Movie Documentary
Six extraordinary journeys to the place that matters most.
A look at the distressing circumstances for millions of children living in orphanages and other institutions around the world as J.K. Rowling's LUMOS foundation works to reunite them with family members or place them in foster homes.
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Foster Child
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.
Sleepwalking
When her boyfriend is arrested for marijuana possession, Joleen Reedy and her 11-year-old daughter, Tara, take refuge with Joleen's aimless brother, James. Joleen soon runs off with a truck driver, and James is unable to meet his responsibilities. After Child Protective Services takes possession of Tara, James abducts her from a foster home, and the two travel from California to Utah, where his abusive father lives.
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
Young Jeremiah lives in a stable environment with loving foster parents until the day his troubled mother, Sarah, returns to claim him. Jeremiah becomes swept up in his mother's dangerous world of drugs, seedy hotels, strip joints and revolving lovers. Salvation comes in the form of the boy's ultrareligious grandparents, but soon Jeremiah's mother returns. Maternal love binds the pair together on the road until Sarah's desperate and depraved lifestyle finally consumes her.
The Hollow Child
Samantha has lived her whole life in different foster homes. Now living in a small town, she never feels like she quite fits in, even with her own current foster family who might adopt her, or the boy who follows her around doing her classwork. So, it’s perhaps natural that she doesn’t know what to do with a curious tagalong little sister named Olivia. One day, Sam callously ditches Olivia, who wanders off into the woods on her own and disappears.
Somewhere Between
Questions of race, identity and heritage are explored through the lives of young American women growing up as adoptees from China. These four distinct individuals reflect on their experiences as members of transracial families.
56 Up
When a cross-section of seven-year-olds were interviewed for 7 Up in 1964 it was immediately evident that their social backgrounds influenced their attitudes towards life. While the upper class children were confident and self-assured, those from middle and working class backgrounds were resigned to a challenging life of hard work. This premise was put to the test every seven years when the same group were interviewed about the progression of their lives. 49 years in the making, the changes that occurred to the original 14 make for fascinating television and are in many ways the stories of all our lives. From success and disappointment, marriage and childbirth, to poverty and illness, nearly every facet of life has been captured on film. Now, at the age of 56, the group are once more brought together and, with the benefit of hindsight, assess whether their lives have been ruled by circumstance or self-determination.
Amish: A Secret Life
Miriam and Dave Lapp are a charming young couple with a brood of adorable children. Dave works in and part owns a construction company. They are also members of the 'Old Order' Amish community in Pennsylvania,whose church forbids all technology - though Dave gets lifts to work in a car and the couple,by allowing themselves to be filmed,risk the wrath of church elders. Having outlined their traditional life-style to camera Miriam persuades several friends to be happily filmed and it becomes clear that the Lapps and other,younger Amish,believe that,having been rebaptized to allow a more open evangelical approach - risking excommunication thereby - they feel the need for a change in the community. The film ends as the family consolidates its dream to own their own farm.
Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie
Emmy Award-Winning Special Desi and Lucy's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, hosts this emotional and honest glimpse at the extraordinary lives of her world-famous parents, highlighted by never-before-seen color family movies along with insightful interviews from family members, business associates and celebrity friends such as Bob Hope. Winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Special, LUCY & DESI: A HOME MOVIE is a sensitive and absorbing documentary that details the circumstances which brought the immortal twosome together and ultimately drove them apart.
My Way Home
Jamie leaves the children's home to live with his paternal grandmother. After working in a mine and in a tailor's shop, he is conscripted into the RAF, and goes to Egypt, where he is befriended by Robert, whose undemanding companionship releases Jamie from self-pity.
Hostile Territory
Former P.O.W. Jack Calgrove moves Heaven and Earth to be reunited with his children following the Civil War. After returning home, Jack discovers that his wife has tragically died and his children, presumed to be orphans, are heading deep into the West on a train crossing enemy lines, with the intent of being placed into new homes. Calgrove and another soldier team up with a troop of Native American sharpshooters and a freed slave as they try to stop the train.
The Children Nobody Wanted
True story of Tom Butterfield and his crusade to provide family life for homeless children, becoming not only the first bachelor caretaker, but the youngest single adult to become a legal foster parent in the state of Missouri.
The First of May
Cory (Dan Byrd) is a foster child nobody wants. Carlotta (Academy Award-nominee Julie Harris) is an elderly woman the world has forgotten. Together, they find friendship and family when they join a traveling circus. Also features Mickey Rooney and Joe DiMaggio, in his last screen appearance.
