The Optimists

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.

A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.

Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.