Mead Film Festival: Sunday
Sunday, May 3, 2026
This three-day celebration takes place from Friday, May 1–Sunday, May 3, 2026, and will present storytelling and documentary films from diverse voices near and far.
Daughters of the Forest
2 pm | LeFrak Theater
Winner of the Visions Audience Award at SXSW, this journey into the forests of Mexico blends modern science with ancestral knowledge to evoke a world beyond human perception. Following two Indigenous mycologists exploring coexistence through mushrooms, the film is a call for the integration of science and culture.
Jaripeo
5 pm | LeFrak Theater
Reworking the iconography of masculinity, Jaripeo travels to the rodeos of Michoacán, Mexico, where queer desire and belonging simmers beneath the surface. With intimate sensitivity, the film reveals a vibrant community whose lives shimmer with resilience.
Nuisance Bear
7:30 pm | LeFrak Theater
Winner of the U.S. Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Nuisance Bear drops us into northern Canada, where a wandering polar bear becomes a menace to a small town. As tourism surges, the film observes an uneasy coexistence with the Inuit community, overturning nature-documentary conventions to reframe animals as agents in a rapidly changing world.
Generous support for the Margaret Mead Film Festival has been provided by
The Mead Trust.
A portion of the Margaret Mead Film Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.