‘Coldwater’ chosen for prestigious American Film Showcase, which sends docs around the world

“Coldwater Kitchen” is headed overseas.

The film was chosen as part of the U.S. Department of State’s American Film Showcase 2025 slate. That means it joins a prestigious list of contemporary American documentaries that will be featured in a year-round screening program organized by U.S. embassies in over 60 countries.

In many cases, audiences — students, filmmakers, community organizers — will have the chance to see a film that otherwise would not be available in the respective countries.

“AFS’s screening program is a global film festival offering international audiences a nuanced view of American life and creating space for cross-cultural dialogue,” said Rachel Gandin Mark, AFS program director, in a statement. “We are incredibly proud of this year’s wide-ranging collection of American films and can’t wait to share these stories with new audiences.”

“Coldwater Kitchen” is one of 18 feature-length documentaries, and 43 docs total, chosen for the program. At various points during the year, co-directors Brian Kaufman and Mark Kurlyandchik will travel with the film. In some cases, they’ll be leading educational sessions with local journalists and filmmakers.

From the pitch to Mt. Everest

“The stories explored in this year’s collection of 43 films reflect the diversity of the American experience from St. Lawrence Island in Alaska to the Florida Everglades,” said Ben Chance, AFS head of film, also in a statement. “The AFS slate features portraits of notable Americans such as Grammy-award winning musician Jon Batiste, forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni, and Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The AFS slate takes viewers on a journey into the world of high school mariachi in South Texas, the efforts to enshrine press freedom in Muscogee Nation, Oklahoma, and onto the pitch with Angel City FC, the first professional women’s soccer team in Los Angeles.”

Since 2012, AFS has included more than 500 U.S. documentaries in its slate, produced over 5,000 screenings in 135 countries and reached more than half a million people, according to AFS. 

See the full slate of 2025 films here.