Spijtmoeders (2024)

The Look of Silence

An optician grapples with the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966, during which his older brother was exterminated.

Paradise Man (ii)

Paradise Man searches for meaning in an unknowable universe.

Uma Gota de Esperança

A mother discovers that her son has a disability that causes her breast milk to intoxicate him. But the discovery comes too late to prevent the loss of neurons.

The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat is all set for a lovely picnic, but the evil Grinch changes his plans by inventing a contraption that captures noise and makes it sound ferocious. The Cat has to save the world from the clutches of the Grinch and the only way to do it is to reach Grinch's soft spot.

After You

"My mother is spending all her time with her dying father. I’m spending all my time filming her. As the end is getting closer, my mother and I start doing the filming more and more together. It becomes our way of dealing with the time we have left." —Marius Dybwad Brandrud

I Named You in Silence

The Rastreadoras de El Fuerte are a group of mothers of disappeared persons in northern Sinaloa who, in the absence of the authorities, twice a week go out with picks and shovels in search of the remains of their children; a testimony of the abandonment of the State, the aggressions of the drug traffickers, the indifference of society and the pain, but also of the strength and courage that keep these women together, and of their empowerment to mobilize society in community organization.

My Neighbor Totoro

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

Wolfsong

A mother wolf breaks into a hunter's den and takes back her cub, only to find it a motionless trophy. She sings a lullaby hoping that the cub would finally sleep. Little does she know that a young hunter stalks them back from the den.

Dumbo

Dumbo is a baby elephant born with over-sized ears and a supreme lack of confidence. But thanks to his even more diminutive buddy Timothy the Mouse, the pint-sized pachyderm learns to surmount all obstacles.

Sisis Erben - Die Kinder der Kaiserin Elisabeth

A mother figure idealized by the cinema, Empress Elisabeth of Austria did not flourish with her four children. What kind of mother was the rebellious Sissi?

Terwijl het liefde was

Artistic director of the National Theater Eric de Vroedt writes and directs a performance about his own mother Winnie, who passed away in 2020. This piece, titled The Century of My Mother, is a family story about the migration from the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands. It is De Vroedt's way of examining the relationship with his mother and not having to say goodbye to her yet: 'I can let her live on stage, but when the curtain falls, when the play is completely finished, then she is really dead'.

Le Fils

Plot unavailable

The Business of Being Born

Birth: it's a miracle. A rite of passage. A natural part of life. But more than anything, birth is a business. Compelled to find answers after a disappointing birth experience with her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to explore the maternity care system in America

After All

After All is said and done. A man clears out his childhood home, remembering past conversations.

Redefining China's Family: Women

10 May 2007 - China's staggering economic growth has overshadowed a more subtle shift in Chinese society. In domestic life, many women are now ignore the advice of their mothers and grandmothers, turning instead to counselling hotlines and, increasingly, divorce.

The Mirror and the Window

Filmmaker Diego Gutiérrez knows that he is soon to lose two loved ones: his mother Gina Coppe and his best friend Danniel Danniel. Both ask him to film them during this final phase of their lives—Gina in her apartment in Mexico City, Danniel in a Dutch restaurant where he feels at home. What stories do they want to leave behind?

Tatjana in Motherland

Tatjana in Motherland is a partly animated documentary essay about Slovenia and its men. It is a “documentary-tale” of how Slovenian society has been disintegrating in an invisible way. The story will unveil a Slovenian Oedipus archetype of the possessive martyr mother type and her relationship with her son, in which she through emotional manipulation, by constantly creating feelings of guilt, burdens her son to such a degree, that he remains dependent on her for the rest of his life. In order to put this relationship to its best use, all Slovenian governing structures have elevated mother figure on the level of a saint and have assigned to it the cultish role. The result of the Slovenian maternal cult is a typical Slovene male, who is pathologically obsessed with his mother.

The Story of a Hare Boy

A psychedelic Soviet/Estonian animation short. A hare boy doesn't want to go to sleep in the evening. His mother tries to scare him with a fox, a wolf and a bear, but he is not afraid of any of them. Suddenly, a small mouse appears on the floor - and the hare boy goes quickly under the blanket.

Mothers

Two nine-year-old girls report a flasher to the police even though they never saw him. Three filmmakers meet the only residents of a deserted village - an elderly brother and sister who have not spoken to each other in 16 years. Retired cleaning women are found raped and strangled in a small town. The fiction slowly turns into a documentary.

