Join the Philadelphia Film Society in our annual screening of the ""2025 Oscar® Nominated Shorts - Documentary"" at the PFS Bourse.
DEATH BY NUMBERS
USA | 33 MINS | 2024
Director: Kim A. Snyder
DEATH BY NUMBERS turns an intimate lens on school shooting survivor Sam Fuentes’s journey to reclaim her power, processing trauma through journaling. To prepare for a confrontation with her assailant in his harrowing sentencing trial, she examines complex questions of collective hatred and justice.
I AM READY, WARDEN
USA | 37 MIN | 2024
Director: Smriti Mundhra
I AM READY, WARDEN, by acclaimed filmmaker Smriti Mundhra (INDIAN MATCHMAKING, ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN) tells the harrowing and emotionally charged story of John Henry Ramirez, a man convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Texas. Through his time on death row, the film offers a rare and intimate glimpse into his attempts to seek redemption and reconciliation.
INCIDENT
USA | 30 MIN | 2023
Director: Bill Morrison
Through a montage of surveillance and police body-camera footage, a reconstruction of a deadly shooting by a Chicago police officer becomes an investigation into how a narrative begins to take shape in the aftermath.
INSTRUMENTS OF A BEATING HEART
JAPAN | 23 MIN | 2024
Director: Ema Ryan Yamazaki
First graders in a Tokyo public elementary school are presented with a challenge for the final semester: to form an orchestra and perform “Ode to Joy” at a school ceremony.
THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA
USA | 35 MIN | 2024
Director: Molly O’Brien
Trailblazing double bassist Orin O’Brien was never one to seek the spotlight, but when Leonard Bernstein hired her in 1966 as the first female musician in the New York Philharmonic, she inevitably became the focus of media attention and, ultimately, one of the most renowned musicians of a generation.