Co-presented by Rocky Mountain Equality
7 PM @ First Church
Call2Action
16 Years of Inspiring Action
You’ve been moved? Now get moving!
Call2Action is where powerful cinema meets real-world change. At BIFF, we know the feeling of leaving a film inspired and asking, “What can I do?” Our Call2Action program captures that momentum and turns it into action. Each Call2Action screening is followed by a dynamic community discussion led by a moderator and a panel of change makers including filmmakers, advocates, scientists, and local and regional nonprofits working directly on the issues explored in the film.
Whether the topic is wildlife conservation, climate action, social justice, or democracy, we continue the conversation with the people doing the work on the ground. Panelists answer audience questions and share tangible actions you can take in your own community, making each event engaging, hopeful, and empowering. 2026 marks the 16th year of BIFF’s Call2Action program. We thank the program’s founders—Philanthropiece, The Twisted Foundation, Joellen & Scott Raderstorf, and Sandy Younghans—for believing in the power of film to inspire change.
BIFF 2026 Call2Action Films
Thursday April 9, 2026
When Archbishop Carl Bean recorded the 1977 Motown hit and groundbreaking gay anthem I Was Born This Way, he launched a lifelong mission to change the world. Surviving racism, homophobia and childhood trauma, Bean first found his voice in gospel music with Harlem’s Christian Tabernacle Choir, then led Carl Bean and Universal Love on their 1974 album Universal Love. The Motown hit became the world’s first gay anthem, but Bean turned away from mainstream fame to embrace activism, founding the Minority AIDS Project to serve communities devastated by the AIDS crisis and establishing Unity Fellowship Church, the first LGBTQ+ ministry. Partly told through innovative rotoscope animation, I Was Born This Way celebrates the unapologetic Black gay trailblazer and his enduring message: “Love is for everyone.”
Friday April 10, 2026
Co-presented by 350 Colorado
10 AM @ Grace Commons Church
Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, renowned Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away: family, memory, time and water. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a cinematic time capsule to hold onto this moment and send it to the future, before everything he loves slips away. Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs and films, as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his family’s story with that of the land around him. From Oscar–nominated director Sara Dosa, Time and Water is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound, epochal change.
Co-presented by KGNU Community Radio
12:15 PM @ First Church
In the opening scene of this film, Amy Goodman chases P. Wells Griffith III, a climate adviser to President Trump, all around the United Nations building trying to get a quote, as Griffith literally runs away from her. For Goodman, this is the organized chaos of her hugely popular daily news show Democracy Now!, where she has chased armed soldiers, lying politicians and riot police, along with reporting some of the most consequential stories of our time. Oscar–nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin take us behind the scenes of a wisecracking reporter who has seen and done it all. Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is both a call to action and a celebration of resistance, posing the question: What happens to democracy when the press surrenders to power?
Co-presented by Philanthropiece
2:45 PM @ First Church
Comparsa takes you into the vibrant world of Ciudad Peronia, Guatemala, where sisters Lesli and Lupe use art to inspire local youth and heal deep wounds. After 41 girls are killed in a state-run “Safe Home” and the government refuses to act, the sisters respond with a daring, joyous comparsa — an exuberant street performance with towering puppets, fire-breathing stilt walkers and thundering drums. With courage and honesty, they expose a system that allows violence against women, while sharing their own stories of survival. Their youth movement takes to the streets, confronting corruption and reclaiming public space for women and girls. Built on a 17-year collaboration with the filmmakers, Comparsa is a powerful, unforgettable portrait of sisterhood, resilience, and the transformative power of art.
Co-presented by a Panel of Iranian Voices: Firuzeh Saidi, Parisa Tashakori, Katayoun Donnelly and Shawhin Roudbari
3 PM @ Century Boulder
Sara Shahverdi — a divorced, motorcycle-riding former midwife — is an unlikely leader in her conservative Iranian village. As the first woman elected to the local council, she fearlessly challenges patriarchal traditions, determined to break the cycle of empty promises passed down by the men. Fierce and unapologetic, Shahverdi fights for the village’s girls and women, from teaching teenagers to ride motorcycles and advocating for female land ownership to confronting child marriage. Each bold move sparks admiration — and backlash. When accusers question her intentions, she must navigate critics who seek to undermine her. Her story is a portrait of courage, defiance and the unyielding drive to create change against all odds. SUBTITLED
Co-presented by Boulder Community Hospital and Tru Community Care
5:15 PM @ First Church
Unexpected and irreverent, André Is an Idiot is a wildly life-affirming and sometimes hilarious film about facing death — and the strange clarity that comes when life suddenly feels finite. When André Ricciardi, a self-proclaimed “idiot” for skipping the colonoscopy that might have saved him, learns he’s dying, he turns his final chapter into an experiment in radical honesty, humor and curiosity. André has never done anything the conventional way, and confronting mortality proves no different. André’s inner world — his fears, philosophies, and unique imagination — is brought to life through fantastical animation blended with vérité footage. The result is a playful and comedic portrait of a man determined to meet death as openly, humorously and defiantly as he lives.
