Past Festivals
2025 Margaret Mead Film Festival
The three-day celebration took place from Friday, May 2–Sunday, May 4, 2025 and presented storytelling and documentary films from diverse voices near and far.
Read more about the full line-up of features, short films, and special events by downloading the program.
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Text “American Museum of Natural History Margaret Mead Film Festival” appears over footage of Watan, subject of Make It Look Real, dragging a display case outside of a tiny storefront with a painted sign and photographs covering every inch of its doors and walls.
Close-up on Samid and Ayaz, protagonists of The Return of the Projectionist, as they work on a projector.
Close-up on Viktor, the protagonist of Viktor, wearing a head lamp in the dark. The text “Documentary Films” is superimposed on his face.
Seven children, subjects of Favoriten, sit at two different tables in a classroom, smiling and laughing.
In a brick-walled room with a television set on, a girl lifts up an even younger girl in a fancy dress up and swings her around as a little boy and three seated adults look on. They are subjects of Night of the Coyotes.
A full seated audience in LeFrak Theater look toward a speaker in front of the screen. Text “Special Events” is superimposed over the image.
A pack of dogs, from Folktales, lead a sled through a narrow, snowy path between snow-covered trees. Close-ups on the dogs faces, mouths, and ears as they run.
Wanjugu Kimathi, subject of Our Land, Our Freedom, wears an orange safety vest and stands in the front of rows of people, speaking into a microphone.
Kutoven Stevens, subject of Remaining Native, runs fast down a track. Text “We Are The Story” is superimposed over him.
Text “American Museum of Natural History Margaret Mead Film Festival May 2-4" appears over image of a hanging lightbulb and rising smoke.
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Text “American Museum of Natural History. Learn More: amnh.org/mead” appears over the same image of the lightbulb.
- Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award: Brink of Dreams
- Special Jury Mention: The Return of the Projectionist
- Audience Award: River of Grass
Julian Brave NoiseCat
Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, and student of Salish art and history. His first documentary, Sugarcane, directed alongside Emily Kassie, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the Indian residential school where NoiseCat’s family was sent near Williams Lake, British Columbia. Sugarcane premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where NoiseCat and Kassie won the Directing Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition. The film has been recognized with dozens of awards, including Best Documentary from the National Board of Review and the Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award for NoiseCat and Kassie, and was nominated for a 2025 Academy Award. A proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen and descendant of the Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie, NoiseCat is the author of We Survived the Night, which will be published by Alfred A. Knopf on October 21, 2025.
Ryan Krivoshey
Ryan Krivoshey is a veteran of the independent film scene and the founder of Grasshopper Film, a leading distribution company established in 2015. Grasshopper’s acclaimed releases include Last Men in Aleppo, Pacifiction, Vitalina Varela, Leviathan, and Days. With a library of more than 500 films, the company champions both emerging and established filmmakers. Previously, Krivoshey served as director of distribution at Cinema Guild, expanding its theatrical slate and presence. He has also worked at Icarus Films and Film Forum, building a career dedicated to supporting independent cinema.
Irene Sosa
Irene Sosa is a Venezuelan-born documentarian and professor in the Department of Television Radio and Emerging Media and the Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at CUNY Brooklyn College. Sosa has dedicated her career to exploring the intersection of media, culture, and social justice. Her films, including Sexual Exiles, Vertical Slum and Shopping to Belong, explore the culture of marginalization and the evolving dynamics of identity and space. In 2004, she was commissioned by the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea to show her documentaries about the feminist artist Nancy Spero, which have since been featured in the MoMA PS1 and the Rufino Tamayo Museum. As a Fulbright Scholar and artist, she continues to challenge conventional narratives, using her craft to amplify voices often overlooked in mainstream media.
- Bright Future (Andra MacMasters, 2024, North Korea)
- Brink of Dreams (Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir, 2024, Egypt)
- Favoriten (Ruth Beckermann, 2024, Austria)
- FOLKTALES (Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, 2025, Norway)
- How Deep Is Your Love (Eleanor Mortimer, 2025, United Kingdom)
- Land with No Rider (Tamar Lando, 2025, USA)
- Make It Look Real (Danial Shah, 2024, Pakistan)
- Night of the Coyotes (Clara Trischler, 2024, Mexico)
- Our Land, Our Freedom (Meena Nanji, Zippy Kimundu, 2023, Kenya)
- Partition (Diana Allan, 2025, Palestine)
- Remaining Native (Paige Bethmann, 2025, USA)
- River of Grass (Sasha Wortzel, 2025, USA)
- Seeds (Brittany Shyne, 2025, USA)
- The Return of the Projectionist (Orkhan Agazade, 2024, Azerbaijan)
- The Shepherd and the Bear (Max Keegan, 2024, France, Spain)
- Viktor (Olivier Sarbil, 2024, Ukraine)
2024 Margaret Mead Film Festival
The four-day celebration took place from Thursday, May 9–Sunday, May 12, 2024 and presented storytelling, documentary films, and live performances from diverse voices near and far.
