Alicia

"It’s not easy to find a foster family for you," an orphanage supervisor explains to nine-year-old Alicia. "After all, you are a very special girl." Alicia is crying. "I’m not special. I’m just a girl." This disturbing scene sets the tone for this film about Alicia, who was taken away from her teenage mother by the Child Welfare Bureau when she was 12 months old. She’s been living in an orphanage since the age of five, and they have never managed to find a foster family for her. In Alicia, we watch as she becomes a teenager, still craving safety and love. Over the course of three years, filmmaker Maasja Ooms follows her daily life up close. Alicia's yearning and powerlessness are palpable in these observations, which painfully reveal the effects of having no prospects.

The Social Trap: 5 Women vs The Big 5

American states and parents in both Europe and the United States are engaging in a joint fight against digital giants to ensure their responsibility in the addiction of young people to screens and social media is recognized. Among them, five women have chosen to disrupt their daily lives: Alexis, Kathleen, Elisabet, Laure, and Socheata.

The Department

THE DEPARTMENT is a feature documentary which takes us inside the never-before-seen child protection system at work in NSW. Filmed in an observational style, it follows caseworkers across the state as they navigate the complexities of keeping children safe in families experiencing domestic violence, addiction, poverty, mental health issues and intergenerational trauma.

DPJ

A direct, uncompromising look into the complex machinery of Quebec’s youth protection services (known as the DPJ). https://lustitia.com/en/productions/dpj/

Mistænkt for livet

On Fanø, Denmark, three young families have their lives brutally turned upside down when the municipality suspects them of having abused their children. The suspicion is unfounded, but the damage is done, and the families are now dragged through a process involving child interviews, police interrogations, and more. Is the law on protecting children from abuse too far-reaching, or is it simply the price some must pay to prevent serious cases of mistreatment and neglect?

Enfants placés : que fait la République ?

Monsieur Batignole

In 1942, in an occupied Paris, the apolitical grocer Edmond Batignole lives with his wife and daughter in a small apartment in the building of his grocery. When his future son-in-law and collaborator of the German Pierre-Jean Lamour calls the Nazis to arrest the Jewish Bernstein family, they move to the confiscated apartment. Some days later, the young Simon Bernstein escapes from the Germans and comes to his former home. When Batignole finds him, he feels sorry for the boy and lodges him, hiding Simon from Pierre-Jean and also from his wife. Later, two cousins of Simon meet him in the cellar of the grocery. When Pierre-Jean finds the children, Batignole decides to travel with the children to Switzerland.

Father Goose

During World War II, South Sea beachcomber Walter Eckland is persuaded to spy on planes passing over his island. He gets more than he bargained for as schoolteacher Catherine Frenau arrives on the run from the Japanese with her pupils in tow!

System Crasher

Wherever 9-year-old Benni ends up, she is expelled. She has become what child protection services call a “system crasher.” But she is not looking to change her ways, and has one goal: go back home to her mother. When anger management trainer Micha is hired to help, suddenly there is hope.

Tale in the Darkness

Angelina lives in a big city on the sea coast, where handsome men and beautiful women are strolling the streets with only one purpose: to have fun, flirt and love. But Angelina, being pretty, intelligent, and nice, finds herself lonely. She is a police officer and her job is helping abandoned kids, orphans, and troubled youngsters. One day one of her charges, a little boy, explains to Angelina how lonely, dull and useless she is. Those words have been bothering her ever since, and she decides to change herself.. Angelina starts her way through the darkness…

Kamen Rider ZO

Masaru Aso was the lab assistant of geneticist Doctor Mochizuki, used as one of his experiments related the creation of the Neo Organism, enabling him to transform into a grasshopper-like being called Kamen Rider ZO. He fled into the mountainside and went into a coma before he was awakened by a telepathic call two years later with an unconscious urge to protect Hiroshi Mochizuki, the son of Doctor Mochizuki.

Angel

Once upon a time there was Louise and her friend, the magician. But his last trick left a bitter taste in her mouth. He disappeared in a curtain of smoke… never to appear again. This is too much for the young woman. Devastated by endless grief, Louise is sent to a psychiatric asylum, resigned to the idea that she will swallow pills till the end of her days. Yet nine months later she gives birth to a child who is likely to have a big problem for his future class pictures, since he’s invisible. But Louise doesn’t care. He’s her angel and, wanting to protect him from this cruel world, she decides to keep his existence a secret. Years later, Louise’s angel has grown up. He even managed to find a girlfriend; Madeleine. The two become inseparable, for Madeleine never judges him. And for good reason: she’s blind.

Boomah

Boomah is notorious and knife-savvy female gang member who becomes embroiled in a power struggle between street thugs and religious extremists while battling the traumas of her harrowing orphaned past.

Barbara

Barbara was caring for her grandchildren when her granddaughter Tiara was taken from school by welfare workers. Barbara fought for the next seven months to have her returned and finally won but the consequences of the removal on the family will never go away.

Sado

Since the seventh century AD, Sado has been called the "island of exile". Unwelcomed people by the shogunate such as homeless, artists and politicians were exiled, some of them even put to forced labour in the mines. Their spirits, trapped in the depths of the earth, will never see the sky again.

Stolen Gold

The incredible true story of Ramón Torres and the Spanish intellectually disabled basketball team’s dramatic journey to the gold medal at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000. The documentary exposes the shocking aftermath of their victory, where Ramón discovers that some of his teammates are not what they seem. Among them is an undercover journalist intent on revealing an outrageous scandal that will rock the world of Paralympic sport. As the scandal unravels, Ramón realizes that everything he believed in was a lie and is forced to confront not only the fraudulent conspiracy, but also a childhood scarred by bullying and trauma to find out who he really is.

Fight Like Hell

As the nation grapples with the echoes of January 6, this documentary provides a crucial, unvarnished perspective on that pivotal day. This narration-less documentary shows events leading up to and including January 6, challenging viewers to confront the fragility of democracy and reflect on our collective responsibility to protect it.

Tour Baby Deux

Scott does it again! Join him on another amazing adventure deep inside the 2005 Tour de France in this long awaited sequel to The Tour Baby! Scott lives every cycling fan's dream by following the entire Tour de France from start to finish filming all the craziness that makes the Tour the world's greatest sporting event. From mountain-top madness in the Pyrenees to partying with Podium Girls in Paris, Scott does it all. The film includes amazing behind-the-scenes footage with Lance Armstrong and his Discovery Channel team as he conquers the Tour for the seventh time, Cadel Evans, Robbie McEwen, Freddie Rodriguez and their Davitamon-Lotto Team and Carlos Da Cruz, Sandy Casar, and Bradley McGee and their Francaise des Jeux team.

When Claude Got Shot

While visiting his hometown of Milwaukee, father of three and aspiring attorney, Claude Motley, is shot in the face by 15-year-old Nathan, during a carjacking gone wrong. Two nights later, Nathan attempts to rob Victoria, who fires her gun in self-defense, partially paralyzing Nathan from the waist down. Three strangers tragically bound together by a weekend of gun violence on a five-year journey toward recovery and forgiveness.

A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner

Born in Berlin in 1896, Lotte Eisner became famous for her passionate involvement in the world of both German and French cinema. In 1936, together with Henri Langlois, she founded the Cinémathèque Française with the goal of saving from destruction films, costumes, sets, posters, and other treasures of the 7th Art. A Jew exiled in Paris, she became a pillar of the capital's cultural scene, where she promoted German cinema.