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1) Camp- To impress a potential client, financial adviser Ken Matthews signs up to be a counselor at a camp for children in the foster system. He is paired with Eli, a 10-year-old determined to hate camp. However, when Ken discovers Eli’s dark past, his apathy turns to compassion. But is he to late to help the scared boy nobody wants? Inspired by true stories of ordinary people providing extraordinary help for abused and neglected children, “Camp” is a tale of hope shining in the dark places for forgotten children.
2) Miracles from Heaven- Miracles from Heaven is a 2016 American Christian drama film directed by Patricia Riggen and written by Randy Brown. It is based on Miracles from Heaven by Christy Beam, which recounts the true story of her young daughter who had a near-death experience and was later cured of an incurable disease.
3) The Blindside- Based on the true story of Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy who take in a homeless teenage African-American, Michael Oher. Michael has no idea who his father is and his mother is a drug addict. Michael has had little formal education and few skills to help him learn. Leigh Anne soon takes charge however, as is her nature, ensuring that the young man has every opportunity to succeed. When he expresses an interest in football, she goes all out to help him, including giving the coach a few ideas on how best to use Michael’s skills. They not only provide him with a loving home, but hire a tutor to help him improve his grades to the point where he would qualify for an NCAA Division I athletic scholarship. Michael Oher was the first-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens in the 2009 NFL draft.
4) Freedom Writers- It’s 1994 in Long Beach, California. Idealistic Erin Gruwell is just starting her first teaching job, that as freshman and sophomore English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, which, two years earlier, implemented a voluntary integration program. For many of the existing teachers, the integration has ruined the school, whose previously stellar academic standing has been replaced with many students who will be lucky to graduate or even be literate. Despite choosing the school on purpose because of its integration program, Erin is unprepared for the nature of her classroom, whose students live by generations of strict moral codes of protecting their own at all cost. Many are in gangs and almost all know somebody that has been killed by gang violence. The Latinos hate the Cambodians who hate the blacks and so on. The only person the students hate more is Ms. Gruwell. It isn’t until Erin holds an unsanctioned discussion about a recent drive-by shooting death that she fully begins to understand what she’s up against. And it isn’t until she provides an assignment of writing a daily journal – which will be not graded, and will remain unread by her unless they so choose – that the students begin to open up to her. As Erin tries harder and harder to have resources provided to teach properly (which often results in her needing to pay for them herself through working second and third jobs), she seems to face greater resistance, especially from her colleagues, such as Margaret Campbell, her section head, who lives by regulations and sees such resources as a waste, and Brian Gelford, who will protect his “priviledged” position of teaching the senior honors classes at all cost. Erin also finds that her teaching job is placing a strain on her marriage to Scott Casey, a man who seems to have lost his own idealistic way in life.
5) Grown Ups- In 1978, five 12-year-olds win a CYO basketball championship. Thirty years later, they gather with their families for their coach’s funeral and a weekend at a house on a lake where they used to party. By now, each is a grownup with problems and challenges: Marcus is alone and drinks too much. Rob, with three daughters he rarely sees, is always deeply in love until he turns on his next ex-wife. Eric is overweight and out of work. Kurt is a househusband, henpecked by wife and mother-in-law. Lenny is a successful Hollywood agent married to a fashion designer; their kids take privilege for granted. Can the outdoors help these grownups rediscover connections or is this chaos in the making?
What are some of your top movies?
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I have been looking for movie ideas so I am glad you shared this. Camp sounds really inspiring and I think that I have seen Grown ups. As for my favorites:
1. The Social Network – The story about how Zuckerberg and his college friends found Facebook and the not so impressive past about the network’s business background.
2. Why Do Fools Fall in Love – One of my old favorites. Very funny. It is about the singer Frankie Lymon who happened to marry three women and after he passed they all went to court to fight over his estate.
3. Lady Sings the Blues – Another old favorite about Billie Holiday (Played by Diana Ross), the black jazz singer with a difficult childhood, who made it big at a time when African Americans were still being lynched.
4. The Great Debaters – About one of the first black college debate teams in the United States that went on to defeat Harvard University, which was unheard of at the time, 1930’s.
5. Catch Me If You Can – My favorite Leonardo Dicarpio movie. He played the role of an ambitious kid who faked being a pilot, doctor and lawyer before he was 18 years old. Later hunted down by the FBI only to later become hired by the same organization as a fraud expert.