A summer aboard the crabbing boat "Miss Paula" following Captain CJ Canby and his crew.

Anthony Evers is the best barber in West Baltimore, a trusted mentor whose shop is a sanctuary where clippers hum and young men share their dreams. Seventeen-year-old Scooter is one of his favorites, speaking excitedly about building a future for himself and his family as Anthony offers fatherly guidance. Intercut with these moments is a colder ritual: Anthony working late at night, performing the same precise motions under very different circumstances. The film reveals a devastating truth — Anthony also prepares his community’s dead, and Scooter, whose voice fills the shop with hope, is already gone. The Baltimore Barber is a haunting meditation on grief, gun violence, and the unseen labor holding Black communities together.

Josh runs into an old friend.

A grieving singer on the brink of giving up her dream audition finds unexpected courage in a voicemail from her late father.

Short psychological film following Nico as she navigates the emotional rollercoaster of healing from the abrupt ending of a friendship.

Kobe has trouble in paradise when waiting for a potential love interest to text him back and finally make things official. But with the help of his friends, and some self-assurance, Kobe moves on from his doomed longing. He finds love & healing within himself & even shares it with others. (Music Video)

Tattoo Medicine explores Pili's path as a brown indigenous Colombian person from the Muisca & Pijao people, highlighting the intersection of ancestral spirituality and healing in his tattoo practice. From his childhood struggles in Miami to being a resident artist at Fruit Camp, the most prominent queer-tattoo shop in Baltimore, the documentary delves into the challenges and triumphs of forging a unique, culturally rooted career in the world of tattooing.

Birth of the Black Butterfly is a short mixed animated film following a young film crew documenting the forgotten chaos that ensued when in 1910 a black lawyer, George McMechen dared to move into an all-white neighborhood. As they document the resulting white pushback including the nation’s first redlining laws, the filmmakers make the connections to the outright segregationist policies of 100 years ago to the housing inequalities and gentrification that is confronting their city of Baltimore today. In the process they discover a lost neighborhood of Cherry Heights (not Cherry Hill) that McMechen and Hawkins helped establish as a suburban counter to city living specifically marketed for African Americans. Cherry Heights has long been folded into Overlea. The Birth of the Black Butterfly, which derives its name by the book by Dr. Lawrence Brown, asks the question what can be done about some of the same prohibitive forces that were unleashed in the 19th century still prevalent today.

A portrait of West Baltimore unfolds through intimate family moments and searing social insight, revealing a community confronting its past while seeking healing and transformation.

Ambitious real estate agent Evan has always been at war with seasonal allergies, but this spring, as pollen counts soar, his sales tank at the worst possible time: just months before his wedding. Desperate for a solution, he crosses paths with a mysterious street vendor—the Rapper S.O.S.— who claims to have the cure. But at what cost?

While stranded in a small Icelandic town during a winter storm, a nosy woman develops a squish—a platonic crush—on the badass, aloof owner of a found GoPro who starts to open up once they discover they’re both on the asexual and aromantic spectrums.

Post-screening conversation with filmmakers Katrina Jackson & Catherine Bobalek (Aromcom), Matthew Herst (Halifax Pier), Whitney Chitwood (Sam Wants Her Sweater Back), and Yasmin Yassin (Woman Land). Moderated by our Director of Programming, KJ Mohr, alongside the MdFF Programming Team (James A. Burkhalter, Garrett Stralnic, Samantha Mitchell, Aishat Abiri, and Jasmine Patrick).