For the team here at S/W, one of the things that always excites us about short film is the opportunity it presents for diverse, unrepresented voices to be heard. The freedom the format offers means that perspectives from communities rarely captured on screen are given a chance to been seen, understood and appreciated. It’s an important element of our curation and one of the main aspects that makes short film so interesting and so exciting. Netflix and Adobe obviously agree, as it was one of the driving motivators behind The Great Untold initiative the duo launched in May 2021.

Based around the question ‘what’s a story only you can tell?’, a portion of the partnership involved a short film competition where TikTok users were invited to pitch a trailer tackling this idea. From the entries, three winners were selected and given a $10k budget, access to Adobe tools and a mentor (one of whom was Maisie Richardson-Sellers – director of S/W pick Sunday’s Child) to guide them through the process of turning these ideas into a short film. The three shorts are now complete and can be watched below and although the filmmaking/storytelling is a little rough around the edges (as you would expect from novice filmmakers), the sentiment behind Netflix and Adobe giving these young creatives a platform to raise their voices is one we can totally get behind and hope to see more of in the future.

Watch the Short Films

Last to the Wild

Dir. Keara Anderson

Last To The Wild is a short film about isolation and connection. It features a young man who has lived his entire life surrounded by friends on the beautiful Alaskan landscape. But as his friends decide to leave Alaska behind, he is left to contemplate what home means to him.

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The Game

Dir. Samba Diop

The Game is a character drama with a sci-fi twist. The story explores the inner conflict of the word “immigrant” by showing a world with two distinct parts, represented by two seemingly identical yet opposite characters. These two young men must play a chess game once a year in an isolated cabin. The winner gets to spend their year living freely, while the loser must stay in the cabin until the next game, unaware of what is happening in the outside world.

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The Refugee

Dir. Jonny Morales

The Refugee tells the story of a teenage girl from Columbia who attends a typical small town American high school. To help her adapt to her new life, a Mexican-American student is forced to spend his time showing her around. But, just like her, he struggles with his own conflicting identities.

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