Saturday April 11, 2026
Co-presented by BOSC
10 AM @ Grace Commons
Snow Leopard Sisters tells the extraordinary story of an unlikely yet unbreakable friendship between two Indigenous women living in one of the most remote and unforgiving corners of the Himalayas. The film follows local snow leopard conservationist Tshiring Lhamu Lama as she takes 17-year-old Tenzin Bhuti Gurung under her wing. Desperate to escape a forced marriage, Tenzin finds guidance, courage, and hope in Tshiring’s mentorship. Together, they traverse the jagged, breathtaking terrain of the Himalayas, risking everything in a quest to find the last endangered snow leopards. Through intimate verité storytelling and breathtaking cinematography, Snow Leopard Sisters celebrates the power of women’s voices, resilience, and leadership — revealing how courage and friendship can transform lives and protect one of the world’s most elusive predators.
Co-presented by Western Resource Advocates and Resource Central
2:30 PM @ Grace Commons
After 5 million years of existence, the Colorado River now fights to survive. This once-thriving life source to millions of people and animals is now on the brink of collapse, as human consumption, booming industry and climate change threaten to dry up its already depleted reservoirs forever. In a moment of reckoning, an unlikely ensemble of people dependent on the river must defend their way of life against modern pressures and unjust laws, all while coming to terms with the choices we've made that have led to this disaster and the uncertain future ahead. But this ancient river has always had a life of its own, and there are still some who will stand up and give it a voice. For if the river can regenerate, maybe so can we.
Sunday April 12, 2026
Co-presented by Open Space & Mountain Parks
1:30 PM @ Grace Commons
Best Day Ever follows the stories of adaptive mountain bikers Greg Durso and Allie Bianchi as they navigate the relentless challenges of their disabilities and embrace the tremendous support, friendship and joy they find in their rural Vermont riding community. Allie and Greg navigate disability and regain independence with humor, attitude and grit on mountain bike trails that dismantle ableism, build community and become a blueprint for trails anywhere.
Co-presented by BVSD
2 PM @ First Church
For more than 55 years, Jane Elliott has forced white America to confront truths it still refuses to face. After Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, she entered her all-white third-grade classroom in small-town Iowa and launched the “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise, showing how quickly children learn power, privilege and cruelty. That moment propelled her onto the national stage, and she has spent a lifetime refusing silence. Now nearing 90, Elliott is fearless and unyielding. Schools ban her. Critics attack her. Yet her influence only grows. Featuring voices like Killer Mike and Ibram X. Kendi, Jane Elliott Against the World is a reckoning — and a challenge: Who will carry the fight forward?
Co-presented by Mental Health Coalition
A MAN WITH SOLE: THE IMPACT OF KENNETH COLE
Kenneth Cole’s fierce, high-risk commitment to caring as much for ‘what people stand for…not just what they stand in’…. has been the hallmark of his name and brand from day one. Now, after four decades of persuasive and impactful ‘cause’-focused campaigns and initiatives, Kenneth Cole is using his blueprint for social impact to eradicate the stigma around mental health.
View 5 ActionsCo-presented by PLAN-Boulder County
CITIZEN RUTH: ENVIRONMENTAL WARRIOR
This 96-year-old Boulder environmental warrior has the bruises to show from more than 60 years of battles she fought, and the passion to carry her through the losses and the successes. CITIZEN RUTH is the compelling personal story of an extraordinary environmental activist and state legislator, and the journey into some of her remarkable accomplishments in the face of many challenges.
View 5 ActionsThank You to Our 2026 C2A Sponsors
Thank You to Our 2026 C2A Sponsors
