Documentary Shorts Block 2

Welcome to VFFF! 🎬

This page is for individual tickets to this screening. Want the full Festival experience? All-Access Passes include screenings and events throughout the weekend, plus access to our Festival after parties.

[Get an All-Access Pass →](opens in a new tab)

(opens in a new tab)

These documentaries look at the people, passions, and traditions that shape communities across generations. From Vermont’s mountains and forests to Southern musical traditions, later-life love, and an unexpected athletic team-up, the films celebrate resilience, connection, and the communities we build around the things we love.

Roots by George Madison

More than 200 days of the year, you can find local Vermonter and Smugglers Notch ski patroller, Ethan Parrish, skiing some of the most extreme terrain in the Vermont backcountry—lines he discovered venturing out from his hometown of Calais. Ethan is aware of the impact of outsiders on local life, from the strain on community to reckless practices in the backcountry. While clearing the land surrounding his great-uncle’s farmhouse, he dreams of his own future, living off the land and skiing Vermont’s Green Mountains. Roots explores his deep connection to the mountains, the people in his life, and his home.

Director Biography - George Madison

George Madison is a filmmaker from Newton, Massachusetts, who developed his love for film in high school when he picked up a camera and started shooting sports. Roots, a portrait of backcountry skier and Vermont local Ethan Parrish, is his debut short film, made during his time studying Film and English at Middlebury College in Vermont. Through his work, he hopes to explore the stories hidden in plain sight—what ties people to one another, to their environments, and to their work.

Last of a Kind by Chris Flaherty, Dan Sullivan

Will, an aging Vermont woodsman, reflects on his lifelong pursuit of antler hunting and other outdoor passions at a time when both the environment and the culture are endangered. In a rapidly developing landscape, how much longer will there be space for the moose...and for people like him?

Director - Chris Flaherty, Dan Sullivan

Twin Grass: A Tale of Memphis Legends by Ema S Wagner

Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, the Morton Twins have been professional bluegrass musicians since the age of twelve. At nearly seventy years old, they reflect on their time as musicians, the people they've collaborated with, and the genres they've blended. Twin Grass is an intimate look at family, southern tradition, and bluegrass.

Director Biography - Ema S Wagner

Ema Wagner is an amateur self-taught filmmaker who is motivated by historical preservation of the rich cultural and music history of the South. She was born and raised in Memphis, TN. She attended White Station High and graduated in 2027. In 2021, she graduated with her BA in Urban Studies from Rhodes College. She now resides as a videographer and photographer in Brooklyn, NY.

Love, Later by Katie Stormer

Love, Later is a short documentary film exploring dating relationships in senior communities. It features two couples who found love on their own terms. Through their stories, we hear about the thrill of budding romance, the limitations and workarounds of intimacy in later life, and the determination to be present and hold on to each other to the very end.

Director Biography - Katie Stormer

Katie Stormer is from the San Francisco Bay Area. She recently graduated from Oberlin College with a major in Cinema and Media. In the Spring of 2025, she spent a semester at Prague Film School, where she made a short narrative film about sisters called Milestones. For her senior project, she just finished a short documentary film about dating relationships in retirement homes called Love, Later

Brick by Brick by Chris Boyd, Nate Riedel

A comedic sports documentary narrated and Executive Produced by soccer star Alex Morgan. A women's college basketball team faces cancellation due to a lack of players but is saved when the soccer team volunteers to play -- even though none of them have ever even tried the sport.

Director - Chris Boyd, Nate Riedel

BENNINGTON THEATER is an accessible facility.

Please call with specific accommodations and needs at 802-500-5500