Thanks for your help with our inaugural spring showcase — we sold out the Gene Siskel Film Center and four Kartemquin docs benefitted immensely from your feedback. Chi Filmmakers and Explore Chicago helped kick things off:

Filmmakers from our four films on display Tuesday were looking forward to feedback on their in-progress features. Dinesh Sabu, a former Kartemquin intern and first-time feature filmmaker, testified to the value of the workshop format:

Maria Finitzo, Rachel Pikelny and Aaron Wickenden also sat down to discuss their experience with KTQ Labs. You can learn more about Dinesh's documentary, Unbroken Glass, on his website:

With its self-effacement, Dinesh's doc got @Reel_Sweet talking:

That quality was a recurring theme throughout. Aaron Wickenden and Dan Rybicky's Almost There investigates an aging outsider artist and his conflicted relationship with the filmmakers.

Indeed. The range of work on display was almost as impressive as the range of questions and comments the audience served up:

Bill Siegel and Rachel Pikelny's The Trials of Muhammad Ali is not a boxing movie. The two discussed Islam, Vietnam and combating "Ali fatigue." A well-trodden topic it is not, however, as the film focuses on Ali's "exile years" and his personal, religious struggles against the military draft. That unexplored territory likens the film more to another KTQ Showcase feature, Encounters With The Other:

The film goes deep into the Bolivian Amazon rainforest for a look at the Tsimane, a relatively isolated indigenous community that maintains its traditional culture.