As a follow up to “Movies to watch with Mom,” the staff of Heartland Truly Moving Pictures has come up with another great list of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners and Heartland Film Festival films to watch with Dad for Father’s Day:
Alabama Moon
2010 Heartland Film Festival Official Selection
It’s 1980, and 11-year-old Moon Blake has spent most of his life hiding out in the forests of Alabama with his father, an anti-government radical who clings to conspiracy theories and trusts no one. Moon’s life suddenly changes when the land is sold and his father dies. He has never known any truth but his Papa, and so he tries to follow his last instructions: make your way to Alaska where “people could still make a living off trapping.”
Purchase Alabama Moon on DVD or Blu-ray.
Watch Alabama Moon on Netflix.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award winner
A year after his father died in the World Trade Center on what Oskar calls “The Worst Day,” he is determined to keep his vital connection to the man who playfully cajoled him into confronting his wildest fears. Now, as Oskar crosses the five New York boroughs in quest of the missing lock – encountering an eclectic assortment of people who are each survivors in their own way – he begins to uncover unseen links to the father he misses, to the mother who seems so far away from him and to the whole noisy, dangerous, discombobulating world around him.
Purchase Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close on DVD or Blu-ray.
Watch Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close on Netflix.
Beginners
Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award winner
Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna only months after his father Hal has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who — following 44 years of marriage — came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized and tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him.
Purchase Beginners on DVD or Blu-ray.
Watch Beginners on Netflix.
Sacrifices of My Father
2011 Heartland High School Film Competition Grand Prize Winner
Sacrifices of My Father is a short documentary addressing the courageous acts of selflessness and determination Miguel Lopez Sr. embodies for his family’s financial security. Working cities away, he endures obstacles in a minimum wage job to solely support his family of four.
Watch Sacrifices of My Father Online at Vimeo
Buck
Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award winner
This richly textured and visually stunning film follows Buck Brannaman from his abusive childhood to his phenomenally successful approach to horses. A real-life “horse-whisperer”, he eschews the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with their horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment. Buck possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect. The animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges of life.
Purchase Buck on DVD or Blu-ray.
Watch Buck on Netflix.
Warrior
Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award winner
Two brothers face the fight of a lifetime – and the wreckage of their broken family – within the brutal, high-stakes world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting. An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Riordan returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title prize, his brother, Brendan, a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family. When Brendan’s unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives.
Purchase Warrior on DVD or Blu-ray.
Watch Warrior on Netflix.
Somebody’s Hero
2011 Heartland Film Festival Official Selection
An average guy in New York City unexpectedly foils a robbery while wearing a Man America superhero costume. After the security video hits the news and causes a media frenzy, he gets convinced to keep playing the part of a superhero. A problem when you have no superpowers!
Somebody’s Hero will be available starting on Father’s Day – June 17, 2012, from Brainstorm Media. It can be watched On Demand and online, via: InDemand, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, DIRECTV, Dish Network, Amazon.com, Available on iTunes, Blockbuster.com, Microsoft Network (Xbox), AT&T U-verse, Sony Entertainment Network (Video Unlimited & PlayStation), Youtube/Google Play and Vudu.com. For a complete list visit www.SomebodysHeroMovie.com.
What are your all-time favorite movies to watch with Dad?
