Reel Sisters Virtual Showcase 2026 – Program 5

Iku Aka (Knocking on the Door)

Director/Writer: Tiffany Lotanna Onyejekwe

Producer: Tiffany Lotanna Onyejekwe, Epiphany Ciers, Onyii Ogomaka, Asari Aibangbee

Narrative, 12:13 min.

As Chinelo prepares for her Iku Aka, the joyful beginning of her Igbo marriage, a long-hidden family secret surfaces, turning celebration into reckoning and forcing her to decide whether tradition will be her guide or her jailer.

Food for the Soul

Director/Writer: Chisom Chieke

Producer: Justice A. Whitaker

Narrative, 17:38 min.

As cultures clash and insufferable parents meddle, a first generation Nigerian American and her Black American boyfriend must decide between being true to themselves or trying to live up to their families’ expectations…a risk to their happily ever after.

Never Stand Down: The Quraishi Family

Director: Elena Chang

Writer: Gene Wang

Producers: Elena Chang, Aries Liao, Suma Reddy, Constance Sng

Documentary, 16:46 min.

For Indian Pakistani American Khalid Quraishi, his daughter Zunaira’s announcement that she was ready to marry the woman of her dreams was a joyous, even miraculous, occasion. Having lived through the Partition, persecution, and the harrowing threat of nearly losing Zunaira to illness, Khalid never once doubted what his Muslim faith had taught him to believe was most important of all: his love for his family.

Waska: The Forest Is My Family

Director: Nina Gualinga, Boloh Miranda, Eli Virkina

Producers: Marc Silver, Lindsay Poulton, Jess Gormley, Tracy Rector

Documentary, 15 min.

As commodification and extractivism in the Amazon Rainforest extends to the plant medicine hayakwaska, the granddaughter of a Yachak (shaman) reveals the essence of what it means to live as part of the forest.