Subject: Daily Life
This smaller-scale history examines the basic events in people’s day-to-day lives, or focuses on events that are common to us all: birth, death, love, and losing at love.
10,000 BC
- Director: Roland Emmerich
- Release Date: 2008
- Production Country: United States, South Africa
D'leh, a prehistoric hunter, must leave his idyllic, egalitarian village in pursuit of Bronze Age horse-riding nomads who have stolen his one true love, along with most of his tribe's viable breeders and replacement units; however, at the end of the road, the small, multicultural, multiethnic band of freedom fighters D'leh has assembled finds itself facing an enemy that is truly out of this world.
25 Watts
- Director: Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll
- Release Date: 2001
- Production Country: Uruguay
Leche, Javi, and Seba deal with pointless jobs, unwanted studies, and drug dealers, all of which hinders their desire to drink and have fun on their Saturday.
Abril Despedaçado (Behind the Sun)
- Director: Walter Salles
- Release Date: 2001
- Production Country: Brazil, France, Switzerland
Tonho's sense of honor drives him to avenge his older brother's death by murdering one of the rival family's sons, leading him to wonder afterwards whether or not everyone would be better off if, rather than waiting for their own deaths as part of the unending feud, Tonho and his younger brother simply ran away with the circus and the beautiful acrobat, Clare.
Amalia
- Director: Enrique García Velloso
- Release Date: 1914
- Production Country: Argentina
Life under a dictator is repressive and harsh, but who is truly to blame for the rise of such people: the dictator himself or the society that birthed and nurtured him?
Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel)
- Director: Kevin Sullivan
- Release Date: 1987
- Production Country: United Kingdom, Canada, United States
Having left Matthew and Marilla's home to make her own way in the world, Anne takes a teaching position at the Kingsport Ladies College, determined to inspire and enlighten those around her, only to find that not everyone understands or appreciates her belief that there can be more to a girl's life than the traditional expectations of marriage and motherhood–until she, too, is forced to admit that she may have made the biggest mistake of her own life when she refused Gilbert Blythe's marriage proposal before leaving Avonlea.
Anne of Green Gables
- Director: Kevin Sullivan
- Release Date: 1985
- Production Country: Canada, West Germany, United States
When elderly siblings Matthew and Marilla decide to take in an orphan boy to help on their farm, not only are they sent a young girl by mistake, the girl, Anne Shirley, turns out to be a dreamer with a positive genius for getting into trouble. Marilla, however, remains especially unconvinced that Anne is worth the chaos that follows her, no matter how desperate the child is for a place and people to call home, or how needy Marilla and Matthew's own lives are for the kind of joyful chaos that only family can bring.
Ayúdame a vivir (Help Me to Live)
- Director: José A. Ferreyra
- Release Date: 1936
- Production Country: Argentina
Lemarque arrives home just as her husband, Delbene, brings another woman into the house, so no one blames her for pushing the other woman down the stairs–but the question remains: was Delbene really intending to be unfaithful to her?
Ba wang bie ji (Farewell My Concubine)
- Director: Kaige Chen
- Release Date: 1993
- Production Country: China, Hong King
Two boys mature from being unwanted urchins to famous opera stars during the political and cultural upheaval of 20th century China; but Douzi's unrequited love for Shitou is the enduring truth that shapes both their art and lives.
Bacheha-ye aseman (Children of Heaven)
- Director: Majid Majidi
- Release Date: 1997
- Production Country: Iran
When he accidentally loses his sister's shoes, Ali sets out to replace them, but without telling his hard-working, poor parents about his carelessness. Zahra, his sister, keeps his secret, willingly sharing Ali's sneakers. But passing one pair of shoes between the two siblings can only work for so long and Ali becomes increasingly frustrated as, one after another, his schemes to replace Zahra's shoes fail.
Back to God's Country
- Director: David Hartford
- Release Date: 1919
- Production Country: Canada
Left alone on the Canadian frontier when her father is murdered, Nell marries Peter and, though she is reluctant to leave her home, goes along with him when he insists on moving to more civilized country. Once they are en route, however, Nell realizes their captain is the man who killed her father and, when he attacks Peter, Nell is the only one who can rescue him and their life they love.
Bajo el cielo antioqueño
- Director: Arturo Acevedo Vallarino
- Release Date: 1925
- Production Country: Columbia
In order to clear Alvaro's name when he is charged with a murder he did not commit, Lina, the spoiled daughter of a coffee plantation owner, must confess to almost eloping with him, a common peasant.
Banshun (Late Spring)
- Director: Yasujirô Ozu
- Release Date: 1949
- Production Country: Japan
Noriko is content to remain unmarried in order to care for her aging father, as tradition dictates, but her father is more concerned with another tradition: marriage. Noriko's lack of interest in this particular rite of passage into adulthood concerns not only family, but also societal norms.
Barbara
- Director: Nils Malmros
- Release Date: 1997
- Production Country: Denmark
When a new pastor arrives to take up a post in the Faroe Islands, he finds himself attracted to the previous pastor's widow, a young woman named Barbara, in spite of all warnings to the contrary. For the free-spirited Barbara, however, escape from the landscape that constrains her may require more than another foreign-born husband can deliver.
Beshkempir (Beshkempir the Adopted Son)
- Director: Aktan Arym Kubat
- Release Date: 1998
- Production Country: Kyrgyzstan, France
A young boy grows up in a village surrounded by friends and family, but when a friend angrily informs him he is a 'foundling,' he must discover where he truly belongs.
Besos Brujos (Bewitching Kisses)
- Director: José A. Ferreyra
- Release Date: 1937
- Production Country: Argentina
Believing she is unworthy, a beautiful singer runs from love and her fiancé, but her sorrowful songs may come true twice over now, for a local man has fallen for her and her fiancé has come looking for his wayward bride-to-be.
Black Field
- Director: Danishka Esterhazy
- Release Date: 2009
- Production Country: Canada
When a handsome French-Canadian trapper intrudes upon the lives of two sisters on their bleak prairie farm, Maggie, the eldest sister, finds herself trying to subvert her younger sister's romantic interest in the man. But when Rose vanishes, setting off a desperate search, is Maggie right to focus on the trapper or is there another reason for Rose's disappearance?
Cabaret
- Director: Bob Fosse
- Release Date: 1972
- Production Country: United States
A proper British professor and a hedonistic cabaret singer befriend each other in Berlin, eventually becoming lovers, but then both Brian and Sally find themselves falling for handsome, suave Maximillian, only to realize that neither of their lifestyles would allow them to remain with him.
Cesta do Praveku (Journey to the Beginning of Time)
- Director: Karel Zeman, Alan Ladd
- Release Date: 1955
- Production Country: Czechoslovakia
On a trip to New York City, four Czech boys find themselves transported back through time. Intrigued by the chance to see the prehistoric world first hand, their fascination fades somewhat when they realize that they are not just looking at museum dioramas; they are residents of this world now and must fight for their own survival like any other prehistoric mammal.
Clan of the Cave Bear
- Director: Michael Chapman
- Release Date: 1986
- Production Country: United States
A young Cro-Magnon girl is saved by and then raised by Neanderthals.
Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli)
- Director: Francesco Rosi
- Release Date: 1979
- Production Country: Italy, France
Exiled by the Fascist government, an intellectual who is both an artist and a doctor is sent to a remote village in Italy, where the people's lives have not changed much since medieval times and where they scratch out their meager existence in a place where not even Christ could be bothered to journey.