Streetwise

On June 13, 1978, the punk bands the Cramps and the Mutants played a free show for psychiatric patients at the Napa State Hospital in California. We Were There to Be There chronicles the people, politics, and cultural currents that led to the show and its live recording.

For five years, Stephen McCoy documented street life in Boston. This is what he captured.

Documentary from the point of view of a now 18 year old girl who grew up in a nudist club.

British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.

Teenager Olivia Oras has 20,000 Instagram followers. The documentary follows a year of her life.

In 2023, there were an estimated 30.6 thousand homeless people. This number continues to rise at an alarming rate. One of them is the headstrong Ruurdt. He has difficulty getting help and cannot adapt well to our society. He is now also in danger of losing the houseboat that was assigned to him. 'Ruurdt' is an intimate portrait of a man on the fringes of our society.

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

When the Chinese Communist Party backtracks on its promise of autonomy to Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong decides to save his city. Rallying thousands of kids to skip school and occupy the streets, Joshua becomes an unlikely leader in Hong Kong and one of China’s most notorious dissidents.

There are at least seven thousand children and adolescents wandering the streets of Morocco's economic capital. Sold by their parents, abused, beaten, or abandoned, they struggle to survive. Since 1995, the Bayti association has been fighting to reintegrate these sacrificed children and give them a second chance.

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No Place to Grow Old is the first documentary to capture a growing crisis unfolding quietly across America: older adults aging into homelessness. Set in Portland, Oregon, this film follows the lives of three older adults navigating the harsh realities of life without a home. Through their stories of hardship and resilience, the film offers an intimate portrayal of their challenges while illuminating the systemic issues contributing to their plight. Featuring insights from local and national experts, No Place to Grow Old is a powerful call to action that emphasizes dignity and hope, envisioning a future where everyone, regardless of age, has a safe and secure place to call home.

As Niagara Falls transformed from honeymoon capital of the world to Las Vegas North, corporate hotel chains and casinos cast a long shadow over the independent motels that once populated the town. The Continental survived the transition by converting its rooms into affordable housing units, becoming a home for those with few places to go. The night manager, Brian, once a freelance photographer who survived the horrors of war in Vietnam, shares his duties with his colleague Linda. Together they manage both the Continental and the individual struggles of its tenants, providing more than a roof over the heads of those who live under their supervision. Bringing a fresh focus to one of the most photographed places on Earth, director and cinematographer Jesse McCracken develops an intimate and caring portrait of the residents of this modest micro-community set against the backdrop of neon-lit tourist attractions.

Jojo, a 17-year-old girl from Bangkok, is about to graduate from high school. After her friend Q reveals a secret to her, the two girls grow close and spend all their time together. Jojo's father wholeheartedly approves of the friendship and is just glad that Jojo is not going on any dates with boys.

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.

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.

Through the eyes of a young drifter who rejects society's rules and intentionally chooses to live on the streets, Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang explores the meaning of personal freedom – and its limits.

Chinese teenagers from the wealthy elite, with big American dreams, settle into a boarding school in small-town Maine. As their fuzzy visions of the American dream slowly gain more clarity, their relationship to home takes on a poignant new aspect.

Swords to Plowshares, winner of the San Francisco Foundation 2007 Community Leadership Awards (the John R. May Award). Swords to Plowshares is a critical center of support, advocacy, and services for war veterans. It has successfully transitioned from its origins serving Vietnam War veterans to now accommodating all veterans, including those from the current Iraq War. As a leading advocate for homeless and low-income veterans, it transforms national policy and provides comprehensive services, including counseling, employment programs, housing, and legal assistance.

Rosa is a Mexican woman who, at the age of 17, migrated illegally to Austin, Texas. Some years later, she was jailed under suspicion of murder and then taken to trial. This film demonstrates how the judicial process, the verdict, the separation from her family, and the helplessness of being imprisoned in a foreign country make Rosa’s story an example of the hard life of Mexican migrants in the United States.

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?