Directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki • Documentary • 2024 • 99 minutes
From the director of Koshien: Japan's Field of Dreams and the Oscar-nominated Documentary Short Instruments of a Beating Heart comes a heartfelt exploration of Japanese identity as seen through the perspective of schoolchildren.
Tsukado, located in one of Tokyo’s sprawling suburbs, is one of the largest public elementary schools in Japan with nearly 1,000 students. In the nation’s unique educational system, children are tasked to run their own school in order to teach communal values and how to play one’s role in the group. Intimately capturing one school year from the perspective of 1st and 6th graders, The Making of a Japanese has the magic of childhood with precious moments of joy, tears, and discovery – as they learn the traits necessary to become part of Japanese society.
Up Next in School Days
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A World Apart
Directed by Riccardo Milani • Drama • With Antonio Albanese, Virginia Raffaele • 2025 • 114 minutes
Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Abruzzo National Park, A WORLD APART follows veteran teacher Michele Cortese as he begins an unexpected chapter in his life.
Arriving during a snowsto...
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Timestamp
Directed by Kateryna Gornostai • Documentary • 2025 • 125 minutes
Keeping schools open in Ukraine is an attempt to recreate at least some of the normal life they had before the war — until February 24, 2022 (and in some regions even earlier, in 2014). Without interviews, narration and reenactmen...
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History of a Movement
Directed by Eduardo Velasco Vásquez • Documentary • 2023 • 97 minutes
A group of friends met during #YoSoy132, a Mexican student-led movement that emerged in 2012 to protest media bias and electoral manipulation during Enrique Peña Nieto's presidential campaign. This movement marked a significan...
