Various experiences of childhood are seen in several sequences that take place in the small town of Thiers, France. Vignettes include a boy's awakening interest in girls, couples double-dating at the movies, brothers giving their friend a haircut, a boy dealing with an abusive home life, a baby and a cat sitting by an open window, a child telling a dirty joke, and a boy who develops a crush on his friend's mother.
Leyla and her six-year-old daughter Nila live in the holy city of Mashhad in Iran. Nila is the result of a temporary marriage, which allows a man to marry a woman even if he is already married. Children born from such a relationship are legally non-existent. As long as the father does not recognize the child, no birth certificate can be issued and Nila cannot attend school. The documentary depicts Leyla's tireless efforts to clarify Nila's legal status in order to offer her a perspective for her future. In a never-ending bureaucratic battle, Leyla fights not only against the legal system, but also against a judgmental society.
In the big city of Bengaluru, schools are reopening after 2 years of virtual classes due to COVID-19. A little girl named Sukhi is still asleep without a care in the world however her mother is insistent that she be on time on her first day.
A single mother suffers a devastating stroke leaving her teenage daughter and 7-year-old son to care for her, testing the family's strength to hold things together as their roles are reversed.
To some, Doña Cecilia is an invisible, elderly woman. For others, her presence validates their existence. This movie on children's civil rights shows how borders are transformed into bridges by the power of unconditional love and music.
He won't kill you
Como Lloran las Niñas
The story of two youngster girls who became the victims of female genital mutilation.
En el recuerdo habita el olvido
OBAIDA, a short film by Matthew Cassel, explores a Palestinian child’s experience of Israeli military arrest. Each year, some 700 Palestinian children undergo military detention in a system where ill-treatment is widespread and institutionalized. For these young detainees, few rights are guaranteed, even on paper. After release, the experience of detention continues to shape and mark former child prisoners’ path forward.
How Finnish immigrants came into contact — and conflict — with industrial America. Three generations of Finnish-Americans recount how they coped with harsh realities by creating their own institutions: churches, temperance halls, socialist halls, and cooperatives.
This short film brings light to the reality of transsexuality during childhood and aims to emphasize the importance of the role of grandparents.
In the ocean, there are four magical crystals. The dark corps led by sea monster Limo Ansen tried to get the crystals by all means and dominate the ocean. The deep-sea ranger-led by Xiaoronglong waged fierce battles with them in order to maintain the security of the ocean. In this period, two octopus siblings were involved in the struggles. With the help of Octopus siblings and in reliance on their courage and wisdom, Xiaoronglong and his friends resolved the crises time and time again and eventually defeated the dark forces and maintained the peace of the ocean.
Um Crime Entre Nós
"The Voice of Innocence" is a documentary that shows how, starting in 1959, the Cuban Revolution put into practice a comprehensive and universal policy of safeguarding the rights of the child, even under the multiple difficulties resulting from the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States more than six decades ago. Cuba is one of the main signatories of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed on 20 November 1989, when the country had already made extraordinary progress in protecting the rights of the child, in comparison to developed countries, such as the United States, which as of today hasn't yet ratified the Convention.
The important tradition of Islamic education in Senegal has been left to develop in disturbingly perverted ways. 50.000 koranic students (Talibes), young boys between 4 and 15 years old are subjected to exploitation in conditions akin to slavery. They are forced to beg on the streets by their koranic schoolteachers and suffer severe physical abuse and neglect. Following the staff of local grassroots NGO La Maison de la Gare (MDG) in their efforts to combat this, the documentary sets out on a poetic exploration of the nature and circumstances that breed and prolong the suffering of the children.
Brigade des mineurs
The story of the children who work 12-14 hour days in the fields without the protection of child labor laws. These children are not toiling in the fields in some far away land. They are working in America.
At 14 Rabha El Haimer was an illiterate child bride, beaten, raped and then rejected. Ten years later, she is a single mother, fighting to legalise her sham marriage and secure a future for her illegitimate daughter. With unprecedented access to the Moroccan justice system, “Bastards” follows Rabha’s fight from the Casablanca slums to the high courts.
An entertaining video filmed over two years. Kids, teachers, heads, parents, ex-pupils tell the story of this unique experimental school. “Kids don’t have to go to lessons at Summerhill and can wear and do mostly what they want. How does that work??!!