
FESTIVAL EVENT SCHEDULE
Join us for Cary’s hometown film festival, featuring four days of films, workshops and events for local residents and filmmakers from around the world. BEYOND is a friendly, unpretentious festival that welcomes cinema fans of all ages and from all walks of life to join us to celebrate the art of filmmaking.
THURSDAY – Sept. 15
2:00 p.m. – Cary at 150
FREE SCREENING w/ Filmmaker Q&A
Directed By: Hal Goodtree
From dusty crossroads to technology super-hub, Cary at 150 tells the story of the past, present and future of one of America’s most interesting communities.
7:00 p.m. – Angel of Alabama
OPENING NIGHT FILM w/ Filmmaker Q&A
Directed By: Elijah Yetter-Bowman
A seasoned investigator returns to rural Alabama to support her mother’s failing health and uncovers decades of pollution and unusually rampant disease within her hometown. In partnership with Southern Documentary Fund and N.C. Humanities
8:00 p.m. – OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION
BREW Coffee Bar
Sponsored by the Southern Documentary Fund
FRIDAY – Sept. 16
11:00 a.m. – SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP
Beyond The Page
Instructor: Q. Terah Jackson
This hands-on studio explores your creative writing process of developing a screenplay. Learn techniques used in Hollywood to sharpen your cinematic idea.
3:00 p.m. – FILMMAKER HAPPY HOUR
Pharmacy Bottle + Beverage
Sponsored by DigitalP Media
5:00 p.m. – BLOCK ONE – QUIET COURAGE

Myles Berrio – From Surviving to Thriving
Directed By: Anil Dhokai
(USA | 2022 | 8 min)
Myles Berrio shares his story of how a car accident changed his life, and how his faith and positive outlook helped shaped his journey through recovery.

James
Directed By: Lucy Collins
(USA | 2021 | 12 min)
In a neighborhood of million-dollar homes, James lives in a house that’s falling apart, tending to his plants that threaten to overwhelm his yard and talks of his difficult past, leaving behind his Appalachian Mountain home to find a new life.

Farmer Cee
Directed By: Clark Ivers
(USA | 2021 | 12 min)
Follow “Farmer Cee” as she starts a first-generation black owned family farm with the mission of reclaiming the land and growing organically amid a landscape dominated by larger white owned farms.

There’s No End
Directed By: Mattias Evangelista
(USA | 2021 | 20 min)
In the wake of personal tragedy, a legendary indie-rock musician moves to the remote San Juan Islands to raise his only daughter.

The Traditional Brazilian Family KATU
Directed By: Rodrigo Sena
(Brazil | 2021 | 25 min)
Twelve years after completing a 2007 photographic essay on the Eleutério do katu, RN Brazil, a photographer returns to katu in search of these protagonists, to learn about their personal trajectories and world views.
7:30 p.m. – BLOCK TWO – IN PURSUIT

First Final Ride
Directed By: Evan Kidd
(USA | 2022 | 11 min)
Don’t let your first ride in a hearse be your last. The story of Dirt Nap Fest taking place in Beaufort, N.C. A hearse festival for all.

Never Give Up: Akinori in Mooresville
Directed By: Royce Akifumi Wilmot
(USA | 2022 | 13 min)
24 years ago, a young Akinori Ogata flew from Kanagawa, Japan to Charlotte to attend the Coca-Cola 600, dreaming of one day racing in the Daytona 500. Alone in his small race shop, he chases that dream as he prepares his limited late model stock car for the biggest local race of the year.

From the Soul
Directed By: Barry Thornburg
(USA | 2021 | 20 min)
As Black gospel music is cast into the popular music spotlight, new and longtime practitioners of the genre, strive to remind us that it isn’t simply a fashionable aesthetic, but an agent of social change and of spiritual salve.

