Best movies like A Woman, My Mother

More than two dozen men and women of various backgrounds, ages, and races talk to the camera about being gay or lesbian. Their stories are arranged in loose chronology: early years, fitting in (which for some meant marriage), coming out, establishing adult identities, and reflecting on how things have changed and how things should be.

Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.

Through the magic of editing and animation, Claude Jutra is seen in dialogue with himself at various stages of his life – becoming the spirited narrator of his own biography. Excerpts from family films, interviews, and clips from some of Jutra's well-known works are seamlessly intertwined with these sequences, forming a portrait of a man whose life was devoted to creativity. Jutra is simultaneously a homage, a love letter to cinema, and the dramatic story of a brilliant artist whose life was all-too-short.

Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.

When a woman becomes pregnant and tells the news to his mother is revealed to him that she is adopted. Then decides to search for his biological family and hired the services of a private detective.

Soon after Kate moves into the house she inherits from her father, she begins to see strange images of young women being murdered. At first it appears as if she's losing her mind, but Kate soon discovers that her visions may be hereditary. As this young mom begins to piece together the mystery behind her new haunted home, she realizes that not everything is as it seems. Each clue she gathers in solving this puzzle brings her - and her daughter - another step closer to danger!

Gil Cardinal searches for his natural family and an understanding of the circumstances that led to his becoming a foster child. An important figure in the history of Canadian Indigenous filmmaking, Gil Cardinal was born to a Métis mother but raised by a non-Indigenous foster family, and with this auto-biographical documentary he charts his efforts to find his biological mother and to understand why he was removed from her. Considered a milestone in documentary cinema, it addressed the country’s internal colonialism in a profoundly personal manner, winning a Special Jury Prize at Banff and multiple international awards.

This feature film is a portrait of John Grierson, the first Canadian Government Film Commissioner and founder of the National Film Board in 1939. Interweaving archival footage, interviews with people who knew him and footage of Grierson himself, this film is a sensitive and informative portrait of a dynamic man of vision. Grierson believed that the filmmaker had a social responsibility, and that film could help a society realize democratic ideals. His absolute faith in the value of capturing the drama of everyday life was to influence generations of filmmakers all over the world. In fact, he coined the term "documentary film."

Werner Herzog's documentary film about the "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in one man's attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.

A look at Fellini's creative process. In extensive interviews, Fellini talks a bit about his background and then discusses how he works and how he creates. Several actors, a producer, a writer, and a production manager talk about working with Fellini. Archive footage of Fellini and others on the set plus clips from his films provide commentary and illustration for the points interviewees make. Fellini is fully in charge; actors call themselves puppets. He dismisses improvisation and calls for "availability." His sets and his films create images that look like reality but are not; we see the differences and the results.

Canadian actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley investigates certain secrets related to her mother, interviewing a group of family members and friends whose reliability varies depending of their implication in the events, which are remembered in different ways; so a trail of questions remains to be answered, because memory is always changing and the discovery of truth often depends on who is telling the tale.

"I Am Steve McQueen" tells the incredible life story of this legendary actor, racer, and cultural icon. Extensive interviews, movie clips, archival footage and sound bites chronicle his extraordinary career while focusing on the correlation between his on-screen and off-screen experiences. Narrated by Robert Downey Jr.

An Irish filmmaker grapples with the legacy of his estranged father, the late documentarian Arthur MacCaig, through MacCaig's decades-spanning archive of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Drawing on over 30 years of unique and never-seen-before footage, 'The Image You Missed' is an experimental essay film that weaves together a history of the Northern Irish 'Troubles' with the story of a son's search for his father. In the process, the film creates a candid encounter between two filmmakers born into different political moments, revealing their contrasting experiences of Irish nationalism, the role of images in social struggle, and the competing claims of personal and political responsibility.

As a gay man, filmmaker Arshad Khan examines his troubled relationship with his devout, Muslim father Abu. Using family archives and movies, Khan explores his struggle with his identity and compares it to his parents attempts to fit into Canada.

While Douglas Coupland works on a grand art project about Canada, the writer recounts his life and his musings about the various aspects of Canadian identity.

Large women with a zest for life gather weekly at a Montreal doctor's office to receive diet injections.

The story of a love relationship between a brother and sister and an eventual breakup that will forever change their lives.

An artist who lives in an old mansion imagines that her dead husband has been reincarnated as her son.

Men, most of them naked, talk about their penises. They range from 17 to 70+, all from the U.S. The interviews are edited around themes: discovery, early sexual experiences, masturbation, size, oral sex, libido, performance, disease and maladies, maturity. A lexicographer discusses language, especially slang; a few archival educational-film clips divide the topics. Images and stories mix with facts and philosophical reflection. The usually private becomes public.

In 1975, as the Vietnam War was ending, thousands of orphans and Amerasian children were brought to the United States as part of "Operation Babylift." Daughter from Danang tells the dramatic story of one of these children, Heidi Bub (a.k.a. Mai Thi Hiep), and her Vietnamese mother, Mai Thi Kim, separated at the war's end and reunited 22 years later. Heidi, now living in Tennessee - a married woman with kids - had always dreamt of a joyful reunion. When she ventures to Vietnam to meet her mother, she unknowingly embarks on an emotional pilgrimage that spans decades and distance. Unlike most reunion stories that climax with a cliché happy ending, Daughter from Danang is a real-life drama. Journeying from the Vietnam War to Pulaski, Tennessee and back to Vietnam, Daughter from Danang tensely unfolds as cultural differences and the years of separation take their toll in a riveting film about longing and the personal legacy of war.

Tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico.

When Sid comes out as a woman, a 14-year-old boy named Ralph literally shows up at her door announcing that Sid is his dad. Ralph is surprised to discover that his father is now a woman, but thinks having a transgender dad is pretty cool. But Ralph hasn't told his mother and stepdad that he’s tracked down his biological father. And then there is Sid’s boyfriend Daniel, who has yet to tell his family of his relationship with Sid. Daniel is nowhere near ready to accept Ralph as a stepson and complicate his life further. Sid’s coming out has a snowball effect that forces everyone out of the closet. What happens when gender, generations and cultures collide to create a truly modern family?

After she had been raped by her father, a young woman leaves the town with her new born son. Years later, the son can't accept that his mother fell in love with someone else than the mythical father she had told him about.

Filmmaker Rob McCallum hits the road with his brother Chris Byford in search of their Mom who's been missing for almost 25 years.

Memorial Day, 1993. When 13-year-old Kyle Vogel discovers the World War II footlocker belonging to his grandfather, Bud, everyone tells Kyle to put it back. Luckily, he ignores them. Although Bud has never talked about the war, he finds himself striking a deal with his grandson: Kyle can pick any three souvenirs, and Bud will tell him the stories behind each one. Memorial Day not only takes us on a journey into Bud's complicated wartime past, but also into Kyle's wartime future. As the two men share parallel experiences in combat, they come to realize how that magical day on the porch shaped both of their lives. 

Using masterfully restored footage from recently declassified images, The Bomb tells a powerful story of the most destructive invention in human history. From the earliest testing stages to its use as the ultimate chess piece in global politics, the program outlines how America developed the bomb, how it changed the world and how it continues to loom large in our lives. The show also includes interviews with prominent historians and government insiders, along with men and women who helped build the weapon piece by piece.

For centuries, we've grappled with the mystery of The Holy Grail. Was it really the cup used at the Last Supper by Christ and the Disciples? And where is it today? It's the ultimate adventure, one of history's great detective stories. At the heart of the best-selling novel of all time, The Da Vinci Code, lies the mystery of this most sought-after, yet most illusive, sacred relic. Over the centuries, historians, archaeologists, adventurers, and rulers alike have sought to piece together the ancient puzzle and find the one true Holy Grail. Now, follow award-winning investigative documentarian Bruce Burgess as he follows the clues and goes In Search of the Holy Grail.

Documentary about canine superstar Lassie, combining film clips, still photographs, home movies, archival footage and on-camera interviews with many figures involved with the Lassie films or television series.

This documentary, made seven years after the death of legendary filmmaker and kinetic artist Len Lye, tells Lye's story: from being a young boy staring at the sun, to travels around the Pacific and life in New York. It includes excerpts from many of his films, and interviews with second wife Ann and biographer Roger Horrocks. Len Lye himself is often heard, outlining his ideas of the ‘old brain’ and how Māori and Aboriginal art influenced his work. The grandeur of his ideas are only matched by their scale, with steel sculptures designed to be "at least 20 foot high".

While working in the US on a temporary visa as a caretaker, Mara, a 30 year-old single mother from Romania, marries Daniel, an American. After the arrival of her son Dragos, everything seems to have fallen perfectly into place. When the process of getting a green card veers unexpectedly off course, however, Mara is faced with abuses of power on every level and forced to answer a dark question about herself – how far would you go to get what you want?

This meditative French-Canadian film tells the story of a young woman's search for the father she has never known. Marie Chapdelaine (Carole Laure) grew up in a remote area of Quebec without ever knowing her father, a lumberjack. She moves to Montreal, settles in there with a job as a topless dancer and begins her search for him. Eventually, with the help of his former mistress, they find the lumber camp he was working in, only to discover that he was killed in a labor dispute.

It's fear that they seek! Dr. Schroder listens to her criminally insane patient as he recounts the story of the murder of his four friends. Chip implants, government mind control, Russian military, and Alien visitors form the puzzle pieces of this science fiction thriller. A search for the answers leads to the mind-bending truth...it's our fear that they seek. The Aliens are HERE and they show only disgust for what the human race has become.

A popular travel blogger's negative impressions about Christmas are challenged when she must team up with the "holiday loving" town doctor in order to save her family's annual Christmas event.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, a boy grew up obsessed with all the movies he couldn't see. He met a mysterious film collector who saved thousands of films from destruction by the new regime. Despite arrest and torture, the collector refused to give up his secret hoard. Together they forged a friendship based on passion for cinema and resistance against tyranny. The boy escaped to exile in London to become a filmmaker, and tells their shared story of obsession and celluloid dreams.

Honing his craft as an indie filmmaker in Germany in the early 90s, Uwe Boll never could have imagined the life that lay before him. From working with Oscar-winning actors and making films with US$60million budgets to having actors publicly disparage him and online petitions demanding he stop making films, Boll continued to work; he has a filmography of 32 features, a career that has led to his new life as a successful high-end restauranteur. Already a cult legend, he will be remembered forever in the film world; for some, as a modern-day Ed Wood, who made films so bad, they're good, while for others, a prolific filmmaker who came from a small town in Germany and never compromised his integrity while forging his own unique Hollywood trajectory.