Leaving Beginnings Behind (2021)

Untold Secrets

Gives voice to the experiences of Irish institution survivors and focuses on the life and upbringing of one survivor, Anne Silke. Silke was fostered out of the St. Mary, Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam at the age of 9 to the Killileas, a prominent political family from Tuam. Untold Secrets recounts her often brutal and abusive treatment at the hands of her foster family and reveals never seen before interviews with fellow survivors. Although Silke is now deceased the documentary gives a posthumous voice to Anne and possibly some closure to her family.

Champagne

The true story of a young teenage girl whose mother is incarcerated for murder. Living in a Catholic Children's home run by an order of nuns, she provides poignant commentary about her mother, her own situation and her outlook for the future.

Attila

Filmmaker Stephen Hosier takes a journey with Richard Csanyi, his childhood friend, as he investigates the life and death of his twin brother Attila, who was found dead on a rooftop in 2020.

My Name Is Faith

This is the story of a 12-year-old girl working hard to overcome a troubling past and accept and embrace the love and possibility that now surround her. Born as Brianna to a drug-addicted mother, she and her baby brother lived in harrowing conditions before being adopted by a young couple fully invested in raising their children to be whole, happy and strong.

Placed - The Journey Through Foster Care

Placed: The Journey Through Foster Care explores the reality of the Foster Care System that is hidden in plain sight. By going into the homes of foster parents, and asking social care workers for answers, this student documentary sheds light on the real voices and untold stories of the Foster System.

White Oleander

A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.

Elizabeth's Gift

When a precious little girl dies tragically of a rare heart condition, her grieving parents are left to pick up the pieces of their once perfect life. In a sequence of events influenced by faith (and perhaps miracles), they are guided to a homeless girl on the streets, and a battle ensues to reunite as a family and heal their broken hearts.

Ayla: The Daughter of War

In 1950, amidst the ravages of the Korean War, Sergeant Süleyman stumbles upon a a half-frozen little girl, with no parents and no help in sight and he risks his own life to save her, smuggling her into his army base and out of harm’s way.

Daisy Winters

An eleven year-old girl's unconventional yet deeply loving relationship with her mother is harshly broken. Along her journey, including her quest to discover her father, she learns how to embrace every moment with determination and unrelenting self-confidence.

Bonkers

Bonnie, a nine-year-old single child, is part of a family of three living in the Netherlands. They have a love of elephants, passed on by Bonnie's grandfather's grandfather who worked on a game reserve in Africa, and Bonnie feels that she instinctively does things like an elephant as a result. Her single mother, Lis, is bi-polar and at times spends days on end without even getting out of bed. Then there are other times when she will manically do wild acts, such as impromptu dancing in public. As a result, Bonnie's sturdy and stable grandmother must hold the family together by doing all the cooking, etc. After her grandmother is killed by a car, Bonnie becomes the most responsible family member and struggles with preparing meals and getting her reluctant mother to take her medication. She also must dodge Jorien, a social worker who is attempting to place her in a foster home.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot

Led by Donna and Reverend W.C. Martin, 22 families from a rural Black church in the small East Texas town of Possum Trot adopt 77 of the most difficult-to-place kids in the foster system and kickstart a movement in the process.

Foster Child

Thelma, together with her husband Dado and teenage sons Gerald and Yuri, are a poor urban family hired by a local foster care facility to provide temporary home and care to abandoned babies pending the latter's formal adoption.

Like Dandelion Dust

A compelling drama that explores the different meanings of being a parent through the gritty, realistic lives of a struggling family, and a privileged family. Their lives intersect, intertwine and collide, all for the love of a little boy. This film bravely exposes the humanity in each character reminding us that we each have the potential to be the best and worst versions of ourselves at any time.

The Unloved

Lucy is eleven years old. Having been neglected by her estranged mother and father, she is placed in a children's home. Through her eyes, we follow her struggle to cope with the system; her only saving being her self-belief and certainty that she is being watched over and protected by the holy spirit.

The Reluctant Nanny

IT guru Libby gets more than she bargained for when, after losing her job, she reluctantly agrees to help a cop with fostering two abandoned kids.

