Ellen Foster

Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.

Nine-year-old Frankie and his single mum Lizzie have been on the move ever since Frankie can remember, most recently arriving in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her deaf son from the truth that they've run away from his father, Lizzie has invented a story that he is away at sea on the HMS Accra. Every few weeks, Lizzie writes Frankie a make-believe letter from his father, telling of his adventures in exotic lands. As Frankie tracks the ship's progress around the globe, he discovers that it is due to dock in his hometown. With the real HMS Accra arriving in only a fortnight, Lizzie must choose between telling Frankie the truth or finding the perfect stranger to play Frankie's father for just one day...

An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing 'Mister' Albert Johnson, things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa.

Lichter is an episodic tale from Hans-Christian Schmid about the life on the border between Germany and Poland. The film sheds light on the everyday stories of escape and desperateness.

The story of a bird charmer as he goes on to influence the lives of people while witnessing a change in his own.

Growing up in an environment torn apart by violence and alcohol, a young woman struggles to find her path. She manages to escape her family and enters university, where she finds refuge in literature. Gradually, words offer her an unexpected freedom...

In 1969, Pamela Bucklin is born. The same day, her mother dies. Pamela is raised by her father, Wayne, who commits to pray with his daughter every night. He also raises her with a very high standard of purity before marriage. As a teenager, Pamela begins to question the motives put forth by the Bible.

A young man, Bert Cates, is arrested in a small Bible Belt town for teaching the theory of Evolution in the public school. Two of the finest legal minds in the U.S. are called to the trial: Henry Drummond for the defense, and Matthew Harrison Brady for the prosecution. The trial proceeds on three levels, the guilt or innocence of Cates, the issue of the Bible vs. Darwin, and finally, the personal confrontation between Drummond and Brady.

A troubled Southern man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her (and New York City) in the process.

The relationships among two pre-pubescent brothers and their estranged father are tested on a trip into the Russian wilderness.

After the death of a Southern preacher, his ne'er-do-well daughter returns home to collect her inheritance.

Raimunda, a working-class woman living in Madrid, is dealing with the aftermath of a fire that killed her parents in her native village in La Mancha. Raimunda's life is further complicated when her deceased mother, Irene, returns as a ghost to resolve unfinished family business, including a murder and other buried truths.

An alcoholic man and his two young children barely survive in Taipei. They cross paths with a lonely grocery clerk who might help them make a better life.

Two men and their charming friendship.

Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.

After her sister leaves home, Tari fights to protect her mother from her father's abuse and joins a support group where she meets a new lifelong friend.

Seven short films - each one focused on the plight of a different child protagonist.

1959, support from US troops based in Asia and later from the Sates enables two actresses to start a charity for mixed-race 'orphans' who are locally neglected as outcasts. Thus originates Childhelp, which later runs multi-disciplinary centers for abused and/or neglected children in the States. Among them is bright Jacob Fletcher, whose stepfather, a lawyer, terrorized him into utter trauma and reclaims him shortly after 10 months in jail. Jacob's peers have distressing stories of their own, but competent, devoted staff helps most of them decisively on the former farm, using animal therapy.

John Peterson lives with his partner Eric and their adopted daughter in Southern California. When he is visited by his aging father Willis from Los Angeles who is searching for a place to retire, their two very different worlds collide.

The story of boxer Rocky Graziano's rise from juvenile delinquent to world champ.