Momsy

‘Over the course of several summer days in Split I talked to my mom about everything. I mean, really everything.’

Sierra

A father and his son are losing the race. To win, the boy turns himself into a car tyre. Sierra looks at toxic masculinity through dark irony, while pulling us into the surreal car racing world. Loosely inspired by the director's childhood, this animated black comedy includes fragments of a stop motion film animated by the director's father during Soviet Estonia.

Terry's Little Village

Terry Wilson is a 70-year-old lifelong resident of Meadowvale Village, Ontario's first heritage district. As development looms and begins to destroy Terry's favourite place in the world, he recreates pieces of history in his backyard, crafting an oasis where it feels like nothing has changed. A beautiful tribute to his childhood, his mother, and his town, Terry passionately fights to preserve history in a world that's too anxious for change.

Pray Away

In the 1970s, five men struggling with being gay in their Evangelical church started a bible study to help each other leave the "homosexual lifestyle." They quickly received over 25,000 letters from people asking for help and formalized as Exodus International, the largest and most controversial conversion therapy organization in the world. But leaders struggled with a secret: their own “same-sex attractions” never went away. After years as Christian superstars in the religious right, many of these men and women have come out as LGBTQ, disavowing the very movement they helped start. Focusing on the dramatic journeys of former conversion therapy leaders, current members, and a survivor, PRAY AWAY chronicles the “ex gay" movement’s rise to power, persistent influence, and the profound harm it causes.

Papa Zola: The Movie

Papa Zola, a schoolteacher, and his gifted daughter Pipi go on small adventures that often escalate. Their escapades showcase their loving relationship and Pipi's intelligence, as they navigate whimsical situations together.

Froufrou

Paris, in the roaring 20's. Louise accompany her mother Denise to a Froufrou cabaret, where she dances. Backstage, the dancers oppress Louise, who doesn’t feel at ease. But Louise is going to see the show and discover a whole new aspect of her mother’s work.

That's My Mommy

When a duck hatches from the egg underneath Tom, the newborn (Little Quacker) is convinced Tom is his mother. Tom would like to eat the duckling; Jerry is determined to keep that from happening.

Every Day Is Mother's Day

Plot unavailable

Ona Carbonell: Starting Over

In August 2020, Olympic artistic swimmer Ona Carbonell became a first time mother, an experience that reshaped her life overnight.

Hatch Up Your Troubles

A baby woodpecker mistakes Jerry for his mother. The mouse rejects the newly hatched bird but soon finds himself protecting it against his feline nemesis, Tom.

Yai Nin

Ninlawan Pinyo is the matriarch of a Thai American family, who hustled for her fortune by founding a naem pork sausage factory in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Gorilla My Dreams

Bugs Bunny is sailing the South Seas when a gorilla mother, desperate for a child, hijacks his barrel and presents Bugs to her husband. Bugs decides to play along, but quickly discovers his new "father" plays a bit rough.

A Letter On A Bicycle

Narrated as a letter to a mother, this short film traces the emotional undercurrents of leaving home and adjusting to a new environment, blending inner transformation with the changing landscape.

Empty View

Plot unavailable

Until Porn Do Us Part

Eulália, a conservative Portuguese mother, found out that her son who emigrated to Germany has become Fostter Riviera, the internationally awarded first Portuguese gay porn actor. She suffers with the distance, sometimes toned down through the computer that has become her main source of information and communication with her son. This documentary focuses on the long journey of this mother towards acceptance and endeavour to get closer to her son.

Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa

A Nepali mountaineer risks everything on a record-breaking Mount Everest climb to secure a brighter future for her daughters.

Bleed Out

After a routine partial hip replacement operation leaves his mother in a coma with permanent brain damage, what starts as a son's video diary becomes a citizen's investigation into the future of American health care.

Shimajiro and the Song of the Whale

Shimajiro, who helped an injured baby whale Kuu-chan, takes care of Kuu-chan who wants to return to her mother and keeps her in touch. In order to return Ku-chan, who was about to be sent to the aquarium, to her mother, Shimajiro rides on her back and sets out on a journey toward the southern sea.

Polaris

A young polar bear leaves home for the first time, but finds it difficult to bid her mother farewell.

Mother

Clinging to control after a broken marriage, an overbearing mother begins to lose her grasp on reality.

Waseteg

The story of a young Mi'kmaq girl whose name means "the light from the dawn."