I Can I Will I Did

A bullied adolescent who has spent his life bouncing from foster home to foster home finds new hope with the help of a Tae Kwon Do master and his paraplegic granddaughter.

Home Sweet Home

Three postal workers and their dysfunctional families interact over cups of tea and Sunday dinner.

A Home of Our Own

In 1960s Los Angeles an energetic widow and her six children try to make a dream of theirs come true: to have a home of their own. They leave L.A. and head for the countryside, all the while facing numerous difficulties and obstacles during their journey.

10½

Tommy, 10 years old, is well known by Social Services. He is considered a danger to society. Gilles, his guardian at this halfway house, sees potential for redemption in this kid driven by violence.

Kathleen Is Here

18-year-old Kathleen is fresh out of foster care. Her departure coincides with the death of her biological mother, so she returns to her hometown to take ownership of her mother’s house. She gets a job and even a friend; but the emptiness of Kathleen’s life cannot be filled by social media and reality shows. Alone and desperate for a mother figure, she sets out on a destructive path to find one.

A Week Away

Troubled teen Will Hawkins has a run-in with the law that puts him at an important crossroad: go to juvenile detention or attend a Christian summer camp. At first a fish-out-of-water, Will opens his heart, discovers love with a camp regular, and sense of belonging in the last place he expected to find it.

Catimini

Cathy, 6, is taken by a social worker to a foster home in the countryside, where she slowly gets used to the strict rules imposed by her foster mother Réjeanne. Fortunately, her foster father, Reynald, is kind and gentle with the girl and patiently helps her break through her shell. Kayla, 12, is sent to a group home where she gets to know Morgane, a rebellious teenager who’s planning to run away. At about the same time, Manu is released from the system on the day she turns 18, but she finds it difficult to adjust to her solitary existence outside of the system. All four meet up at a reception honoring a foster family with whom they’ve all previously lived.

Homecoming

When their mother disappears, a group of siblings are forced to fend for themselves, and make their way on their own. They eventually meet their grandmother, a loner who is reluctant to take them in.

ReMoved

A 10-year-old girl navigates her way through the foster care system, after being removed from her home and separated from her younger brother.

Finding a Family

Bright Alex grows up in Michigan proud of his mother, Romanian immigrant Ileana, who became a professor, vowing to make her dream come true by graduating from Harvard. But when mother becomes manic-depressive and repeatedly dumps her medication, Alex each time lands in foster care. At age 16, he gets legal emancipation and vows to take charge of their lives himself

The Girl

A young Texan mother who loses her child to foster care begins smuggling Mexicans across the border.

Short Term 12

Grace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, helps at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.

Finding Love in Mountain View

After learning she's been entrusted to take care of her deceased cousin's children, an architect is torn between focusing on her career and honoring her cousin's wish.

A Long Way Home

A married teenager sets out to find his long-lost brother and sister years after all three had been placed with different families following their abandonment by their migrant worker parents. Luckily, he finds a compassionate social worker who, at first reluctantly, decides to help him cut through the bureaucratic red tape.

My Name Is Emily

Packed off to a foster home after her father is insti­tu­tion­al­ized, a rebellious young Irish girl resolves to bust her dad out of the hospital where he's been confined.

Earth Mama

A pregnant single mother, with two children in foster care, embraces her Bay Area community as she fights to reclaim her family.

Lifemark

David's comfortable world is turned upside down when his birth mother Melissa unexpectedly reaches out, longing to meet the eighteen year old son she's only held once.

Age Out

Fresh out of foster care at age 18, a young drifter turns to petty crime to survive, and discovers an impossible love in an unlikely friend.

Per sempre

Short film about foster care promoted by TWINSET.

Gimme Shelter

After running away from her abusive mother, a streetwise teen seeks refuge with her father, but he rejects her when he learns that she's pregnant.

Found.

