Category:Movie to Watch

Movie to Watch

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1920s

-- ## Poil de carotte (1925) <VIDEO-D 49127-D - h17502> -- A powerful story of child neglect that resonates with relevancy. At times Francois's life seems miserable: his mother resents him, derisively calling him 'Carrot Top', his siblings torment him, and his father ignores him.

-- ## Poil de carotte (1932) <VIDEO-D 67542-D - h40080> -- François' mother, Mme Lepic, hates him and she nicknames him "Poil de Carotte" (Carrot hair). His father is more interested in politics and hunting than he is in him. In spite of the affection of his godfather and his friend Mathilde, whom he calls his "fiancée", young Poil de Carotte contemplates suicide. On a particularly difficult day, he attempts to hang himself. Mr. Lepic saves his life just in time and understands he is partly to blame.

1960s

-- * The Silence (1963) <VIDEO-D 36533-D - h3650>

Attempting to cope with their alien surroundings, two sisters, Ester and Anna, resort to their personal vices while vying for Anna's son's attention, and in doing so sabotage what little remains of their ambiguous relationship.

1980s

-- # The Revolt of Job (1983) <VIDEO-D 74486-D - H53549> -- <Holocaust> -- A young Gentile orphan is adopted by a Jewish farmer and his wife, who fear the coming of the Nazis. The story is told from the perspective of the child, giving poignancy to a familiar theme.

-- A Tale of 15 Children (1985) <VIDEO-D 56987-D - h26399> (Buhr) -- This film is about 15 children who went to a picnic to the Stone Island by a sailing ship. Soon after they arrived and had a good time on the island, the ship sank. They had to go through an ordeal to survive on the island for many days, but finally rebuilt a wrecked and abandoned ship and came back home.

-- # Reunion (1989) <VIDEO-D 71201-D - h43698> -- <Holocaust> -- Henry Strauss, a New York business lawyer, travels to Stuttgart, the town he'd left in 1932 at the age of 16. Then he was known as Hans Strauss; he was Jewish. His best friend, Konrad, was the son of an aristocrat. Hitler's rise to power caused them to separate, and after 50 years in exile, Henry's searching to find out what happened to his friend.

-- Kiki Delivery Service <VIDEO-D 65214-D - h36861> -- Kiki is an enterprising young girl who must follow tradition to become a full-fledged witch. Venturing out with only her black cat, Jiji, Kiki flies off for the adventure of a lifetime. Landing in a far-off city, she sets up a high-flying delivery service and begins a wonderful experience of independence and responsibility as she finds her place in the world.

1990s

-- ## Boyz n the Hood (1991) <VIDEO-D 30202-D - H0167> -- See also South Central (1992) and Fresh (1994) -- For three young men growing up in South Central Los Angeles, the "hood" is a place of drive-by shootings, unemployment, drugs and pain. But their reactions to the world around them vary- one is an unambitious drug dealer, his brother is a college bound teenage father, and the brother's best friend is guided by a strong father who hopes for a better life for his son.

-- ## This Boy's Life (1993) < VIDEO-D 35905-D - h3109> -- Caroline just wants to settle down in one place, find a decent guy, and provide a better home for her handful of a son, Toby. When she moves to Seattle and meets Dwight, she thinks she's got it made. Toby, however, feels differently after spending time with Dwight while away from Caroline. Dwight seems to want to mold Toby into a better person, but to do so he emotionally, verbally, and physically abuses the kid. The marriage proceeds, and soon Caroline, too, recognizes Dwight's need to dominate everyone around him. son, and several years of dysfunction ensue.

-- ## Fresh (1994) <VIDEO-D 57946-D - h27709> -- See also Boyz n the Hood (1991) and South Central (1992) -- Michael (or Fresh as he's known) is a 12-year-old drug pusher who lives in a half-way house for children without their parents. His father has become a street bum, but is still there if Fresh requires his 'street' knowledge. Fresh aspires to live the good life but his sister's prostitution for the drug heavies along with the senseless murder of friends push him to re-evaluate his life. He then decides that dealing isn't what he wants and revenge is.

-- ## Dust of Life (1995) <VIDEO-D 55907-D - h24880> -- Shortly after the fall of Saigon, internal disruption further destroyed North and South Vietnam. Northern soldiers are convinced the Southern population has become corrupted by imperialistic ideas. Determined to change the Southern population, North Vietnamese soldiers roam the streets, picking up orphaned boys for transport to rehabilitation camps. Living conditions at the camps are deplorable, especially for Bob, Son, and Shrimp, who are struggling to survive at the Phu Van camp.

