Genre: Coming of Age

Audiences of all ages can enjoy these three stories of adventure, all highlights from our Family Friendly Animation program, presented at the Harrison Park Field House in Pilsen.

This lyrical, decades-spanning exploration of a woman’s life in Mississippi is a haunting, beautiful ode to the people and places that shape us.

A girl connects with her Mayan heritage on a camping trip with her father that turns into an exciting adventure.

Summer 1938. Ginia moves to Turin and immerses herself in a sensual, bohemian world where she finds the courage to truly be herself.

A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and creation,
 in tribute to friendship, from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.

From the acclaimed director of Prayers for the Stolen comes an exquisitely textured coming-of-age story about an adolescent girl in rural Mexico.

Abel, a lovesick highschool student, is distracted. His life is turned upside down when his failed graduation history exam turns into a national scandal.

In an industrial city, aimless teenager Lucas searches for meaning and connection. A friend’s sudden departure will send him on a poetic odyssey.

After having her first period, a young girl goes through an unexpected transformation.

Endearingly deadpan, this wholly original tale finds three teenage friends plotting their escape from a frozen, hopeless place — until one falls in love.

A social worker at a juvenile detention center assembles an unlikely team of incarcerated teens who must outrace their pasts on a transformative 1000-mile bike ride.

Paul Giamatti stars as a curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school who is forced to babysit a handful of students over Christmas break.

Holly’s uncanny premonition makes her the focal point of a community in need of healing, but is the teenaged outsider the answer to their prayers?

Serbia, 1996. When an election is stolen, 15-year-old Stefan is forced to confront his mother, a television spokesperson for the corrupt Milosevic regime.

The anarchic freedom of three sisters, left alone by an absent mother, is threatened by social services, confronting them with the realities of growing up.

This endlessly charming film follows a rebellious 8-year-old who recently moved back to Tehran from the United States as she navigates familial and societal expectations.

These tense and terrifying shorts reflect how everyday life can turn into horror.

The works in this program muck around the dark corners of human experience, bringing forth the darkly comedic, can’t-help-but-laugh moments that arise in difficult times.

All ages are welcome in this family-friendly program, full of colorful films that celebrate play, encourage curiosity, and emphasize the importance of communal bonds.

The bond between three teenage girls is tested when a viral video denouncing a sexual assault exposes the divides between them.

As gentle and idiosyncratic as its characters, Solitude is a transformative tale of friendship between a latchkey kid and fish-out-of-water farmer.

A game among children grows increasingly out of control.

Over the course of a day preparing a birthday party for her ailing father, young Sol watches her family’s bonds erode as they honor life and loss.

In this heartfelt story set in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green projects in the early 1990s, two boys come of age amid change in their community.