Read more about the full line-up of features, short films, and special events by downloading the program.
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Text “American Museum of Natural History Margaret Mead Film Festival” appears over footage of a child holding a small airplane toy with cloudy blue sky above.
Two people stand in a car with their heads emerging from the sunroof and raise their arms. One of them speaks into a megaphone.
A group of children dive into water, causing a splash.
Three children run down a street, one of them holding the detached handlebar and wheel of a bicycle.
Text “Documentary Films” is superimposed on the interior of a wooden barn-like building with two construction workers standing by the door.
Text “Special Events” is superimposed on a small crowd of people standing in the dark. A few people hold up flashlights, faintly illuminating the people’s outlines.
Text “Special Events” is superimposed on an adolescent in a playground jumping up to reach a bar with both hands while an adult stands nearby and puts a beanie on.
Text “Performances” superimposed on a close-up of two singers standing in front of microphones. One of the singers has a braided updo and wears a shiny, dangling earring.
Text “We Are The Story” superimposed on a person in a colorful sweater standing in front of a building made of rocks and natural materials with two large, closed wooden windows.
Text “We Are The Story” superimposed on a close-up on a Krahô (an indigenous people of Northern Brazil) person who is wearing a thin headband.
Text “May 9-12" superimposed on a modest crowd of people sitting in folding chairs and watching small fireworks go off beside an American flag in a clearing surrounded by trees.
Text “Margaret Mead Film Festival” superimposed on a full seated audience in the LeFrak Theater watching a large screen which shows a close-up images of fiery sparks.
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Text “American Museum of Natural History. Learn more amnh.org/mead” appears on screen on top of a blank dark background.
- Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award: Sugarcane
- Audience Award: Agent of Happiness
Harjant Gill is an associate professor of anthropology at Towson University. His research examines the intersections of gender, sexuality, transnationality, and popular culture in India. Gill is also an award-winning filmmaker and has made several ethnographic films that have screened at international film festivals and on television channels worldwide including BBC World News, Doordarshan (Indian National TV), and PBS. Gill is the president of Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA). He also co-directed the SVA Film & Media Festival (2012–2014; 2021–2022).
Tabitha Jackson is an independent consultant and arts advocate. She is the first woman and person of color to have been appointed Director of the Sundance Film Festival. Between 2013 and 2020 she led the Documentary Film Program at the Sundance Institute, advocating for bold creativity and formal innovation in nonfiction cinema. Throughout her 30-year career in film and public broadcasting, and as an Emmy-winning director-producer, executive producer, commissioning editor, and non-fiction author she has demonstrated an unshakeable belief in the vital role of independent film, and the arts as a public good.
Billy Luther (Navajo, Hopi, and Laguna Pueblo) is the director/producer of the award-winning documentary Miss Navajo, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS’ Independent Lens that same year. His second documentary feature, Grab, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally on Public Television. In 2018, he launched his web series alter-NATIVE for PBS’ IndieLens StoryCast. He is a writer and director for the AMC series Dark Winds. His debut directorial feature, Frybread Face and Me, was selected as part of SXSW 2023’s Narrative Spotlight and TIFF 2023’s Discovery and New Wave Selects.
- 23 Mile (Mitch McCabe, 2024, USA)
- Above and Below the Ground (Emily Hong, 2024, Myanmar)
- Agent of Happiness (Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó, 2024, Bhutan)
- Meanwhile (Catherine Gund, 2024, USA) -
- Mother Suriname - Mama Sranan (Tessa Leuwsha, 2023, Suriname/Netherlands)
- Nocturnes (Anupama Srinivasan, Anirban Dutta, 2024, India/USA)
- Ozogoche (Joe Houlberg Silva, 2023, Ecuador)
- Porcelain War (Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, 2024, Ukraine)
- Pure Unknown (Valentina Cicogna, Mattia Colombo, 2023, Italy / Switzerland / Sweden)
- Rising Up at Night (Nelson Makengo, 2024, DRC / Belgium / Germany)
- Sugarcane (Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie, 2024, USA)
- The Buriti Flower (Renée Nader Messora, João Salaviza, 2023, Brazil/Portugal)
- This Is Going to Be Big (Thomas Charles Hyland, 2023, Australia)
- ᏓᏗᏬᏂᏏ (We Will Speak) (Schon Duncan, Michael McDermit, 2023, USA)