There But For the Grace of God...

Et glas vand til Johnie

Three homeless teenagers brave Chicago winters, the pressures of high school, and life alone on the streets to build a brighter future.

Wes Hurley's autobiographical tale of growing up gay in Soviet Union Russia, only to escape with his mother, a mail order bride, to Seattle to face a whole new oppression in his new Christian fundamentalist American dad.

This year, the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) challenged five local production companies to create a love letter to Seattle in a compilation affectionately titled, 'Seattle, I Love You'. The five shorts within this omnibus production are: Sea Folk, Fresh Pair, Open Mouth, Hannah & Otto, Secret.

Still images of a group of young skateboarders in Seattle, Wa.

A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City.

Every day, on the streets of Canada's cities, we pass them on our way to work or school. Bums, beggars, winos, bag people we call them. But who is the person at the end of that outstretched arm? What is life on the street really like? Is there a way off the street? For six years, director Daniel Cross followed the lives of three homeless men who spent much of their time in and around a Montreal subway station. Filmed in a cinema verité style, the film is unique: it humanizes the homeless, breaking down the barrier between us and them, neither moralizing nor offering easy answers. This is a gritty, compelling look at life on the streets that moves beyond the media stereotypes to show both the humanity of the homeless and the street-toughened aspects of their existence.

Two unhoused men turned community leaders— John and LaMonté —organize their neighbors in the face of displacement, addiction, and a failing social system.

Documentary tells the story of Maxim Vakhmin, a veritable alleycat of a man. Revered as both an angel and a devil, Maxim (once known as a successful artist in his native Russia) is losing friends and finding new ones as a homeless person in the USA.

People experiencing homelessness, social work professionals, and film artists join forces to transform fragments of real life into fictional short films.

It's a sensitive, moving doc chronicling the life of Tétrault's brother Philip , a Montreal poet, musician and diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. A promising athlete as a child, Philip began experiencing mood swings in his early 20s. His extended family, including his daughter, share their conflicted feelings love, guilt, shame, anger with the camera. They want to make sure he's safe, but how much can they take?

A child who just loved to skate from the age of eight, Poppy Starr Olsen became the number one female bowl skater in Australia at 14 and went on to take out bronze at the XGames at 17 - the ultimate competition in the world of skateboarding. The same year, skateboarding was announced as an official additional sport category at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Now faced with the opportunity to represent Australia on the world stage Poppy grapples with the transition from skater to athlete and the pressure of competition mounts in a way it has never done before.

49 Up is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada's World in Action team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man," interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the "children" every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.In this latest chapter, more life-changing decisions are revealed, more shocking announcements made and more of the original group take part than ever before, speaking out on a variety of subjects including love, marriage, career, class and prejudice.

With unprecedented access to the team, we go on a journey of redemption. Set against the backdrop of the rise of soccer in America, the film captures the beauty of the game as never before. But the heart of the movie is the examination of the people who come from all over the world to pursue a goal together. Each brings his own talents,but also his own indelible childhood experiences and family dynamics, which allows us to explore our own.

Tell Them We Were Here is an inspirational feature-length documentary about eight artists who show us why art is vital to a healthy society and reminds us that we are stronger together.

Intimate true stories from St Kilda's Gatwick Private Hotel. Meet the incredible characters including sisters Rose and Yvette who dedicated their lives to caring for the forgotten.

Waifs, homeless, derelicts, almsmen, others, forgettens, outcasts, unwanteds. The Hotel of Waifs; a temporary resting place far from home, an amusement in a pale fun fair, an enthusiastic trip on roundabout ways of soul.

Do Lado de Fora

Where we come from shapes who we are, and how others see us. Home gives us a sense of belonging and stability. It’s so much more than just a physical structure. It’s our safety, our refuge, our launch pad. Yet, so many people in the U.S. face housing instability and homelessness. A shocking 76% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. They are just one accident or injury away from losing everything. Losing a place to call their own. Our Journey Home explores how home shapes us and challenges our perceptions about people in need of public housing. The film examines the role we all play in supporting those who struggle in having a stable place from where they can grow and dream.

“Set against the rattle of shopping carts and the white noise of L.A. traffic... “Disco’d” is an unvarnished, moving look at the lives affected by the rising crisis of homelessness.” —Los Angeles Times