Kids

In Bettina Büttner’s exquisitely lucid documentary Kinder (Kids), childhood dysfunction, loneliness, and pent-up emotion run wild at an all-boys group home in southern Germany. The children interned here include ten-year-olds Marvin and Tommy. Marvin, fiddling with a mini plastic Lego sword, explains matter-of-factly to the camera, “This is a knife. You use it to cut stomachs open.” Dennis, who is even younger, is seen in a hysteric fit, mimicking some pornographic scene. Boys will be boys, but innocence is disproportionately spare here. Choosing not to dwell on the harsh specifics, Büttner reveals the disconcerting manner in which traumatic episodes can manifest themselves in the mundane — a game of Lego, Hide and Seek, or Truth or Dare. Filmed in lapidary black-and-white, Büttner’s fascinating film sheds light on childhood from the boys’ characteristically disadvantaged perspective — one not yet fully cognizant — leaving much ethically to ponder over.

2011-03-06 | de

The Vampires of Wilno

Discover the truth behind the popular story the media pushed since the 1970s and the real consequences journalism had on a small Ontario town.

2023-05-08 | en

Your Parents Will Come Back

In 1983 a group of 154 children aged 3 and 17 years old traveled alone from Europe to Montevideo. They were children of political exiles from Uruguay, who were unable to come back to their own country; they sent their kids to know their relatives and home country. That human sign, charged with a political message, took part in children’s identity development. Nowadays, six of them still remember that day, when a crowd received them singing all together “your parents will come back”.

2015-04-04 | es

Jaddoland

Moving between the playful and the contemplative, explores the meaning of identity and home across three generations of an Iraqi family in Texas.

2018-10-25 | en

Endangered Species

We have volunteered for the Earth Conservation Corps to restore the Anacostia river and the Washington wasteland where we live and often meet an early violent death. We are striving to return our nation's bird,the bald eagle, to our Nation's Capitol. If the eagles survive maybe we can too. We began filming this documentary in 1992 to show people our America. "Endangered Species" is our story. - Written by Antoine Woods

2004-08-28 | en

Wicker Kittens

Every January, the country's largest jigsaw puzzle contest is held in St. Paul, Minnesota. Choose your favorite team and watch them try to put the pieces back together.

2014-03-08 | en

Evaporating Borders

Evaporating Borders is a poetically photographed and rendered film on tolerance and search for identity. Told through 5 vignettes portraying the lives of migrants on the island of Cyprus, it passionately weaves themes of displacement and belonging.

2014-03-11 | en

Baobab Play

Children and teenagers throw sticks, berries, and leaves at each other from perches in a large baobab tree.

1974-01-01 | en

Amara

From Colorado, where he has chosen to live, Fouad Mennana begins to trace his late grandfather - Amara Mennana - an Algerian farmer expropriated from his land and deported to the prisons of French Guiana in 1926.

2019-03-15 | fr

Guys 'N Divas: Battle of the High School Musicals

This fascinating documentary chronicles the intense rivalry between high schools in Southern Indiana to win a prestigious festival performance with lavish student musical productions that often cost in the tens of thousands of dollars to produce.

2009-01-01 | en

The Teachers: Pink, Nature Trail, Ridge between Rice Paddies, Plum

We no longer see children running around playing in the alleys of Seoul. Starting from elementary school, children go to private classes after their school. However, we see these people who are making efforts to protect children’s right to be a child and play like a child.

2023-01-11 | ko

Cinéma Laika

In the heart of the Finnish forest, the long-closed foundry of the little town of Karkkila has come back to life thanks to director Aki Kaurismäki and his creation of the town's first cinema. The peace and calm of the little town of Karkkila, nestled deep in the Finnish forest, is interrupted by unexpected sounds. In the abandoned foundry, noisy building work is taking place. Inside the building, Aki Kaurismäki is both builder and site manager of what is soon to become the Kino Laika cinema. The creation of the cinema is the talk of the town. In the factory still in activity, in a 1960s Cadillac, in a bikers' club, in the local pub, in the woods or in Aki Kaurismäki's former editing room, people start talking about cinema again.

2023-06-24 | fr

A, B, C... Z

Children get ready to start the first grade. They start learning the first letters.

1971-02-16 | sq

Pressure Cooker

A committed, passionate teacher tries to make all the difference in the lives of disadvantaged students.

2008-01-01 | en

Les chiens-loups

2019-10-26 | fr

Set!

Often referred to as "The Olympics of Table Setting," eccentric personalities and old rivalries come to a head as contestants compete for the "Best of Show" ribbon at the Orange County Fair table setting competition.

2021-08-14 | en

Narrowsburg

The stranger-than-fiction story of a French film producer and her mafioso-turned-actor husband who attempt to turn a tiny town into the “Sundance of the East.”

2019-09-14 | en

Drugs Are Like That

[…] Though the highs and lows of human experience are all here, it's often the gimcrack set design and fashion chops in these vintage clunkers that really wow – the pot-holder sweater vests, ponytails decorated with yarn, hippies with crumb-catching moustaches, banana-seat bikes and a hard rain of Quaaludes and amphetamines to illustrate the dangers of drug addiction. It is hard to believe anyone would buy the goofball cause-and-effect of that pill-popper's weather pattern in "Drugs Are Like That". Co-produced by the Miami Junior League and narrated by Anita Bryant in this cheery little hand-slapper, a kid stealing cookies from a cookie jar is implied to be headed down a bad road to Bowery bum rolls and LSD parties. (from: http://clatl.com/atlanta/av-geeks-greatest-hits-lessons-learned/Content?oid=1268313)

1969-01-01 | en

Gurdeep Singh Bains

Gurdeep is a thirteen-year-old Canadian Sikh whose family runs a dairy farm near Chilliwack, British Columbia. They have retained their language and religion. Attendance at the Sikh temple, playing soccer with his schoolmates, and working on the farm are all part of Gurdeep's well-integrated life, but sometimes he feels a little different from the other children because he wears a turban. This film is part of the Children of Canada series.

1977-06-01 | en

When We Fight

In the second largest school district in the United States, 98% of teachers vote to authorize a strike. Watch as one of the largest educator strikes in modern U.S. history unfolds in real-time, highlighting the stories and leadership of some of the women who led it, from union leaders to classroom teachers. From strike vote to contract vote, When We Fight goes behind the picket lines, documenting how and why teachers strike. "This powerful and beautifully crafted film is a must watch for anyone interested in the state of labor in America today." - Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley

2023-09-01 | en