Set Me Free

Haunted by his mysterious past, a devoted high school football coach leads a scrawny team of orphans to the state championship during the Great Depression and inspires a broken nation along the way.

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.

A young autistic woman runs away from her caregiver in order to boldly go and deliver her 500-page Star Trek script to a writing competition in Hollywood. On an adventure full of laughter and tears, Wendy follows the guiding spirit of Mr. Spock on her journey into the unknown.

Fantasy A, autistic Seattle rapper, suffers trials and tribulations from total creeps as he attempts to become a superstar. Along the way he also finds a mattress to sleep on, after being kicked out of his group home.

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.

A film made by Victress Hitchcock and Ava Hamilton in 1989 on the Wind River Reservation for Wyoming Public Television.

Social workers dispel myths about why children are removed from their biological parents, breaking down their overwhelming workload. Lawyers uncover the harsh reality of young children navigating the legal system. Advocacy organizations try to keep children safe and away from predators. An eclectic array of interviews from foster care alumni explore their connections (or lack thereof) with social workers, the fragile bond with each foster home, how trust can fall apart, and how those unable to adapt spent time in group homes. The film concludes with alumni success stories, working to remove the stigma of foster care.

When one’s sole focus is to provide for their children, the stakes are extremely high. The need for multiple jobs to make ends meet has become a common reality for many families in this country, which leads to a very important question: who looks after the children while their parents work? Through the Night examines the economic and emotional toll affecting some American families, told through the lens of a 24-hour daycare center in Westchester, New York. At the center of it all is Nunu, the primary caregiver and a hero to many families in need of a safe space to bring their children.

Filmed over five weeks at the Warrendale residential treatment center near Toronto, "Warrendale" observes twelve emotionally disturbed children and the staff who care for them. Working without narration, interviews, or direction, Allan King records daily life as it unfolds, establishing what he later described as “actuality drama.”

Jean-Claude Delsart, a 50 years-old bailiff, with his worn-out smile and heart, abandoned a long time ago the idea that life could give him pleasures. Until the day, he dares to push the doors of a tango lesson...

When illegal card dealer and recovering heroin addict Frankie Machine gets out of prison, he decides to straighten up. Armed with nothing but an old drum set, Frankie tries to get honest work as a drummer. But when his former employer and his old drug dealer re-enter his life, Frankie finds it hard to stay clean and eventually finds himself succumbing to his old habits.

Sent to Mexico to help take care of aging Father Benito, young Father Amaro faces a moral challenge when he meets a 16-year-old girl who he starts an affair with. Likewise, the girl's mother had been having an affair with Father Benito. Father Amaro must choose between a holy or sinful life.

London, 1929. Frank Webber, a very busy Scotland Yard detective, seems to be more interested in his work than in Alice White, his girlfriend. Feeling herself ignored, Alice agrees to go out with an elegant and well-mannered artist who invites her to visit his fancy apartment.

A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.

The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.

Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.

A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.