Mini-Film Fest — Durango | Everyday Democracy Series

About the Film

Spend an evening with three short stories of daily life across America. Our Mini-Film Fest brings together three deeply human stories that illuminate everyday democracy in action, where identity and belonging intersect. 

This Is America offers reflections on contemporary life from big cities to small towns, two stories reflecting contemporary America. MnM is an exuberant portrait of chosen sisters Mermaid and Milan, two emerging runway divas in the drag ballroom community.

In Your Opinion, Please listeners across Montana call Yellowstone Public Radio to share their views on the world live on-air. 

La Orquesta follows Juana Alzaga as she builds Georgia’s first youth orchestra for immigrant families, creating belonging through music amid growing challenges. 

Classroom 4 takes us inside a prison classroom where shared learning reveals the human cost of mass incarceration and the power of connection. 

 > Learn more about the films here. 

 Together, these films invite us to see democracy as something lived, creative, and deeply personal.

After the Screening

Following the films, participants will gather for a facilitated conversation exploring access and community power. Together, we’ll reflect on who gets to belong, who gets to be heard, and how storytelling can help us imagine different futures for more Coloradans and beyond. 

Snacks and drinks provided.

This event is produced in partnership with Fort Lewis College.

This event is a collaboration with the award-winning documentary series POV (www.pbs.org/pov).

Filmmakers: Marshall Granger, Monica Villavicencio, Stephanie Liu, Eden Wurmfeld, Yael Bridge.

About the Series

This event is part of Everyday Democracy: Stories That Build Us, a community film and conversation series from Rocky Mountain Public Media’s Above the Noise initiative.

The series creates space for something essential: people talking to people about the real stuff of life—everyday experiences like care, work, belonging, childhood, and access to information that shape how we see the world and how we participate in it.

Across three months, Everyday Democracy presents four beautifully crafted films (that friends can find on the RMPBS+ app), each followed by small-group conversations that help build connection across differences and deepen our understanding of one another’s stories.

Above the Noise is Rocky Mountain Public Media’s statewide civic-dialogue series that brings Coloradans together—in person and online—to listen, reflect, and connect. This initiative is part of RMPM’s broader Statewide Civic Engagement effort to strengthen trust, empathy, and participation across all 64 counties of Colorado.