Ordinary Miracles
A tough judge takes in a foster child with nowhere to go. Attempts to reunite child with long lost father end badly with the rebellious child running away.
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Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
Children who create imaginary friends usually take care of them until they are 7-8 years old. Imaginary friends, left on their own after this event, continue to live in this home founded by old Madam Foster.
The Fosters
Stef Foster, a dedicated police officer, and her partner Lena Adams, a school vice principal, have built a close-knit, loving family with Stef's biological son from a previous marriage, Brandon, and their adopted twins, Mariana and Jesus. Their lives are disrupted in unexpected ways when Lena meets Callie, a hardened teen with an abusive past who has spent her life in and out of foster homes. Lena and Stef welcome Callie and her brother, Jude, into their home thinking it's just for a few weeks, until a more permanent placement can be found. But life has something else in store for the Fosters.
Home and Away
Home and Away is set in the fictional town of Summer Bay, a coastal town in New South Wales, and follows the personal and professional lives of the people living in the area. The show initially focused on the Fletcher family, Pippa and Tom Fletcher and their five foster children Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Steven Matheson, Lynn Davenport and Sally Keating, who would go on to become one of the show's longest-running characters. The show also originally and currently focuses on the Stewart family. During the early 2000s, the central storylines focused on the Sutherlands and later, the Hunters. Home and Away had proved popular when it premiered in 1988 and had risen to become a hit in Australia, and after only a few weeks, the show tackled its first major and disturbing storyline, the rape of Carly Morris; it was one of the first shows to feature such storylines during the early timeslot. H&A has tackled many adult-themed and controversial storylines; something rarely found in its restricted timeslot.
Long Lost Family
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the documentary series which aims to reunite family members after years of separation, and offers a lifeline for people who are desperate to find long-lost relatives.
Punky Brewster
An abandoned waif and her dog are taken in by a cranky apartment manager who becomes her guardian in this family-friendly sitcom.
French Food at Home
French Food at Home is a James Beard Foundation Award-winning cooking show presented by Laura Calder. It is filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia and airs on Food Network Canada, the Asian Food Channel, and the Cooking Channel. French Food at Home is a lifestyle series featuring simple French home cooking which anyone, anywhere, can make. All 78 episodes were shot in a home kitchen in Canada and include scenes of France such as trips to the market and glimpses of everyday French food life. Music for the show was composed by Mike O'Neill.
The New Adventures of Lassie
For generations, Lassie the beautiful collie has been known and loved by viewers all over the world. Once again she enters the homes of millions of viewers as she talks for the first time in a TV adventure series for children aged 6 to 9.
Ayesha's Home Kitchen
Ayesha Curry, a Canadian-American chef, whips up easy meals and drinks for various occasions with family members.
We're the Campbells
An intimate glimpse into the lives of Gospel entertainment power couple Warryn and Erica Campbell, as they tackle the everyday struggles that come with balancing family and work, nurturing their marriage, building their individual careers, and fostering their faith; all while raising their three children Warryn, Zaya and teenager Krista.
Million Dollar Listing: Ryan's Renovation
Real estate broker Ryan Serhant and his wife, Emilia Bechrakis, gut their newly acquired 7,900-square-foot townhouse, located in Brooklyn, N.Y., to create the home of their dreams with enough room for everyone in their large Greek family. In each episode, viewers will see the transformation of the constantly evolving townhouse, with more than a few hiccups along the way. Ryan and Emilia deal with unforeseen setbacks, including construction delays, familial drama and cost overruns, as they experience making a house into a home.
Flip to a Million
Two couples, each with proven track records in house-flipping, endeavor to turn a million-dollar profit in the Dallas real-estate market — all in just six months and with starting capital of just $1000.
The Woman in the Wall
When Lorna Brady, a survivor of one of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries, wakes to find a corpse in her house, she has no idea who the dead woman is or if she's responsible for the apparent murder, because she has long suffered from extreme bouts of sleepwalking.
Little Bird
As part of a racist government policy now known as the Sixties Scoop, Bezhig Little Bird is removed from her home in Long Pine Reserve in Saskatchewan and adopted into a Montréal Jewish family at the age of five, becoming Esther Rosenblum. Now in her 20s, Bezhig longs for the family she lost and is willing to sacrifice everything to find them.
Home Turf
Soon after arriving from Africa, Sahara, a mixed-race 15-year-old, is driven by CPS to a foster home in the suburbs. At the house, run by “Auntie,” she finds four teenage girls who object to her presence and make her life miserable. But, little by little, the girls form an unlikely sisterhood.
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.