Films
Cuties
Maïmouna Doucouré
2020
Original title: Mignonnes
Director: Maïmouna Doucouré
Cast: Fathia Youssouf, Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, Maïmouna Gueye
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: France
Storyline: A film that addresses the sexualization of childhood from Amy, an 11-year-old Senegalese girl, who joins a dance group inspired by the world of the Internet and social networks, which contrasts with her family’s traditional values. A look at the complexities of childhood in the modern era and at the hypersexualization of children.
Teenage lockdown tale
Marie Pierre Jaury, Charlotte Ballet-Baz
2020
Original title: Teenage lockdown tale
Director: Marie Pierre Jaury, Charlotte Ballet-Baz
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: France
Storyline: Documentary on how a group of five teenagers from a French school and with different social and economic backgrounds dealt with compulsory confinement in France. The lockdown is seen through the eyes of teenagers and filmed by their cell phones.
The boy who harnessed the wind
Chiwetel Ejiofor
2020
Original title: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Director: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Maxwell Simba, Felix Lemburo
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: United Kingdom, Malawi
Storyline: William Kamkwamba, a 13-year-old African boy, belongs to a family of farming parents. Due to the strong floods and subsequent drought that devastated his country and ruined the plantations, William saw his village suffer from hunger. Inspired by a science book, William builds a wind turbine to create energy and pump water to grow food, saving his family and community.
In My Blood It Runs
Maya Newell
2019
Original title: In my blood it runs
Director: Maya Newell
Cast: Carol Turner, Dujuan Turner, Megan Turner
Genre: Documentary
Country of origin: Australia
Storyline: Documentary showing the perspective of a 10-year-old Australian Aboriginal boy, Dujuan, who navigates between two completely different universes: his native family and the Australian educational system dominated by white and western culture.
O OUTRO LADO DO OUTRO
Rita de Cácia Oenning da Silva, Kurt Shaw
2019
Original title: O outro lado do outro
Director: Rita de Cácia Oenning da Silva, Kurt Shaw
Cast: João Cavalcanti Buarque, Helena Iara da Silva Shaw, Layza da Silva Brito
Genre: Comedy, Adventure
Country of origin: Brazil
Storyline: Children from Recife’s favelas make a film about how they imagine the life of middle class “apartment kids”, while middle class children make a film about how they imagine life in the favela. As they show each other the movies they made and finally get to know each other, these kids teach us about segregation, curiosity, and the human condition.
Capernaum
Nadine Labaki
2018
Original title: Capharnaüm
Director: Nadine Labaki
Cast: Zain Al Rafeea, Nadine Labaki, Yordanos Shifera
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: Lebanon, United States, France, Cyprus, Qatar, United Kingdom
Storyline: With the camera pointed at Beirut’s poorest social landscape, the film tells the story of Zain, a 12-year-old boy struggling to survive in Lebanon’s ghettos. Determined to sue his own parents, Zain asks why they brought him into the world if they couldn’t emotionally or economically to care for him. Capernaum reveals the survival journey of a young man of unexpected maturity for his age.
Os guerreiros da rua
Erickson Marinho
2018
Original title: Os guerreiros da Rua
Director: Erickson Marinho
Cast: Glauber Araújo, Kivison Santana, Vítor Justino, Wilamis Ramos, Mariano Oliveira, Temesson Yang, Vadinho Gomes.
Genre: Adventure
Country of origin: Brazil
Storyline: Recife, 1990s. Four friends play in the streets of their community, imagining missions, fantastic beings and imagining themselves as warriors endowed with special powers. With great creativity, the group takes on the important task of defending the neighborhood from the clutches of a powerful imaginary enemy who plans to dominate everything.
