Atlanta Documentary Film Festival 2026: Shorts #4, Still Here (Day 4)

From the venue:

The Atlanta Documentary Film Festival returns March 19 - 22 at Synchronicity Theatre in Midtown Atlanta for our 21st annual celebration of documentary films.

This year’s program includes powerful investigative films, personal stories, and documentaries that are funny, surprising, and deeply human. Some films will challenge you. Others may make you laugh or see something in a new way. That range of tone is part of what makes documentary filmmaking so exciting.

For the first time, the festival will also present a separate collection of films online, March 23 - April 6, giving audiences another way to discover documentaries beyond the theater.

Join us in Atlanta for four days of remarkable nonfiction storytelling. If you can't make the live event, be sure to check out our online selections.

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Dearly Beloved

Director e c balazs - 6 min. - USA

An intimate meditation on grief, love, and transformation in the wake of Prince's death. Following a chronological pilgrimage through the homes where Prince lived—from birth to death—the filmmaker searches for traces of the artist in the places he has left behind, drawing on 9 years of documentation in Minnesota.

Baby Hummingbirds

Director Marc Huestis - USA - 8 min.

In 2023, after I was the victim of a brutal sexual assault by a serial rapist, a hummingbird family nested in my backyard saved my life. This 8 minute deeply personal short poetically juxtaposes the strength, resilience, joy and beauty of these hummingbirds against the horror of this violent violation.

Prison and Time

Director Evan Bode - USA - 7 min.

Filmmaker Evan Bode animates excerpts of an essay by writer & activist Marvin Wade, who speaks personally about his 25 years of incarceration—and the growth he achieved in spite of, not because of, the inhumane prison system around him.

What You Left

Director Cheryl Hess  - USA - 5 min. 

Shot on 16mm film, this micro short moves through an abandoned rural village in Western Pennsylvania. Ruined houses, scattered belongings, and encroaching vegetation mark the passage of time, as nature steadily reclaims what was once human.

In Exchange For Flesh

Directors Sandro Ramani, Corey Devon Arthur - USA - 15 min.

Two incarcerated people expose the strip frisk, a routine prison practice that blurs the line between security and abuse. Using rare prison access, recorded calls, and archival footage, the film turns hidden humiliation into testimony and resistance.

Prodigal Daughter

Directors Nancy Peng, Steven Xiuyuan Chen - USA - 20 min.

Under the accountability of her most trusted friend, a young Chinese-American woman decides to document her repeated attempts — and failures — to recover from addiction.

The Four Noble Truths

Directors Asha Alaji-Sharif, Chris Lee Huot - USA - 5 min.

A short documentary that explores the relationship between religion and mental illness, as we learn about Maeta’s journey with schizophrenia, his sexuality and his family.

Last Words

Director Carson Brown - USA - 5 min.

A poetic doc on what we learn from loss.