"Found" is the story of an innocent teenage boy raised up in the Appalachian Mountains on a small old fashioned homestead devoid of modern conveniences and tucked away from the broader culture at large. Through a sudden tragedy, he suddenly finds himself cast out, alone and adrift into our high-speed, hi-tech modern world until he meets a troubled family who takes him into their home for better or for worse. What he learns about himself and what others around him discover about themselves brings new meaning to the phrase "testing your faith" (James 1:2-4).

All Saints Day

To stop his oldest brother from drinking himself to death, Ronan enlists the help of their estranged priest brother and long-lost sister, sparking a chaotic family reunion, a botched intervention, and an unexpected journey into forgiveness and reckoning.

Color of Love

An African American widow with two kids who has so much love to give, she often fosters children who need a home. She finds out that Peter and Rachel, the white siblings she fostered twice before, fled from their latest foster home.

A Holiday Homecoming

The residents of Hope, NY come to the aid of displaced foster children after St. Jerome's Home for Children has a fire right before Christmas, and many families find the foster children complete their homes.

13th of September, 2004

A 17-year-old kid from South Chicago coexists with his selfish foster mother. On his way to school with his best friend, they discover something that will change their lives forever.

The Lost & Found Family

When her husband dies, Mrs. Ester Hobbes (Ellen Bry, TV's St. Elsewhere) learns that his wealth was just an illusion. Her only real inheritance is a run-down Southern home occupied by a foster family. Slowly, Mrs. Hobbes finds herself making unexpected connections with rebellious teen Justin (Lucas Till, Hannah Montana: The Movie) and the rest of the unwanted kids. Share the journey of discovery in this touching drama of lives transformed.

Tax Wars

Tax Wars takes viewers behind-the-scenes of a global effort to put people before profits, hold multinationals accountable, and demand the world’s most powerful corporations pay their fair share of tax.

Philosophy Of a Knife

The true history of Japanese Unit 731, from its beginnings in the 1930s to its demise in 1945, and the subsequent trials in Khabarovsk, USSR, of many of the Japanese doctors from Unit 731. The facts are told, and previously unknown evidence is revealed by an eyewitness to these events, former doctor and military translator, Anatoly Protasov.

Salesman

This documentary from Albert and David Maysles follows the bitter rivalry of four door-to-door salesmen working for the Mid-American Bible Company: Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDevitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker and Raymond "The Bull" Martos. Times are tough for this hard-living quartet, who spend their days traveling through small-town America, trying their best to peddle gold-leaf Bibles to an apathetic crowd of lower-middle-class housewives and elderly couples.

Leaving Tallinn. 1941

In the last days of August 1941, one of the greatest maritime disasters in history took place off the northern coast of Estonia. Fleeing the invading Germans, the Soviet authorities hastily and panickedly carried out the evacuation of Tallinn. The remnants of the Red Army units, fleeing Red Army personnel, as well as mobilized Estonians and civilians were placed on more than two hundred ships, either voluntarily or forcibly. In total, over 30,000 people. The line of ships headed for Kronstadt and Leningrad, but they ran into a trap set by the German and Finnish navies near the Juminda Peninsula. 60 ships sank in mine explosions, torpedoes and aircraft bombs, and an estimated 15,000 people died, including thousands of Estonians. The film reveals how the terrible catastrophe of Juminda has been depicted, silenced, minimized or heroized in later historical accounts.

On Lavender

A documentary that is a deep exploration of gender identity within the context of Greek society, providing a multi-layered narrative that reflects the experiences of individuals navigating the complexities of gender in a culture where these topics are still emerging. Over four years, the filmmakers captured intimate stories of people confronting their gender identities, revealing how personal, societal, and familial expectations shape their journeys. The documentary aims to challenge the traditional norms of gender and to give voice to those whose experiences are often marginalized. It marks a significant step in Greece’s cinematic exploration of LGBTQ+ themes and is a pivotal contribution to the global conversation on gender identity.

Under the Skin

A film about the transition of three trans teenagers, the upheaval it causes in them and their loved ones, as well as the quest for identity buried deep within them.

The Blob: A Genius without a Brain

This documentary outlines the unique properties and latest studies of "Physarum Polycephalum", also known as Blob.