-- ## Ma vie en rose (1997) <VIDEO-D 46191-D - h26177> -- Ludovic is waiting for a miracle. With six-year-old certainty, he believes he was meant to be a little girl and that the mistake will soon be corrected. But where he expects the miraculous, Ludo finds only rejection, isolation and guilt--as the intense reactions of family, friends, and neighbors strip away every innocent lace and bauble.

-- Beneath Cloud (2002) <VIDEO-D 52295-D - h21923> -- See also: Rabbit-Proof Fence (); and Walkabout () -- Lena is a fair-skinned girl with an Aboriginal mother. She rejects the indigenous family that surrounds her and longs for the love of her Irish father. Vaughn is a dark-skinned teenage boy who lives in a prison camp. He is angry at the 'white' world that surrounds him. These two hardened souls escape from their worlds in a struggle for purpose, identity, and love.

-- Mysterious Skin (2004) <VIDEO-D 46203-D - h13329> -- At age 8, Neil and Brian played on the same baseball team in their small Kansas hometown. Now 10 years later, Neil is a hustler and Brian a nervous introvert who believes he has been abducted by aliens. As their lives intersect, they discover a shared past shrouded in mystery.

-- Äideistä parhain / Mother of mine (2005) <VIDEO-D 75752-D - h47337> -- During World War II, 70,000 Finnish children were shipped off to Swedish families who had agreed to shelter them for their own protection until the end of the war. This is the story of one such boy, Eero. After the death her husband, grief stricken Kirsti agrees with great reluctance to send Eero to Sweden. His surrogate parents, Signe and Hjalmar, are grieving the recent loss of a daughter. Signe is so deeply wounded that all semblance of beauty has been sapped from her life, and her relationship with Eero is fraught with tension and resentment. After a lifetime of feeling abandoned, bereft of parental love, Eero learns the secrets behind the actions of his two mothers too late.

-- * The Squid and the Whale (2005) <VIDEO-D 42154-D - h16299> -- Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s. The patriarch of an eccentric Brooklyn family claims to once have been a great novelist, but ultimately decided to settled into a teaching job. When his wife discovers a writing talent of her own, jealousy divides the family. The two teenage sons are forced to forge new relationships with their parents. Their mom begins dating her younger son's tennis coach. Meanwhile, dad has an affair with the student his older son is pursuing.

-- Sweet Mud (Israel, 2006) <VIDEO-D 71639-D - h44340> -- On a kibbutz in southern Israel, 12-year-old Dvir (Tomer Steinhof) must endure grueling tests of manhood--but these trials pale in comparison with the troubles brought on by his mother, Miri (Ronit Yudkevitch) whose sanity is quickly fading. As the community ostracizes Miri, young Dvir begins to question the kibbutz's rigid, utopian rules in this episodic coming-of-age tale that won the Dramatic World Cinema Jury Prize at Sundance 2007.

-- * The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006) <VIDEO-D 49183-D - h17558> (see also Donald Hall) -- Mauro is a 12-year-old boy, who is left to fend for himself when his parents 'go on vacation' during the Communist regime in 1970's Brazil. The culturally diverse community of São Paulo unites to watch Péle lead his country in winning the World Cup of soccer.

-- * Chop Shop (2007) <VIDEO-D 47657-D - h14830> -- In a bustling wasteland of stolen cars, mechanics and street hustlers, Alejandro, a tough and ambitious street orphan, and his older sister, Isamar, must rely on each other to survive. Living and working in the Iron Triangle, a sprawling junkyard in Queens, New York, the two find their dreams threatened by the hard truths of life, only to find hope and salvation in one another.

-- * A la mar (2009) <VIDEO-D 55862-D - h24846> -- Jorge has only a few weeks before his five-year-old son Natan leaves to live with his mother in Rome. Intent on teaching Natan about their Mayan heritage, Jorge takes him to the pristine Chinchorro reef, and eases him into the rhythms of a fisherman's life. As the bond between father and son grows stronger, Natan learns to live in harmony with life above and below the surface of the sea.

2010s

-- # Boy (2010) <VIDEO-D 64772-D - h36412> -- 'Boy' is a dreamer who lives with his brother Rocky and his Nan. When Boy's father, Alamein, returns home after seven years away, Boy is forced to confront the man he thought he remembered, find his own potential, and learn to get along without the hero he had been looking for.

-- * In a Better World (2010) <VIDEO-D 55875-D - h25241> -- The lives of two Danish families will become entwined when their sons develop an extraordinary but risky friendship. Unfortunately, loneliness, frailty, and sorrow lie in wait.

-- * The Dynamiter (2011) <VIDEO-D 61672-D - h32135> -- All 14 year-old Robbie Hendrick ever wanted was a family. Yet, as another Mississippi summer begins, his wayward mother has run off again fearing a breakdown, and he's left to burn the days away caring for his half brother, Fess. As the deep days and nights pass without her return, and with older brother Lucas dangerously in their lives again and with social services looming over them, Robbie may even lose Fess, Robbie must face the fact that his dreams may never come true.

