Awards
Atlanta Film Festival 2020 Winner - Filmmaker-to-Watch Award
Bentonville Film Festival 2020 Winner - Jury Award, Best Short Film
Hip Hop Film Festival 2020 Winner - Best Feature Short
Indy Shorts International Film Festival 2020 Winner - Directorial Debut
New York International Children's Film Festival 2021 - Jury Special Mention
Official Selection
Annapolis Film Festival 2020
Ashland International Film Festival 2020
Aspen Shortsfest 2020 Nominee - Best Short Short
Athens International Film + Video Festival (Ohio) 2021
Athens Short Film Festival (Greece) 2020
Baltimore International Black Film Festival 2020
Berlinale International Film Festival 2020 Nominee - Crystal Bear, Generation Kplus - Best Short Film
BlackStar Film Festival 2020
Boston Jewish Film Festival 2020
Boulder Jewish Film Festival 2021
Brooklyn Film Festival 2020
Calgary International Film Festival 2020
Coney Island Film Festival 2020
deadCenter 2020
Denver Jewish Film Festival 2021
Florida Film Festival 2020 Nominee - Grand Jury Award, Best Narrative Short
Garden State Film Festival 2020
Gershman Philly Jewish Film Festival 2020
Hamptons International Film Festival 2020
HollyShorts Film Festival 2020
Indie Street Film Festival 2020
Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2020
Joyce Forum Jewish Short Film Festival 2020
LA Shorts International Film Festival 2020 Finalist - Shortlisted
Loudoun Arts Film Festival 2020
Miami Jewish Film Festival 2021
Mo & Friese Kurzfilm Hamburg 2021
Montclair Film Festival (MFF) 2020 Nominee - New Jersey Shorts Competition
Moscow Jewish Film Festival 2020
Nantucket Film Festival 2020
NJ Jewish Film Festival 2020
NYU First Run Film Festival 2020 Graduate Finalist - Wasserman Award
NYU Fusion Honorable Mention - Canon Filmmaker Award
Palm Springs International ShortFest 2020 Nominee - Best Student U.S. Short
Philadelphia Independent Film Festival 2020
Portland Film Festival 2020
Reel Love Film Festival 2021
Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival 2020
REGARD – Saguenay International Short Film Festival 2021
SFFilm Festival 2020 Nominee - Golden Gate Award, Best Family Film
Snake Alley Festival of Film 2020
St. Louis International Film Festival 2020
Stockholm Film Festival Junior 2021
SXSW Film Festival 2020 Nominee - SXSW Grand Jury Award, Narrative Short
TIDE Film Festival 2020
Urbanworld Film Festival 2020
Walla Walla Movie Crush 2020 Nominee - Best Performance, Indigo Hubbard-Salk
Director's Statement
Broken Bird follows Birdie, a biracial girl raised by her Jewish mom in a New Jersey suburb, as she spends a rare day with her father while preparing for her Bat Mitzvah. She overcomes her doubts, and decides to risk inviting him back into her life. Birdie confronts what independence means as she steps into adulthood on her own terms.
This film celebrates the various worlds and lives we incorporate into our own unique identities. I had to learn to be comfortable in my own skin, and I know there are a lot of young people out there who feel the same way. I hope they can take a measure of comfort from Birdie's story, and that they see their own strengths through Birdie's eyes.
Starring
Indigo Hubbard-Salk
Chad L. Coleman
Jari Jones
Bill Aiken
Mel House
Written, Directed and Produced by Rachel Harrison Gordon
Producer Alon Gur
Director of Photography Rashad Frett
Costume Designer Mia Flanagan
Editor Rachel Harrison Gordon
Original Music Amyra León
Trailer
Rachel Harrison Gordon
WRITER AND DIRECTOR
Rachel is an MFA/MBA candidate at NYU Tisch/Stern and a Sundance 2020 Blackhouse Fellow. Rachel's interest in storytelling evolved through pursuits of perspectives in journalism and in government. She has studied people through quantitative behavioral data and through their stories, and hopes to create films, commercials and music videos that highlight the different ways people come of age. Her work challenges expectations of race, family and addiction.
Prior to NYU, she served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow for the Obama Administration, learning about Veterans and their experience returning home. She worked as a data analyst within a consumer insights group at The New York Times. Rachel graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering, where she studied Mechanical Engineering.
Broken Bird is Rachel's first film.
