The Act of Reading

This fascinating documentary chronicles the intense rivalry between high schools in Southern Indiana to win a prestigious festival performance with lavish student musical productions that often cost in the tens of thousands of dollars to produce.

Peer behind the curtain as a cast of neurodivergent teens prepare to come of age and hit the stage in their school’s time-travelling, John Farnham–themed musical.

In a universe where cool kids are nerds, the orchestra is world class and being Asian American is the norm, seniors at Lowell High School compete for the top prize: admission to the college of their dreams.

BIG VOICE captures a tumultuous year in the life of a visionary high school choir teacher and his students as they overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to become one big voice in this inspiring musical documentary.

A short film set during the span of an entire school week.

American high school students from the privileged Silicon Valley travel to Manang, Nepal in this documentary about how travel and life experiences can change personal perceptions. Together with a group of Manangi high schoolers, the students expand their cultural knowledge and experience a slice of life as a citizen of the globe.

Emma and Anaïs are best friends and yet everything in their life seems to set them apart, their social backgrounds but also their personalities. From the age of thirteen to eighteen, Adolescentes follows the two teenagers during these years where radical transformations and first times punctuate daily life. Through their personal stories, the film offers a rare portrait of France and its recent history.

The fascinating complexity of high school debate gives way to a portrait of the equally complex racial and class bias of American education in Greg Whiteley's riveting documentary.

A documentary on seniors at a high school in a small Indiana town and their various cliques.

Chasing Mandela's Rainbow

Set in the cutthroat, boy-dominated world of high school debate where tomorrow’s leaders are groomed, GIRL TALK tells the timely story of five girls on a diverse, top-ranked Massachusetts high school debate team as they strive to become the best debaters in the United States on their own terms.

In the middle of the night on February 11, 1823, the seafaring career of Captain George Pollard, Jr. came to a dramatic end in the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Having survived the tragic events of the Essex, one of the world’s most infamous seafaring disasters, and the true life events that inspired Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, Pollard optimistically set sail for the Pacific once again in the whaleship Two Brothers, believing with all his heart “that it was an old adage that the lightning never struck in the same place twice.” In this case it did, and Pollard’s promising career as a whaling captain came to a tragic end on an uncharted reef in the most remote archipelago on earth, and what is now Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. In 2008, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists discovered the first clues of the whaleship Two Brothers and began to unlock the mystery of the only Nantucket whaleship ever found on the sea floor.

O Terceirão dos Lobos

In this modern, coming of age documentary, Naomi, Jojo and Arham grapple with economic divides, gender roles, and family dynamics while competing in the fastest growing high school sport in the country: girl’s wrestling.

In Turkey far too many women are still unable to read and write, and all they see in their life span is being forced into early marriage and relegation to the home, where they look after extended families and more children than they can feed. The girls are portrayed in their homes, together with the strongest supporters of their emancipation through education: their mothers. Girls of Hope portrays five girls who struggle for their education and, despite all the difficulties, try to hold on to their hope for a better future.

Four unique high school show choirs in Ohio prepare themselves to win during their highly-anticipated, grueling and glamorous competition season.

In just sixty years, South Korea went from being one of the poorest countries on the Asian continent to having the 12th largest economy in the entire world. Every year, it is measured that Korean students have some of the highest test scores and a higher rate of acceptance into Ivy League schools compared to all other nations. But on the flip side, South Korea also has one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world, the highest gender pay gap of all developed countries, and the highest plastic surgery rate per capita. Always expected to receive top scores and constantly bombarded by media and messages that seem to demand nothing short of visual “perfection,” how do these individuals come to accept and learn to love themselves as they are?

This documentary follows NBA superstar LeBron James and four of his talented teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Ohio and James' journey to fame.

Bots High is an exciting documentary following the adventures of three high school robotics teams battling for first place at a national robotics competition in Miami, Florida. It's a no-holds-barred fight to the death with robot carnage everywhere you look. Genius inventor Will builds robots so powerful they're unstoppable...if only they don't destroy themselves first. The Mechanical Misfits are an all girls team stumbling through their first foray into combat robotics and Elizabeth and Danielle are a formidable pair looking to reign supreme during their last year of high school. Bots High follows these students as they design, build and compete at Nationals - all while surviving high school, first love and teenager procrastination. A FilmBuff Presentation.

Chelsea Bledsoe and her husband Graig throw a surprise intervention for her old high school boyfriend, Henry, with a mismatched group of acquaintances from back in the day to fill out the guest list.