Once upon a time we were children

Fragilé

A lifelong resident of a small Oklahoma town desires to revitalize his dying community by erecting a giant 50-foot-tall leg lamp in the heart of main street. What started out as a holiday tourist trap would ultimately unleash a conflict that would nearly tear the small town apart. From city council outbursts to accusations of objectification and fraudulent spending, viral news coverage to Warner Brothers cease-and-desist, this is a dramatic yet hilarious documentary all based around a five story "major award."

7829 km od Wu-chanu

Juzo Itami: The Man with 13 Faces

A documentary about the legendary Japanese filmmaker.

The Birds Changed Names And The World Turned Into Ice

Migrant families experience violence, but they also keep beautiful memories when they arrive in new lands. Fantastic and intimate stories, recalled from childhood, travel across time and space, magically intermingling with the help of the four elements and breaking the boundaries of cinema.

The river people

Ernestina is a small town of 150 people whose peculiar inhabitants are deeply concerned by the acts of vandalism perpetrated by the people who go bathe in the river. They decide to hire private security. What is really going on in Ernestina? A suspenseful, humorous and endearing documentary about the dynamics of these small-town people.

I forgive you, Mama

Maya is Ayaibex's daughter, an addict in recovery that feels a blame for damages that caused her daughter, Maya decides to remember her mother's childhood experiences in her world of addiction to seek the redemption of the weight that her mother has loaded for 20 years and get both to forgiveness.

I Love You I Miss You I Hope I See You Before I Die

A harsh and dreamy story of a young girl from the American West and her longing heart. Through Betty we experience a tight family clan of children born by children born by children where love and dependency go hand in hand.

A Common Experience

A poetic exploration of the multi-generational affects of Canada's Indian Residential School system, based on the personal trials of Aboriginal playwright Yvette Nolan.

Let the Child Be the Guide

As a young father, watching his daughter go through her life experiences, film director Alexandre Mourot discovered the Montessori approach and decided to set his camera up in a children's house (3 to 6 years of age) in the oldest Montessori school in France. Alexandre was warmly welcomed in a surprisingly calm and peaceful environment, filled with flowers, fruits and Montessori materials. He met happy children, who were free to move about, working alone or in small groups. The teacher remained very discreet. Some children were reading, others were making bread, doing division, laughing or sleeping. The children guided the film director throughout the whole school year, helping him to understand the magic of their autonomy and self-esteem - the seeds of a new society of peace and freedom, which Maria Montessori dedicated her life work to.

Coría and the sea

This is a story about women who are fighters, tenacious, hopeful, active women…who were capable of lifting, from nothingness, in the harshest landscape of the world, life. They are the Sahrawi women. 40 years ago, they were forced into exile; the men of this region, marched to war and the women created “temporary cities”: The Refugee Camps. They invented a new day to day life which made possible a sustainable existence and a hope, of one day returning home. Coría every night dreams of the sea; the majestic image of its water, the sound of its waves, are the echoes that join the people with their homeland. The will beats in the hearts of the Sahrawi women who maintain their unbreakable spirit, ever moving forward.

H.A.G.S. (Have a Good Summer)

A portrait of growing up told through filmmaker Sean Wang's middle school yearbook. Go Hornets.

Nested Sequence

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.”

James May: My Sisters' Top Toys

James May celebrates the toys that made his childhood hell as he opens the lid on his sisters' toy box. Sandwiched between elder sister Jane and younger one Sarah, many of their favourites he couldn't understand - or stand the sight of - or see the point of.

Didier, moi et les autres… Les Enfants du silence

Four men finally break their silence about the sexual abuse they suffered as children. No violins, no monsters—just men standing up to shame and oblivion. The film explores what it costs to speak out, rebuild oneself, and regain control. A cry against collective amnesia and the myth of unbreakable masculinity.

L'extraordinaire recherche du docteur Cartault

The film recounts the incredible research conducted by François Cartault, a pediatrician and geneticist on the island of Réunion. Conducted like a police investigation over more than 20 years, his research, both medical and historical, takes us on a journey through the disease of moon children, deprived of sunlight, and on the trail of slavery in Africa. The film shows how genetics is also an astonishing trace of history.

Lo zebù e la stella

A zebu disappears while children are drawing it. They find it again in the woods. The notes of a harp accompany their multi-coloured joy. This short was made with children from a nursery school in Mantua. Playing with colours, the children seem to conquer the world.

Spellbound

This documentary follows 8 teens and pre-teens as they work their way toward the finals of the Scripps Howard national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C.

Welcome to Monterey

As their population dwindles, their businesses are all about gone, this town in rural Monterey, Indiana fights to stay alive. An in-depth look into small town life, “Welcome to Monterey” follows a town’s journey to their 20th annual Labor Day Festival, capturing the people’s passions and doubt about whether this town has a future in today’s world.