The Unloved
Lucy is eleven years old. Having been neglected by her estranged mother and father, she is placed in a children's home. Through her eyes, we follow her struggle to cope with the system; her only saving being her self-belief and certainty that she is being watched over and protected by the holy spirit.
A Home of Our Own
In 1960s Los Angeles an energetic widow and her six children try to make a dream of theirs come true: to have a home of their own. They leave L.A. and head for the countryside, all the while facing numerous difficulties and obstacles during their journey.
White Oleander
A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.
Ayla: The Daughter of War
In 1950, amidst the ravages of the Korean War, Sergeant Süleyman stumbles upon a a half-frozen little girl, with no parents and no help in sight and he risks his own life to save her, smuggling her into his army base and out of harm’s way.
Short Term 12
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 Week Away
Troubled teen Will Hawkins has a run-in with the law that puts him at an important crossroad: go to juvenile detention or attend a Christian summer camp. At first a fish-out-of-water, Will opens his heart, discovers love with a camp regular, and sense of belonging in the last place he expected to find it.
Home
A young man grapples with his past in care when he's faced with a life-changing responsibility
Leaving Beginnings Behind
In her most recent film, Linda Kallistová Jablonská observes three girls growing up in a residential facility in Počátky, Czech Republic, over the course of ten years. She explores their dreams about liberty, the reality they must face as well as their ideas about their own future families. The sequel to her first longitudinal documentary about Adéla, Denisa and Pavla captures the rocky road to independence after leaving the facility, their reconciliation with the past, job search, new relationships, small joys and big disappointments. Not only does the director draw an empathic portrait of three young girls with no-one to rely on but themselves; she also explores the ways in which public institutions form young people’s attitudes to life.
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot
Led by Donna and Reverend W.C. Martin, 22 families from a rural Black church in the small East Texas town of Possum Trot adopt 77 of the most difficult-to-place kids in the foster system and kickstart a movement in the process.
Gimme Shelter
After running away from her abusive mother, a streetwise teen seeks refuge with her father, but he rejects her when he learns that she's pregnant.
Untold Secrets
Gives voice to the experiences of Irish institution survivors and focuses on the life and upbringing of one survivor, Anne Silke. Silke was fostered out of the St. Mary, Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam at the age of 9 to the Killileas, a prominent political family from Tuam. Untold Secrets recounts her often brutal and abusive treatment at the hands of her foster family and reveals never seen before interviews with fellow survivors. Although Silke is now deceased the documentary gives a posthumous voice to Anne and possibly some closure to her family.
Like Dandelion Dust
Rip Porter is sentenced to seven years in prison for beating his wife, Wendy. When he is released, he discovers that Wendy gave up their child, and the privileged Campbell family adopted him. The two families are soon in a legal battle for the child they both love.
Love Recovered
A grieving mother who suffered the tragic loss of her daughter must decide if she can provide a loving home to a child who's lost her parents.
After the Promise
Elmer Jackson, a carpenter in a small Californian town in the 1930s, struggles to bring up his 4 young boys after the death of his wife. He is horrified when the government (citing trumped-up charges of parental neglect) places the boys into various foster homes and institutions, unaware of the abuse that boys would then be subjected to. The conditions imposed by the court and the difficulties caused by the Depression make Elmer's determined and vigorous quest to find his boys extremely difficult. His second wife helps him to regain custody.
Earth Mama
A pregnant single mother, with two children in foster care, embraces her Bay Area community as she fights to reclaim her family.
Catimini
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.
Age Out
Fresh out of foster care at age 18, a young drifter turns to petty crime to survive, and discovers an impossible love in an unlikely friend.
My Name Is Emily
Packed off to a foster home after her father is institutionalized, a rebellious young Irish girl resolves to bust her dad out of the hospital where he's been confined.
Survived By
A newly orphaned kid dodging the foster care system spends a magical evening with a sock puppet hoping to unpack her complicated relationship with her father days after his death.
Stray
Ella is a troubled teenage girl living in a residential care home as part of her foster placement. After a year of homelessness and watching her mom struggle, Ella is angry and distrustful of the world around her. When she is expelled because of an outburst, social services cannot find an immediate new placement for her, and Ella has nowhere else to go, posing a problem for Ella's new social worker, Sam.