Family Relations

Examines the problem of child abuse and its root causes and shows methods of treatment and prevention. The film includes interviews with parents, doctors, counselors and other professionals, as well as former victims of child abuse, stressing the need for an interdisciplinary approach to this far-reaching problem.

Examines the plight of homeless children through interviews with more than a dozen youngsters living on the streets of California's Bay Area.

An insightful documentary portrait of young black and Hispanic teenagers, primarily girls, growing up in a poor urban neighborhood.

This short drama on domestic abuse, based on extensive research with battered Latinas, focuses on a Hispanic family, showing how the father's machismo has intimidated both wife and daughter into continual fear of physical abuse and alienated the son who resents his father's authoritarian attitudes.

An intimate portrait of the filmmaker's immigrant Central American family-in particular the macho traditions of his grandfather-woven from childhood memories and family reminiscences, revealing how exaggerated expressions of male identity can cost a man the love of his entire family.

Filmed over a period of four years, this documentary examines the emotional agony experienced by father and son when separated by divorce, distance and a protracted legal battle for custody. Interviews with a child psychologist, family friends, and babysitter, as well as the child himself (in periodic interviews at the ages of three, five, and six) reveal the psychological impact of this separation on the youngster.

Examines the hectic lifestyles of "fast track" couples, members of the Baby Boom generation whose desire to succeed--at the office, in social circles and through their children's accomplishments--leads to living in a state of chronic stress.

Chronicles the experience of 46-year-old Suzanne, an unmarried American woman who, desiring to create a single-parent family of her own, adopts a baby abandoned on the streets of China in the wake of that country's notorious population laws. Her emotional ordeal illuminates both the joys and problems involved in adopting foreign children and in being a single parent.

Examines teenage drinking and teenagers whose parents are alcoholics, including the consequences of alcoholism such as physical illness, emotional maladjustment, family breakup, domestic violence, fatal car accidents, and violent crime.

In this short drama, Eli, a young father, in the midst of a family crisis with his wife and young son, begins to lose his grip on sanity just in time to greet the mysterious visit of Sam, his vagabond father. Sam's delusions push Eli to reclaim the love of his family and the imaginations of his childhood.

Filmmaker Garth Stein documents his 28-year-old sister's decision to undergo brain surgery to control her epilepsy.

Examines the worldwide crisis in teenage pregnancies through four case studies of teenage mothers in Ghana, England, Cuba, and the U.S., thereby providing a cross-cultural survey of the underlying reasons for the increasing rate of adolescent pregnancies and also discussing the hazards to the health and well-being of such young mothers.