Chicken Soup for the Soil
Directed By: Brandon Gaesser
(USA | 2021 | 38 min)
Follow the journey of women farmers Rachel Herrick and Suzanne Nelson Karreman as they work to rehabilitate farm soil one pasture at a time.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 17
11:00 a.m. – WORKSHOP
Hindsight 2020: An Indie Filmmaking Retrospective
Instructors: Erika Arlee, Kristi Ray
In this workshop, learn to reverse engineer your creative goals, build a brand that people want to invest in, and scale your zero-budget short film concept into a fully funded feature. Includes a sneak peek at the instructors’ indie feature film, A Song For Imogene.
Â
2:00 p.m. – SCREENPLAY TABLE READ
Dark Ride
By: Brian W. Smith
Free Event w/ Screenwriter Q&A
Smith is an award-winning New York writer whose scripts have won and placed at GenreBlast, ZedFest, Shriekfest, Hollywood Horrorfest, NOLA Horror Film Festival and more. He is a film and script judge at the NYC Horror Film Festival as a member of the programming team and has screened films at the Big Apple Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and SXSW.
3:00 p.m. – FILMMAKER HAPPY HOUR
Chatham Street Wine Market
Sponsored by DigitalP Media
5:00 p.m. – BLOCK 3 – SURPRISING OUTCOMES

State of Flux
Directed By: Nick Laws
(USA | 2021 | 3 min)
Two attractive people run into each other on the street corner and discuss theoretical physics.

True Teddy
Directed By: Joe Pellegrino
(USA | 2022 | 5 min)
Teddy attempts to take control of his life after his wife leaves, taking their beloved cat, Lil Biscuits.

Prokop
Directed By: Danilo Stanimirović
(Serbia | 2021 | 10 min)
Prokop, Belgrade’s central train station, is a living architectural organism which drags traces from many epochs in which it existed but was never completed.

Sub-Relief
Directed By: Bamdad Pashoutan
(Iran | 2022 | 11 min)
A middle-aged woman tries to fill her loneliness with yard cat.

The Uncommon Garden
Directed By: Olympia Stone
(USA | 2021 | 21 min)
Creating a hidden garden was not Dan Krebill’s life plan until fate intervened. The result is a lush and layered paradise with hundreds of plants and trees (and even a stone dragon!) — a collaboration with artisans that changed both a landscape and a community.

Te’aa’s Guest
Directed By: Narges Kharghani
(Iran | 2022 | 30 min)
A young Iranian woman documents her experience staying at a couple’s house in the country of Georgia.
7:30 p.m. – BLOCK 4 – SURVIVAL INSTINCTS

The Sprayer
Directed By: Farnoosh Abedi
(Iran | 2022 | 9 min)
In the land occupied by the sprayer’s army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants either in public or private. One day a soldier finds a seed buried deep in the dust and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something revolutionary.

Echoes of Animals
Directed By: William Lilly
(USA | 2022 | 10 min)
A short film inspired by the classics of Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie that leaves more to the imagination with an emphasis on atmosphere and performance rather than over-the-top blood, guts, and gore.

This is Our Home
Directed By: A.K. Espada
(USA | 2021 | 14 min)
When their rodent infestation intensifies, a bleeding-heart vegan and her pragmatic roommate find themselves at odds concerning pest elimination methods both cruel and effective.

Identibye
Directed By: Sajjad Shahhatami
(Iran | 2021 | 15 min)
A man faces a dilemma – continue to be judged by the ones closest to you or pursue what matters most, your true identity.

She Keeps Me
Directed By: Erica Orofino
(Canada | 2021 | 16 min)
The strained relationship between two sisters reaches a dangerous climax in this exploration of family ties, mental illness, and self-sacrifice.

Ghostwriter…
Directed By: Vonii Bristow
(USA | 2021 | 20 min)
A young boy navigates life as a Black man raised by a father who chooses to love in his own, unique way. When his purest vessel of love challenges him, Simeon is forced to come to terms with his own actions and thoughts… and faces his worst nightmare.