Dec 5th 2025

Doc Chicago Shorts

@ Chicago Filmmakers

1326 W Hollywood Ave, Chicago, IL 60660

Opening Friday, December 5th, from 7PM - 9PM

This year’s Doc Chicago conference kicks off with a showcase of recent short documentaries that highlight the diversity of concerns, stories, and styles shaping Chicago’s vibrant documentary scene. Q&A with filmmakers to follow.

The program features several brand-new works, including MR DOREMUS DOES WHAT HE CAN (2025, 14 min), veteran producer Fenell Doremus’s offbeat yet tender portrait of her 85-year-old dad’s weekly graffiti cleanup. In MAGIC BROWN ARTIST (2025, 13 min), filmmaker Dinesh Sabu and visual artist victor yañez-lazcano are drawn into a surreal hybrid documentary that explores what it means to make art while being brown. From Icelandic filmmaker Gríma Irmudóttir—who has made Chicago home for several years—comes the award-winning MINNINGASPOR (MEMORY TRACES) (2025, 19 min), a deeply personal and poetic meditation on loss and grief.

Festival favorite BROKEN FLIGHT (2024, 18 min) by Erika Valenciana and Mitchell Wenkus follows Chicago Bird Collision Monitors as they rescue injured birds, presenting a lens of environmental change that impacts every landscape. Truth & Documentary’s KIDNAPPING IS NOT A CAREER (2025, 5 min) observes what happens at the Chicago Job Fair where U.S. Customs and Border Patrol had a recruitment table. Rounding out the program is a special sneak-preview of Paloma Martinez’ RICKY LEAVES (26 min), in which her brother Ricardo prepares to move out of his childhood home just as their parents plan to return to their native Mexico. When the siblings watch their long-forgotten home movies, what they discover is not quite what they remember.

Program Runtime: ~90m

Doc Chicago‍ hosts monthly meet-ups, presents film events, and organizes a mini-conference that brings Midwest documentary filmmakers together to exchange ideas, learn, and connect. Based in the spirit of mutual aid, Doc Chicago offers a space for documentary filmmakers to gain new insights and strengthen our connections across the region. http://www.docchicago.com/

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