Movies Similar to Square One: A Documentary

Pick up the Wind(2021)

A short film following Anthony, a young child from the small, rural town of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. We see him in different moments of his daily life as he interacts with different forms of environmental, familial, and social influences. While Anthony displays contradictory traits of creativity, destruction, rigidity, and tenderness as he interacts with his external and internal worlds, we see a story built from the the multidimensionality of Anthony's layered personality as a young man.

Jack Kerouac's Road: A Franco-American Odyssey(1987)

Part documentary, part drama, this film presents the life and work of Jack Kerouac, an American writer with Québec roots who became one of the most important spokesmen for his generation. Intercut with archival footage, photographs and interviews, this film takes apart the heroic myth and even returns to the childhood of the author whose life and work contributed greatly to the cultural, sexual and social revolution of the 1960s.

Anarchy Before Fall(2025)

A group of young filmmakers enjoy their last summer together, before they leave Latvia for universities in vastly different countries.

Ballet Boys(2014)

Ballet Boys takes you through disappointments, victories, forging of friendship, first loves, doubt, faith, growing apart from each other, finding your own way and own ambitions, all mixed with the beautiful expression of ballet.

The Track(2025)

In Sarajevo, three teenage boys train with their coach on a luge track left over from the 1984 Winter Games, now bullet-riddled, covered in graffiti, and swarmed by tourists. Three decades after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mirza, Zlatan, and Hamza are the next generation of athletes in a country facing an uncertain future. The tensions of the past still loom large in these young Muslims’ lives, and their Olympic dreams are stunted by a lack of state support despite the efforts of their dedicated coach. Director Ryan Sidhoo takes a longitudinal approach in his directorial debut, intimately capturing the boys’ journey as they reckon with growing up under the shadow of the past. A deeply affecting coming-of-age underdog story, The Track is an ode to the power of hope, friendship, and chasing your dreams against all odds.

Make Your Own Decisions(1951)

Once you're old enough to make decisions for yourself, how exactly do you go about doing it? How can you really know which choice is best for you?

We Can Be Heroes(2024)

Sometimes, finding your tribe requires a bit of magic. For attendees of a live action role-playing (LARP) camp in upstate New York, the deeply accepting environment has given neurodivergent, queer, and self-proclaimed "nerdy" teenagers the space and community for self-discovery that they have never found anywhere else. As the campers immerse themselves in this imaginative world, they discover inner strength, heal from past traumas, and emerge as the heroes they are meant to be, both in the fantasy realm and in real life.

The In Between(2024)

Following the death of her brother, filmmaker Robie Flores returns to her hometown Eagle Pass on the Texas/Mexico border, wanting to turn back time. She collides with unruly experiences of adolescence – quinceañeras, Rio Grande river excursions, teen makeovers and beyond – that invite her to soak up the details of the home her brother adored and she ignored. What emerges is a playful dance between a personal and collective coming-of-age portrait of kids on the border and Robie herself as she rediscovers the possibilities of joy in the aftermath of grief.

Draussen bleiben(2007)

Most Likely to Succeed(2019)

In 2007, four teenagers from disparate backgrounds are voted "Most Likely To Succeed" during their senior year of high school. Over a ten-year period, they each chart their own version of success and navigate the unpredictability of American life in the 21st Century.

I'm Not Gay(2023)

A conflicted gay man struggles to teach his younger self about the challenges of adult life. Searching for answers inside stories from his past, he must confront his nature and the man he will become. Documentary meets musical feature in this experimental coming of age drama about power and masculinity in modern day Australia.

Roleplay(2024)

College students confront sexual violence on their campus through a transformative theater process. This urgent coming of age story follows young adults grappling with sex, consent, identity, and power on their paths to adulthood.

Fim de Período- Documentário(2020)

We Did It on a Song(2014)

This film tells the stormy tale of a group of friends from Boulogne-sur-Mer, a French town hit by the financial crisis. A year between dreams and disillusion, imagined by teenagers from a working or middle class background, with songs that regularly add poetry, laughter, and emotion to reality.

Ain't Got No Fear(2016)

The industrial noise of a factory in the Isle of Grain provides a percussive backbeat as a group of local children rap about their lives and play in the woods, sometimes wearing luminous tribal masks.

Children of the Arctic(2014)

Children of the Arctic is a portrait of five Native Alaskan teenagers growing up in Barrow - the northernmost community in the United States. As their climate and culture undergo profound changes, they strive to balance being modern American kids and the inheritors of an endangered way of life.

The Ghost Story.(2026)

Everyone in town knows Simón's story, because like a rumor or an urban legend, it has been spreading among its inhabitants, the few who believe him and those who question everything about his story... But Simón will clear up doubts, recounting what happened during those supernatural events...

Minding the Gap(2018)

Three young men bond together to escape volatile families in their Rust Belt hometown. As they face adult responsibilities, unexpected revelations threaten their decade-long friendship.

Israelism(2023)

When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the mistreatment of Palestinians, they battle the old guard to create a new movement opposing Israel’s occupation, and recentering Judaism itself.

It Kinda Scares Me(2001)

It Kinda Scares Me is a documentary about a drama coach and the “delinquent” boys he teaches. In their world, bravado is everything and Friday nights are for getting into fights. Tomer Heymann, both filmmaker and drama coach, encourages the boys to create something from their pain and marginalization, while they struggle in rehearsals to preserve their much-prized Israeli machismo. When Tomer announces to the group that he is gay, they are shocked, but his commitment to their play wins the day as they prepare for a performance that will give voice to the lives of disaffected Israeli youth.