The Breadwinner
Nora Twomey, Anita Doron, Deborah Ellis
2017
Original title: The Breadwinner
Director: Nora Twomey, Anita Doron e Deborah Ellis
Cast: Saara Chaudry, Soma Chhaya, Noorin Gulamgaus
Genre: Animation, Drama, Family, War
Country of origin: Ireland, Canada, Luxembourg, United States, United Kingdom, France
Storyline: Animated film portraying Parvana, an 11-year-old Afghan girl, the daughter of a teacher and a writer. She can read and write (unlike the majority of the population), but is denied the right to study by the Taliban forces that govern the country, simply because she is a girl. With her parents banned from exercising the profession, Parvana makes a courageous decision to save her family: she cuts her hair, disguises herself as a boy and looks for work to support her family.
Boyhood
Richard Linklater
2014
Original title: Boyhood
Director: Richard Linklater.
Cast: Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, Ethan Hawke
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: United Satates
Storyline: An innovative film, which followed, during 12 years of shooting, the growth of a boy, Mason, from entering school at age 6 to entering higher education at age 18. Every year, for a week, the film crew would meet him and the characters in his life. The narrative runs through his childhood and adolescence, and analyzes his relationship with his parents as he grows up.
Once in a lifetime
Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar
2014
Original title: Les héritiers
Director: Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar
Cast: Ariane Ascaride, Ahmed Dramé, Noémie Merlant
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country of origin: France
Storyline: Based on a true story, the film tells the story of a history teacher and her problematic and undisciplined 10th grade class at a French high school. Faced with conflicting teenagers with little desire to learn, the teacher challenges them: to participate in the National Competition for Resistance and Deportation, which proposes a reflection on the memories of the Holocaust. Against everyone’s expectations, the class unites, commits itself, discovers the desire to learn and wins the competition.
Rich Hill
Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo
2014
Original title: Rich Hill
Director: Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo
Cast: Tracy droz tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo, Nathan Halpern, Jim Hession
Genre: Documentário
Country of origin: United States
Storyline: It tells the story of three teenage boys who live in an impoverished town called Rich Hills. The film portrays the fragile family ties that sustain them and the difficult choices they have to make.
A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM
Mark Cousins
2013
Original title:A Story of Children and Film
Director: Mark Cousins
Cast: Mark Cousins, Ben, Laura
Genre: Documentary
Country of origin: UK
Storyline: In this film, film director Mark Cousins presents a portrait of childhood. By selecting 53 scenes from films of 25 different nationalities, Mark shows how children are often portrayed, presenting the symbologies and metaphors that are often associated with children.
Wadjda
Haifaa Al-Mansour
2012
Original title: Wadjda
Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour
Cast: Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdullrahman Al Gohani
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: Saudi Arabia
Storyline: Wadjda is 10 years old and the biggest dream of her life is to own a bicycle, however, for the society in which she lives, in the suburbs of the Saudi Arabian capital, having a bicycle “is something for the boys”. Determined not to give in to the impositions of an overly conservative culture, she will try to find a way to obtain the necessary money to buy it and, in that way, be able to race with her best friend.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Benh Zeitlin
2012
Original title: Beasts of the Southern Wild
Director: Benh Zeitlin
Cast: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Country of Origin: United States
Storyline: A poor six-year-old girl who lives in the southern United States recounts the difficult life she has with her father, a temperamental man in poor health.
The kid with a bike
Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
2011
Original title: Le Gamin au vélo
Director: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Cast: Cécile de France, Thomas Doret, Jérémie Renier
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: France
Storyline: 12-year-old Cyril was abandoned by his father in a boys’ shelter without any explanation. Angry, the boy is determined to find his father again, convincing his friend Samantha, who receives him on weekends, to look for him. Cyril believes he will find an explanation for his father’s departure, but not everything goes as he hoped and wished.
Cores e botas
Juliana Vicente
2010
Original title: Cores e botas
Director: Juliana Vicente
Cast:Bruno Lourenço, Dani Ornellas, Jhenyfer Lauren e Luciano Quirino
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: Brazil
Storyline: This short film tells the story of Joana, a Brazilian girl who has a dream common to the Brazilian girls in the late 80’s: to be a “paquita”, a dancer in the Xuxa television program. But this possibility, although remote for all the girls, seemed impossible for Joana, because she is black and Xuxa had never had a black paquita in her team. The film discusses racial prejudice and the influence of the media in the construction of unattainable aesthetic standards.
