Six poems written by six young prisoners animated to tell their stories, thoughts, fears and hopes.
Social & External
Unknown Role
Juliette is a young woman who has grown up on a farm that is now under economic siege. In order to save her farm and her family, Juliette is forced into a marriage of convenience with Marcel , a morose and laconic railway worker whom she does not even know. Now that her own life is permanently changed, her sacrifice does not ultimately help her family and with that sorrow added to her lonely existence, she is trapped into remaining married because of social pressures and soon enough, the birth of a child. There must surely be a way out for her at some point, but when and how that will happen seems completely up to fate alone.
Across a language barrier, a Turkish groom-to-be on an engagement party in Kyiv meets a Ukrainian that represents the 'other woman' for a marriage there.
A young boy grapples with first love and his ambitions as a drummer during an eventful summer holiday.
A young teenage werewolf is torn between honoring her family's secret and her love for a man.
Haley is a naturally gifted athlete but, with her social behavior, the teen seems intent on squandering her abilities. After a final brush with the law, a judge sentences her to an elite gymnastics academy run by a legendary, hard-nosed coach. Once there, Haley's rebellious attitude wins her both friends and enemies.
Frivolous girl falls in love with a young construction worker. He trusts her and decides to include her in his team of workers. In the beginning, she is happy, but soon starts to feel the tensions between the people in the team. Hypocrisy and demagogy fill her with indignation and she does not keep silent about the shortcomings and mistakes of her colleagues. Gradually, her superiors become uneasy about her and the girl has to go. Her boyfriend offers her marriage, but she decides to take her own path and lead a worthy life. The movie was shot in 1966 but was censored by the communist government and released in theatres on 31st October 1988.
Selma's mother died giving birth to her, and Selma's step aunt is living proof that men only cause trouble. So the 11 year old girl makes a deal with her best friends that they will stay away from boys and dedicate their lives to science. And by the way, Selma was probably born on another planet and not meant to fall in love with anyone. But what happens when her friends break the pact, and she actually meets a boy who's not like the rest?
After her husband deserts her, working-class mother Ray Eddy is in great need of money to find a home. Lured by the possibility of easy cash, she joins Lila, a widowed Mohawk who earns a living by smuggling immigrants from Canada to the U.S. across the St. Lawrence.
Four young women continue the journey toward adulthood that began with "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Now three years later, these lifelong friends embark on separate paths for their first year of college and the summer beyond, but remain in touch by sharing their experiences with each other.
Jeton, a 10-year-old boy is sitting on the edge of a balcony on the 4th floor. Neighbours and passers-by, terrified by this situation, call the police and firefighters for help. But the situation quickly becomes unmanageable.
Samir, a young student from Hamburg, lives with his best friend in a shared apartment and is in a happy relationship. Everything seems normal—until one day he receives a notice to leave the country voluntarily. The news hits Samir like a hard blow, and overnight his dreams seem to vanish. When he finally tells his friends, however, it becomes clear that they will not let him go so easily.
After losing her job, making out with her soon-to-be former boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson faces spending the holiday with her unhinged family.
Manhattan drag queens Vida Boheme and Noxeema Jackson impress regional judges in competition, securing berths in the Nationals in Los Angeles. When the two meet pathetic drag novice Chi-Chi Rodriguez — one of the losers that evening — the charmed Vida and Noxeema agree to take the hopeless youngster under their joined wing. Soon the three set off on a madcap road trip across America and struggle to make it to Los Angeles in time.
Waxing nostalgic about the bittersweet passage from childhood to puberty, four childhood girlfriends — Teeny, Chrissy, Samantha and Roberta — recall the magical summer of 1970. During their walk down memory lane, they reconcile experiences with boys, secrets, bullies and more.
A seductive teen befriends an introverted high school student and schemes her way into the lives of her wealthy family.
Fact-based drama about the life of Marie Balter, who spent most of her young life in mental institutions. At age 16, she first attempted suicide and the next 20 years she spent in and out of the institutions. At last, a caring doctor started treating her for extreme depression and panic disorder. Weened from strong medications she had taken all her life, at age 36, she emerged for the last time and started a rehabilitation program in the home of a volunteer married couple. There she met a fellow patient with whom she developed a romantic relationship. She also started a college degree. This followed with a long-term professional success in the field of mental health.
An 18 year old on the island Djerba, Aicha, is married to Said, who works in Tunis for much of the year. Aicha breaks with tradition and decides to join Said in Tunis, weaving rugs to make money. Said asks that she give him a son, so Aicha lives under the rule of her mother-in-law.
A familiar landscape of box stores and parking lots proves a rich site for longing. Celebrities observed in this environment and are reduced to ordinary beings in the process. A curious narrator reveals little moments of subjectivity that evidence the paradox of connection and belonging within systems that simultaneously contain us and comprise us.
Animation inspired by the poem “The Infinite” by Giacomo Leopardi.
A homeless man searches for a safe place on a cold winter night.
A film about existence from the perspective of 20 nameless black females. Each of the women portray one of the characters represented in the collection of twenty poems, revealing different issues that impact women in general and women of color in particular.
Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn't commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.
While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an especially feisty horse.
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?
Louis Menkins is five weeks away from being released after 26 years in prison. He is faced with the decision to put his own release at risk in order to protect a young man named Beecher from growing gang controversies.
A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson.
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.
When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?
A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.