A calm, empathetic documentary film about hikikomori—mostly young, male social recluses in Japan—and their way back into society through the help of institutions. The film very unobtrusively tries to find out about its protagonists' motives for withdrawing from society and gives an interesting and insightful glimpse into this cultural phenomenon.
It's estimated over a million Japanese live as "hikikomori," recluses totally withdrawn from society. Some hikikomori may even go for decades without leaving their house. While in the past the phenomenon was most commonly associated with young men, recent data has revealed a much wider demographic of people whose confidence in themselves, and in society, has been shattered. As the parents or relatives hikikomori so often depend on entirely become too old to care for them, many now face a dire situation, left alone and unable to cope.
An anime-obsessed young man fantasizes about his favorite voluptuous heroines, but his sex-addled dream quickly transforms into a nightmare which threatens to consume him.
Etsuro Kurosu faills getting into a university and becomes a hikikomori. One day, he tries to hang himself from a hook on the wall in his apartment. He fails, but his attempt leaves a hole in the wall. Through the hole wall, Etsuro Kurosu can now see Rio Miyaichi. He becomes fascinated with the girl that lives next door. Later, while peeping at her through the wall, Etsuro Kurosu sees her in the process of brutally murdering someone. He screams and is caught by her. Etsuro Kurosu confesses that he loves her and they start to date. Etsuro Kurosu feels happiness in his life, but what will happen to him? Will he be murdered by Rio Miyaichi?
Hyun-dong is a hikikomori. He lives off of the joy of assembling and displaying Gundams in his only space, his home. Then one day, he makes a big decision to go out to buy a Gundam plastic model that a delivery man left next to his door. At that moment, the front door slams shut. He is trapped in an unfamiliar world, he can't remember the password and he decides to go on a long journey to find the key house.
Nida is a single mother who takes care of her anti-social son who has locked himself in his room for five years. The only way to communicate with her son is to write on a piece of paper and slip it under the door. But, when outsiders start to get curious about what is going on behind the door of her son's room, a series of terrible events starts to happen.
Matteo has decided not to go to school anymore and stay at home instead.
A battered young girl finds refuge in a mysterious button, with unprecedented consequences....
Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant's PBS documentary tracks the rise and fall of subway graffiti in New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
This documentary takes the viewer on a deeply personal journey into the everyday lives of families struggling to fight Goliath. From a family business owner in the Midwest to a preacher in California, from workers in Florida to a poet in Mexico, dozens of film crews on three continents bring the intensely personal stories of an assault on families and American values.
Warren Miller's Children of Winter showcases incredible cinematography that will get you craving deep powder, fresh lines, and outrageous adventure! It will take you on a daring escape to electrifying global destinations, including Japan, Austria, Iceland, and more! Don't forget to breathe as snowboarding's Olympic Gold Medalist Seth Westcott charges down the Alaskan backcountry, as surf legend Gerry Lopez shreds the Oregon steeps, and as Chris Anthony takes on Leadville Colorado's legendary Skijoring competition.
The young American Pablo Menéndez came to Cuba to study Music at the National School of Art. Here he formed a family and became one more Cuban. Member of the Sound Experimentation Group of ICAIC and promoter of the teaching of the electric guitar in Cuba, he is, together with his group Mezcla, one of our most original musicians.
When Edward Abbey died in 1989 at the age of sixty-two, the American West lost one of its most eloquent and passionate advocates. Through his novels, essays, letters and speeches, Edward Abbey consistently voiced the belief that the West was in danger of being developed to death, and that the only solution lay in the preservation of wilderness. Abbey authored twenty-one books in his lifetime, including Desert Solitaire, The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Brave Cowboy, and The Fool's Progress. His comic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang helped inspire a whole generation of environmental activism. A writer in the mold of Twain and Thoreau, Abbey was a larger-than-life figure as big as the West itself.
Someone Else’s Country looks critically at the radical economic changes implemented by the 1984 Labour Government - where privatisation of state assets was part of a wider agenda that sought to remake New Zealand as a model free market state. The trickle-down ‘Rogernomics’ rhetoric warned of no gain without pain, and here the theory is counterpointed by the social effects (redundant workers, Post Office closures). Made by Alister Barry in 1996 when the effects were raw, the film draws extensively on archive footage and interviews with key “witnesses to history”.
The story of unemployment in New Zealand and In A Land of Plenty is an exploration of just that; it takes as its starting point the consensus from The Depression onwards that Godzone economic policy should focus on achieving full employment, and explores how this was radically shifted by the 1984 Labour government. Director Alister Barry's perspective is clear, as he trains a humanist lens on ‘Rogernomics' to argue for the policy's negative effects on society, as a new poverty-stricken underclass developed.
In New Hampshire, a legend is buried. GG Allin, the most outrageous singer in rock'n roll history. He was known for defecating on stage, fighting and having sex with the audience. He died a mythological death from a heroin overdose in 1993, aged 37. Directed by the award-winning director Sami Saif, THE ALLINS is a loving and entertaining look at the family of the departed rock singer.
A documentary produced in 1979 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Albert Einstein. Narrated and hosted by Peter Ustinov and written by Nigel Calder.