CRIANÇA, A ALMA DO NEGÓCIO
Estela Renner
2008
Original title: Criança, a alma do negócio
Director: Estela Renner
Genre: Documentary
Country of origin: Brazil
Storyline: A critique of exacerbated consumerism in childhood, driven by unlimited advertising, ethics or regulation. An invitation to parents and educators to reflect on their roles in this consumer society and how they can collaborate to change the scenario.
The class
Laurent Cantet
2008
Original title: Entre les Murs
Director: Laurent Cantet
Cast: Bégaudeau, Nassim Amrabt, Laura Baquela
Genre: Drama
Country of Origin: France
Storyline: Film that portrays the daily school life of a teacher and a multiethnic class in a problematic neighborhood in Paris, which leads to reflection on the challenges of education and teaching. An interesting aspect is the fact that the class is composed of non-professional actors, chosen from students of a French high school, with whom the director worked weekly during a school year in improvisation workshops.
Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
2007
Original title: Persepolis
Director: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
Cast: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux
Genre: Drama, Animation
Country of origin: France, United States
Storyline: Animated film that tells the story of Marjane, a 9-year-old girl, smart and fearless, who grows up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through her eyes that we see the hope of a people being destroyed when fundamentalists take power, forcing women to wear the veil and arresting thousands of people. Marjane’s boldness becomes a concern for parents who end up sending her to a school in Austria, where she is mistaken for religious fundamentalism, exactly the reason that led her to fled from her country.
The Way I Spent the End of the World
Cătălin Mitulescu
2006
Original title: Cum mi-am petrecut sfârșitul lumii
Director: Cătălin Mitulescu
Cast: Dorotheea Petre, Timotei Duma
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: Romania
Storyline: The film is about brothers Eva, 17, and Lilu, 7, who lived in Bucharest during the last years of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s communist regime. In the last year of the dictatorship, Eva and her boyfriend accidentally break a bust of the dictator at school. Transferred to a reformatory as punishment, she meets Andrei, with whom she decides to flee communist Romania across the Danube River to Italy.
Butterfly
José Luis Cuerda
1999
Original title :La lengua de las mariposas
Director: José Luis Cuerda
Cast: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Manuel Lozano, Uxía Blanco, Gonzalo Uriarte, Alexis de los Santos, Jesús Castejón, Guillermo Toledo
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: Spain
Storyline: A film that shows the relationship between Poncho, a seven-year-old boy who lives in a small village in Galicia with his teacher, for whom he develops an affection. However, this relationship is one day transformed by the start of the Spanish Civil War, due to the teacher’s involvement in the war.
The Apple
Samira Makhmalbaf
1998
Original title: Sib
Director: Samira Makhmalbaf
Cast: Massoumeh Naderi, Zahra Naderi, Ghorban Ali Naderi
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: France, Iran
Storyline: It tells the story Zahra and Masume, two 11-year-old sisters who lived trapped at home by their own parents until the intervention of social workers, who released them to the outside world. In this documentary, the two sisters describe how they lived and their desire to play outside the gates of their home.
The butcher boy
Neil Jordan
1997
Original title: The butcher boy
Director: Neil Jordan
Cast: Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw, Eamonn Owens
Genre: Comedy
Country of origin: Ireland
Storyline: Francie grew up in Ireland in the 1960s and is the son of an alcoholic father and a bipolar mother. The film portrays the dark journey through the mind of Francie, who in an effort to escape the misery that surrounds him, seeks refuge in her imagination, in her fantasy world.
Ponette
Jacques Doillon
1996
Original title: Ponette
Director: Jacques Doillon
Cast: Victoire Thivisol, Delphine Schiltz, Matiaz Bureau Caton
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: France
Storyline: Pontette tells the story of a 4-year-old girl who is faced with the death of her mother. The film portrays her constant struggle to accept this loss that brings her so much pain. The film reveals the universe of preschool-age children.
