIBURON CA.BASED (SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA) DOCUMENTARIAN LOOKS BACK AT HIS TRANSITIONS. STARTING AS A VIET NAM WAR FILM EDITOR FOR CBS NETWORK - SPENDING YEARS IN THE KPIX SAN FRANCISCO FIELD PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT - FOUNDING MAGNETIC IMAGE VIDEO PRODUCTION FACILITY - THEN GOING ON TO MAKING AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY SHORTS FOR NON PROFITS AND FILM FESTIVALS
           
   

Relationship from the Highest Place
|South Korea| 16:21 | Documentary | Student-Made
Director: Changwook Chun

   

Second Chance
|United States| 8:39 | Documentary
Director: India Anne Mitchell
An inspired young filmmaker who witnessed a disturbing incident at school looks inside Juvenile Hall and Court, through the moving account of a juvenile offender and his parents, as well as the insights of the judge, attorneys and probation officer. Second Chance takes a step towards better understanding, compassion and ultimately, hope for juveniles who are some of the most vulnerable in our society, and who are also part of its future.