A Kind of Childhood

Loyal to My Image

1992

Through one woman's experience as an adopted person and also as a mother who relinquished her child in 1971, this documentary highlights the many complex issues associated with adoption.

Rahman: Father of Bengal

1973

Documentary about the politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Coffee Banana Cigarette

2021

A short documentary about the life and love of New York surf culture following transplanted San Diego surfer, Shawlin Tucker, who forced found a way to bring his passion with him when a college acceptance from New York University summons him to the big apple.

Les enfants de Vercheny

2021

Bengal Memory

A Bangladeshi American undertakes a journey to learn about the liberation war in his native country, traveling there for the first time in nearly two decades, and uncovering the controversial role the U.S. played in a forgotten genocide that occurred there over 50 years ago. From 1971 to the present day, this is a story of Bangladesh’s independence, a family’s journey immigrating to America, and the cognitive dissonance of a person belonging to both homelands. Driven by interviews with his father and other family members, along with experts and witnesses, archival videos, declassified recordings, and animations, BENGAL MEMORY is a unique and untold oral history through a personal lens.

The Fearless Freaks

2005

Equal parts punk and psychedelia, the Flaming Lips emerged from Oklahoma City as one of the most bracing bands of the late 1980s. The Fearless Freaks documents their rise from Butthole Surfers-imitating noisemakers to grand poobahs of orchestral pop masterpieces. Filmmaker Bradley Beesely had the good fortune of living in the same neighborhood as lead Lip Wayne Coyne, who quickly enlisted his buddy to document his band's many concerts and assorted exploits. The early footage is a riot, with tragic hair styles on proud display as the boys attempt to cover up their lack of natural talent with sheer volume. During one show, they even have a friend bring a motorcycle on stage, which is then miked for sound and revved throughout the performance, clearing the club with toxic levels of carbon monoxide. Great punk rock stuff. Interspersed among the live bits are interviews with the band's family and friends, revealing the often tragic circumstances of their childhoods and early career.

Hit Him on the Head with a Hard Heavy Hammer

2023

Hit Him on the Head with a Hard, Heavy Hammer departs from the handwritten memoir of the filmmaker’s father and his experience of displacement during wartime. Referring to the notion Thomas Hardy termed ‘The Self-Unseeing’ in his eponymous 1901 poem, the film returns to childhood and the matters that harden us: upbringing, social status, education, labour, and familial bonds. The memoir weaves into the film as both a contemplation on mortality and an illustration of fading memory, reflecting on how we pen our pasts and how they can be re-told.

James May: My Sisters' Top Toys

2007

James May celebrates the toys that made his childhood hell as he opens the lid on his sisters' toy box. Sandwiched between elder sister Jane and younger one Sarah, many of their favourites he couldn't understand - or stand the sight of - or see the point of.

Roots

2024

Twenty-one-year-old Julia had to leave her daughters under the care of a children's shelter house. Five years later, Julia keeps fighting to rebuild her life and get reunited with her daughters.

Blade Rollers

2024

Honour West and Joan Camuglia-May share their experiences in this upbeat roller-skating documentary.

The Monsters in My Home

2010

"The Monsters in My Home" focuses on the work Carme Artero, a foster mother from Majorca, Spain, who has devoted her time to setting up a foundation in defense of the rights of children who have suffered from abuse. The documentary features testimonies and the experience of people who care of children living situations of vulnerability, such as sexual or physical abuse or neglect and whose parents have their parental custody taken away by the Law.

The Devil's Miner

2005

'The Devil's Miner' tells the story of 14-year-old Basilio who worships the devil for protection while working in a Bolivian silver mine to support his family.