Breakout Stars of the 2017 Austin Film Festival

A year-in-the-life journey through endangered species recovery, this beautifully shot film follows passionate field biologist Joseph Brandt to reveal the realities of bringing the iconic California condor back from the brink of extinction. Filmed in the rugged California habitat of the condor, the film interweaves scenes of the extreme lengths that biologists will take to reestablish a self-sustaining wild condor population with insights from conservations, scientists, zoo keepers and hunters to explore the dilemma of the very first recovery program to be executed after the passage of the Endangered Species Act. It's a mission tasked to biologists but fundamentally wrapped up in public policy - revealing the true challenge of environmental sustainability - that place where human preferences clash with the goal of renewal.

Lots of people know a little about The Republic of Maldives, and those who were lucky enough to visit it, just know that it's a little paradise in the Indian ocean. It's an Islamic republic that might disappear because of the global warming and the shrinking of the polar ice caps, this film will introduce the audience to the history and culture of an old country, and in the same time it will show in a very indirect way the danger of global warming.

Ars Medicina is a story about a team of doctors and surgeons who undertake a journey of personal discovery and compassion. The medical team travels to Solola, a breathtakingly beautiful but impoverished jungle community in rural Guatemala. For six days the team works around the clock with limited equipment and supplies to perform life-saving treatments and operations for the thousands of Mayan Indians and Guatemalans who come for help. Their journey gives insight into the heart-breaking reality of health care in under-developed countries, but also provides a glimmer of hope for the future. For many of the patients it is their first experience in modern medicine. For many of the doctors it is their first experience in endless need. The experience changes both the doctors' and patients' lives forever.

In 1988, Massachusetts dentist, Ted Keary and seventy enthusiastic volunteers traveled to one of the western hemisphere's poorest regions, Tela Honduras. It was this team of adventurous volunteers who spearheaded the mission of Cape CARES. Since then, nine dedicated teams armed with the passion to help others, have endured harsh conditions to provide medical and dental care in remote villages no one else dares to go. Behind The Lines in Los Encinitos profiles one committed team's efforts to provide critically needed services to the vulnerable populations of this mostly overlooked area of Honduras. This is the third in a series of documentaries which profile Cape CARES.

'We've been shortchanged on the change!' In 2009, two years before the Occupy Wall Street protests began, urban designer and policy analyst Michael E. Arth decided to take on the one percenters. While traversing the length and breadth of Florida on a bicycle, he found that running for higher office within the corrupt American political system is like wrestling a tornado, both literally and figuratively. Gov'nor is the inspiring true story of a Renaissance man with no money taking on a man with a questionable past who spent $73 million of his family's money to buy his way into office. 'Michael E. Arth is a hero for the people... a true, modern-day David against the Goliath...' - Sydney Solis

The Egyptian Christians are a sensitive thermometer indicating the times of tolerance, violence, and cultural changes in the Egyptian body and history. The Christian Copts have an untold story, hidden under the dust of negligence and misunderstanding in Egyptian society. A story started since Jesus went to Egypt, since Jesus was here.