-- * Moonrise Kingdom (2012) <VIDEO-D 58484-D - h28382> -- Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore, and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.

-- # The Kid with the Bike / Le gamin au vélo (2011) <VIDEO-D 60387-D - h31376> (also Donald Hall) -- "Twelve-year-old Cyril, all coiled anger and furious motion, is living in a group home but refuses to believe he has been rejected by his single father. He spends his days frantically trying to reach the man, over the phone or on his beloved bicycle. It is only the patience and compassion of Samantha, the stranger who agrees to care for him, that offers the boy the chance to move on."

-- * Wadjda (2012) <VIDEO-D 62602-D - h33684> -- Wadjda, a fun-loving 10-year-old girl living in Saudi Arabia, has her heart set on a beautiful new bicycle. However, her mother won't allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl's virtue. Determined to turn her dreams into reality and buy the bike on her own, Wadjda uncovers the contradictions and opportunities ingrained in her world. Hilarious, heartbreaking and inspiring all at once, this groundbreaking film has charmed critics and audiences all over the globe.

-- * La Famille Bélier (2014) <VIDEO-D 83733-D - H72475> -- See CODA (2021) -- In the Bélier family, everyone is deaf apart from Paula, 16 years old. Her music teacher discovers that she has a talent for singing and she prepares for the prestigious entrance examination for the Radio France choir.

-- Dancing Arabs (Israel, 2014) <VIDEO-D 76690-D - h47708> -- Gifted Eyad, a Palestinian Israeli boy, is given the chance to go to a prestigious Jewish boarding school in Jerusalem. As he desperately tries to fit in with his Jewish schoolmates and within Israeli society, Eyad develops a friendship with another outsider, Jonathan, a boy suffering from muscular dystrophy, and gradually becomes part of the home Jonathan shares with his mother, Edna.

-- * Mommy (2014) <VIDEO-D 66182-D - h39267>

-- A feisty widowed single mom finds herself burdened with the full-time custody of her explosive fifteen year old ADHD son. As they try to make ends meet and struggle with their unpredictable menage, the peculiar, new girl across the street, Kyla, benevolently offers her help. Together, they find a new sense of balance, and hope is regained.

-- Spotlight (2015) <VIDEO-D 67963-D - h40868> -- The riveting true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that would rock the city and cause a crisis in one of the world's oldest and most trusted institutions. When the newspaper's tenacious 'Spotlight' team of reporters delve into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston's religious, legal, and government establishment.

-- Dark Fortune (Haupt, 2016) <VIDEO-D 77185-D - h47912> -- Eliane, a child psychologist is summoned to the hospital to help provide care for a young boy named Yves who is the sole survivor of a horrendous car wreck that claimed the lives of the boy's entire family. His remaining relatives a feuding grandmother and aunt arrive and fight for custody of Yves, and Eliane is asked to make a formal evaluation of the boy so that the court can determine where to place him. During this time, Yves is allowed to stay with Eliane for further observation.

-- Little Men (2016) <VIDEO-D 69302-D - h45942> -- A new pair of 13-year-old best friends have their bond tested by their parents' battle over a dress shop lease.

-- Morris from America (2016) <VIDEO-D 69306-D - h45929> -- A coming of age comedy with a unique spin. Morris, a 13-year-old has just relocated with his single father, Curtis, to Germany. Morris, who fancies himself the next Notorious B.I.G., is a complete fish out of water in this new country. He's a budding hip-hop star in an EDM world. To complicate matters further, Morris quickly falls for his classmate, Katrin. Morris sets out against all odds to take the hip-hop world by storm and win the girl of his dreams.

-- * We the Animals (2018) <VIDEO-D 74388-D - h48055> -- Manny, Joel, and Jonah tear their way through childhood and push against the volatile love of their parents. As Manny and Joel grow into versions of their father and Ma dreams of escape, Jonah embraces an imagined world all on his own.

-- Anbessa (2019) <VIDEO-D 80640-D - H70446> -- Ten-year-old Asalif and his mother have been displaced from their farmland on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by the construction of a condominium. As they watch the buildings take shape, they are reminded in small and big ways that their country's dream of "progress" is not for them.

2020s

-- Good Boys <VIDEO-D 79667-D - H49848> -- Three sixth-grade boys get involved in a series of misadventures.

-- * Minari (2021) <VIDEO-D 81072-D - H70588> -- A tender and sweeping story about what roots people that follows a Korean-American family that moves to a tiny Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother. Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, this film shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.