Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen

An eulogy to growing up in freedom with its ups and downs. The director, Sara Bonaventura gives us an insight in radical pedagogy and Emilia Reggio's experience based education, which she is a strong advocate for.

The film follows the Miss contest season in Brasilia and satellite cities of the Federal District in the year 2010, revealing the contradictions behind the catwalks of fashion.

Through one woman's experience as an adopted person and also as a mother who relinquished her child in 1971, this documentary highlights the many complex issues associated with adoption.

Regresso à casa de partida antes que a partida seja definitiva

A short documentary about the life and love of New York surf culture following transplanted San Diego surfer, Shawlin Tucker, who forced found a way to bring his passion with him when a college acceptance from New York University summons him to the big apple.

From oratory classes to operating room, Beauty Factory follows five girls for four months as they compete for the coveted Miss Venezuela crown; revealing the process that has won Venezuela more international beauty pageants than any other country.

The American Royalty docuseries showcases an in-depth perspective of the Miss America Pageant. Experience the hundred year history, influence, controversy, and evolution of this iconic institution.

Les enfants de Vercheny

Five women veterans who have endured unimaginable trauma in service create a shared sisterhood to help the rising number of stranded homeless women veterans by entering a competition that unexpectedly catalyzes moving events in their own lives.

AN 27

Twenty-one-year-old Julia had to leave her daughters under the care of a children's shelter house. Five years later, Julia keeps fighting to rebuild her life and get reunited with her daughters.

When 30 women aged 67 - 84 from across America and around the world descend on Fall River, Massachusetts to compete in the 30th anniversary Ms. Senior Sweetheart Pageant, hilarity and heartbreak ensue.

Writing a letter to Paul B. Preciado, trans philosopher and filmmaker, as one would write to a friend. Undertake a healing process as a queer child growing up in a Spanish evangelical family. From Lausanne to New York, Lézio Schiffke-Rodriguez follows in the footsteps of revolutions that invite us to redefine our vision of binary bodies.

Reclaiming what was once stolen from him, a man journeys back to the place of his childhood nearly 80 years after his world came crashing down.

A poetic exploration of the multi-generational affects of Canada's Indian Residential School system, based on the personal trials of Aboriginal playwright Yvette Nolan.

A portrait of growing up told through filmmaker Sean Wang's middle school yearbook. Go Hornets.

In 1967, New York City is host to the Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant. This documentary takes a look behind the scenes, transporting the viewer into rehearsals and dressing rooms as the drag queen subculture prepares for this big national beauty contest. Jack/Sabrina is the mistress of ceremonies, and their protégé, Miss Harlow, is in the competition. But, as the pageant approaches, the glamorous contestants veer from camaraderie to tension.

Equal parts punk and psychedelia, the Flaming Lips emerged from Oklahoma City as one of the most bracing bands of the late 1980s. The Fearless Freaks documents their rise from Butthole Surfers-imitating noisemakers to grand poobahs of orchestral pop masterpieces. Filmmaker Bradley Beesely had the good fortune of living in the same neighborhood as lead Lip Wayne Coyne, who quickly enlisted his buddy to document his band's many concerts and assorted exploits. The early footage is a riot, with tragic hair styles on proud display as the boys attempt to cover up their lack of natural talent with sheer volume. During one show, they even have a friend bring a motorcycle on stage, which is then miked for sound and revved throughout the performance, clearing the club with toxic levels of carbon monoxide. Great punk rock stuff. Interspersed among the live bits are interviews with the band's family and friends, revealing the often tragic circumstances of their childhoods and early career.

Between parental love, youth welfare offices and bureaucracy, three educators try their hardest to create a temporary home for children. This is not always easy, as the most diverse personalities and their stories clash here. And yet the residential group becomes a kind of surrogate family for the children. At the back of their minds, however, is always the question: for how long?

Hit Him on the Head with a Hard, Heavy Hammer departs from the handwritten memoir of the filmmaker’s father and his experience of displacement during wartime. Referring to the notion Thomas Hardy termed ‘The Self-Unseeing’ in his eponymous 1901 poem, the film returns to childhood and the matters that harden us: upbringing, social status, education, labour, and familial bonds. The memoir weaves into the film as both a contemplation on mortality and an illustration of fading memory, reflecting on how we pen our pasts and how they can be re-told.