The Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District announces the 2025 Bethesda Film Fest. The screenings will be held at 7pm.Tickets are $15. More info on the 2025 festival.

Film by Amin El Siwi-Back to the Sky (13 minutes)

Back to the Sky delves into the extraordinary journey of Suzanne Shoemaker, a dedicated licensed falconer whose passion for raptors has reshaped her life and home. In suburban Maryland, Suzanne transferred her basement and backyard into a thriving sanctuary for injured and displaced birds of prey.

Director Biography
Amin El Siwi is an Egyptian filmmaker based in Washington, D.C. He has a Master’s Degree in Film and Media production from American University in Washington, D.C. Currently, he works as a multimedia producer for the World Bank Group in the communications department with a focus on the Middle East and North of Africa. In 2015, he moved from Egypt to Washington, D.C. to work as a producer for the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. In 2019, he won the People’s Voice Webby Award for a short documentary titled Rukiye. Between 2013 and 2015, he worked as assistant producer and assistant director in independent feature films and documentaries in Egypt.

Black PrintmakersBlack Printmakers of Washington, DC: Percy B. Martin and Michael B. Platt (26 minutes)
Film by Susan Goldman

Washington, D.C. has a rich history of Black-owned printmaking workshops where artists thrived and formed community. Printmakers Percy Martin and Michael Platt participated in political movements and had a large impact on American art and arts education. Their story is part of a larger history. Before the 1970's, Black artists had few opportunities to own their own studios and showcase their art, but the Civil Rights Act of 1964 expanded the number of Black owned businesses. Martin founded WD Printmaking Workshop while Platt established Platt Studios. These studios embraced a steady flow of emerging and established artists. During a time when Black artists were denied access to the city’s galleries, museums and universities, Percy and Michael offered places where Black artists formed community, shared ideas, exhibited their work and made prints.

Director Biography
Susan J. Goldman is an artist, master printmaker, curator, writer and filmmaker. Goldman is the Founding Director of Lily Press, located in Rockville, MD. She is also Founding Director of Printmaking Legacy Project, a non-profit dedicated to the documentation, preservation and conservation of printmaking practice and history. Goldman received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Indiana University, and Master of Fine Arts from Arizona State University. After moving to Washington, D.C. in 1990, Goldman taught printmaking at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, MICA, Georgetown University, and was Master Printer/Program Director at Pyramid Atlantic. Goldman sustains a full-time vibrant studio practice producing and exhibiting her own work nationally and internationally. Her work is in private and public collections worldwide.

DelMarDelMar (15 minutes)
Film by Lucy Morales Carlisle

A young surfer on the cusp of adulthood navigates life between two worlds. Brenda spent the majority of her life in El Zonte, El Salvador, a rural beach town famous for its surf. Brenda began competing at the age of 15 and quickly rose through the ranks locally, making her dreams of traveling and surfing around the world seemingly more attainable. In 2017, however, Brenda moved to Maryland, a state not known for its beaches nor its perfect waves, to reunite with her mother, whom she had never met. Brenda now has to figure out how to navigate the two worlds. Back home in El Zonte, she's a respected surfer who is part of a larger community; in Maryland, she is just another immigrant to the United States.
 
Director Biography
Lucy Morales Carlisle received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in Media Arts from The City College of New York. As an immigrant displaced by the Salvadoran Civil War, her work deals with themes of identity and isolation, alternate universes and the manipulation of time and space. She won a PanoNetwork Micro Grant for post-production services, Best Experimental film at the CUNY Film Festival in 2015, and a Webby in 2019 for Best Social Food Video. She wishes to tell stories concurrent with the Latinx diaspora, focusing on women and culture.

Dora Fugh LeeDora Fugh Lee: A Life in Art (27 minutes)
Film by E. Samantha Cheng

Visual artist Dora Fugh Lee was born in 1929 to a Manchurian Chinese noble family in Beijing, China. Dora is a direct descendant of Empress Xiaoxianchun of the **** clan. She grew up during extraordinarily tumultuous times in China’s history: fallout from the abdication of the last Emperor, two invasions by the Empire of Japanese, World War I, and the civil war between Chinese Nationalists and the Communist Party. Through a personal lens, Dora’s life is explored as her art developed and reveals why her works are so compelling. Trained by many of the great artists of China, Dora is often referred to as one of the last of the Chinese Literati Painters. This film reveals a unique Chinese and American story.

Producer Biography
E. Samantha Cheng is an American producer, director, writer, documentarian and journalist. She has devoted much of her career to raising the visibility of Asian Pacific Islander Americans, and women in technology and their contributions to United States history. Cheng is the president and co-founder of Heritage Series which specializes in educational programs about ethnic minorities in the United States. She owned and operated the multi-media company, Television Production Services (TPS), for 25 years. Ms. Cheng’s broadcast and media production spans over 40years. She has worked extensively both in the United States and throughout the world. Prior to establishing TPS in 1992, Ms. Cheng’s broadcast credits include: World News Tonight, ABC Weekend News, ABC This Week with David Brinkley, ABC Nightline, and Maryland Public Broadcasting..
 
MonumentMonument (17 minutes)
Film by Jeremy Drummond

Monument pairs hand-processed and chemically-altered Super 8mm film footage of the decaying monuments of Presidents Park in Croaker, VA with original and appropriated community video footage captured at Marcus-David Peters Circle in Richmond, VA during the Covid-19 pandemic and the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Themes of registration and re-calibration, and metaphor and analogy, are explored through form and content and the distinct features of the media employed.

Director Biography
Jeremy Drummond is an artist, filmmaker, and programmer who teaches experimental film, video art, and alternative media in the Department of Art and Art History, University of Richmond. Drummond's work has been exhibited in festivals, galleries and museums worldwide. His films and videos have received awards such as the National Film Board of Canada Award at the Images Festival of Independent Film, Video and New Media (Toronto), Best Experimental Video at the Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival, the People's Choice Award at the New Forms Festival (Vancouver), and the No Budget Award at the Cinematexas Festival of International Film and Video (Austin). He has received grants and fellowships from the Canada Council for the Arts, the National Film Board of Canada and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
 
Moon CrabMoon Crab (10 minutes)
Film by Leah Claire Michaels

Moon Crab is a meditation on the horseshoe crab, one of Earth's oldest living species now struggling with extreme population decline. Blending reflections on nature's cycles with experimental visuals, the film employs an array of techniques, including eco-processed film developed with seaweed, to immerse the viewer in the crab's subaquatic world. Narrated with intimate depth by physiologist Dr. Abner Lall, the filmmaker’s neighbor, this documentary captures a timeless story of resilience and fragility, urging us to reconsider our connection to the natural world.
 
Director Biography
Leah Clare Michaels is a Baltimore native, artist, activist, historian, writer and surfer. She has produced documentary films, multi-media installations, and performance art rooted in historical research, social justice, and cultural exchange. Michaels has taught and presented in the United States, Europe and Asia. Her written work has appeared in BmoreArt, UMBC Magazine, and the Debutante Journal based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She teaches film, media art, and cinema studies at Towson University and Anne Arundel Community College. She was awarded a Fulbright grant to Poland for the 2023-2024 academic year. She received a Bachelor of Arts in History with a focus in Classics from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2012 and a Master of Fine Arts in Intermedia and Digital Arts from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2019

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