Hope and Glory
John Boorman
1987
Original title: Hope and glory
Director: John Boorman
Cast: Sebastian Rice-Edwards, Geraldine Muir, Sarah Miles, David Hayman, Sammi Davis
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Storyline: The film portrays the story of a family seen through the eyes of a 9-year-old child, Billy, for whom the war (World War II) appears as a kind of “game”. Billy has to adapt to living in a London that is always being the target of air attacks by the Nazis. Under the guise of the presence of war, the film illustrates the resistance of the English nation through family and community union.
Goodbye, children
Louis Malle
1987
Original title: Au revoir les enfants
Director: Louis Malle
Cast: Gaspard Manesse, Raphaël Fejtő, Philippe Morier-Genoud, Francine Racette
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: France
Storyline: In the winter of 1944, 11-year-old Julien, the son of a wealthy family in northern France, is sent to a French college run by priests. The arrival of a new student, Bonnet, arises his curiosity and Julian is determined to discover his secret: Bonnet is Jewish and lives under a false name. Julien and Bonnet get closer and form a strong bond of friendship, but the harsh reality of the war separates them: Bonnet is caught by the Gestapo and they never see each other again.
The Spirit of the Beehive
Víctor Erice
1973
Original title: El espiritu de la colmena
Director: Víctor Erice
Cast: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: Spain
Storyline: Isabel and Ana, two sisters aged eight and six, live in a rural village in Spain. After watching the horror film “Doctor Frankenstein” (1931) they are fascinated by the strange character and try to look for him. This film represents the children’s inability to distinguish between reality and fiction and also explores their family and school life.
Good morning
Yasujirô Ozu
1959
Original title: Ohayô
Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Cast: Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Chishû Ryû
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Country of origin: Japan
Storyline: Unhappy with the parents’ decision, who refuse to buy a television, two brothers decide to go on a silence strike as a form of protest and swear not to say a word again until the parents buy a television. It is the beginning of a moment of crisis, but also of change within the Hayashi family.
I WAS BORN, BUT...
Yasujirô Ozu
1932
Original title: Otona no miru ehon – Umarete wa mita keredo
Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Cast: Tatsuo Saitô, Tomio Aoki, Mitsuko Yoshikawa
Genre: Comedy
Country of origin: Japan
Storyline: Tragic-comic story about the relationship between the father and his two sons who do not understand why the father has to act with such subservience to the boss. The two young brothers have a tantrum when they discover that their father is not the most important man in their workplace.
Aniki Bóbó
Manoel de Oliveira
1942
Original title: Aniki Bóbó
Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Cast: Feliciano David, Fernanda Matos, Nascimento Fernandes
Genre: Comedy
Country of origin: Portugal
Storyline: The film illustrates the adventures and loves of young men of low social status in the city of Porto, who play in the streets as “policemen and thieves”. It is an invocation of childhood through the camera’s eye, which goes back to the 1940s, in the midst of the Second World War, at the height of Oliveira Salazar’s fascist regime. Between magical realism and documentary lyricism, “Aniki-Bóbó” asserts itself as a pioneering work of neo-realism.
My uncle
Jacques Tati
1958
Original title: Mon oncle
Director: Jacques Tati
Cast: Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie, Alain Bécourt
Genre: Comedy
Country of origin: France
Storyline: The Arpel family lives in an extremely modern house, a product of the latest technology and design, but little Gérard Arpel lives sad and bored in such a sophisticated and comfortable environment. Gérard only feels alive and happy when he visits his uncle Hulot, who lives in an old house in a picturesque and noisy neighborhood. However, the Arpel family, concerned about Hulot’s influence on Gérard, will do everything in their power to change the situation.
The 400 Blows
François Truffaut
1959
Original title: Los 400 coups
Director: François Truffaut
Cast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier
Genre: Drama
Country of origin: France
Storyline: The film tells the story of Antoine, a 14-year-old Parisian teenager, who comes out against the school’s authoritarianism, as well as the contempt and neglect of his mother and stepfather. Rejected, Antoine misses classes to go to the movies or play with friends. Over time, Antoine commits minor crimes, seeking attention, until he is sent by his parents to a reformatory, from which he will eventually flee.
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