Family Movie Nights

To help families spend time together and share common experiences, The Leadership Institute provides recommendations for Family Movie Night. Each week, a new movie recommendation and explanation is available for your consideration. Enjoy the show!

If you are looking to see where a particular movie is streaming or is available online, please visit https://www.justwatch.com

My Side of the Mountain
Upset after his parents cancel a summer camping trip, and inspired by the writings of Henry David Thoreau, thirteen-year-old Sam decides to test his self-reliance by running away from home… Read More
Belle and Sebastian
This week’s film is French, but is dubbed on most streaming platforms. In the French Alps during World War II, a resourceful seven-year-old orphan named Sebastian lives with his adoptive… Read More
Think Like a Dog
Middle schooler and science prodigy Oliver is upset when his mind-reading invention seems to fail during a science fair presentation. Trying to fix his invention later that night, he accidentally… Read More
Because of Winn-Dixie
Ten-year-old Opal has just moved to a small Florida town with her father. Lonely and missing her mother who abandoned them years earlier, Opal’s life changes when she adopts a… Read More
White Fang
In the midst of the Alaskan gold rush, young Jack Conroy (Ethan Hawke) arrives in the Yukon Territory to claim his late father’s mining plot. Inexperienced in the harsh realities… Read More
The Call of the Wild
This week’s film centers around a large dog named Buck, whose blissful domestic life comes to a sudden end when he’s abducted and transported to the harsh lands of the… Read More
Buddy
It’s the 1930s, and wealthy socialite and animal lover Gertrude Lintz shares her large estate with all sorts of animals, from cats and dogs to geese and chimpanzees. One day… Read More
Big Miracle
It’s the late 80s when Alaskan news reporter Adam Carlson happens to spot a trio of gray whales trapped by pack ice in the Arctic Circle. With temperatures dropping, it… Read More
Dog Gone
Fresh out of college and not yet sure what to do with his life, Fielding Marshall finds the perfect companion in his new dog Gonker. But when Gonker gets lost… Read More
Dream Horse
“We can’t stop ourselves from dreaming of bigger things.” Unsatisfied with her unfulfilling job in her small Welsh town, middle-aged Jan Vokes (Toni Collette) decides to raise a race horse. She has… Read More
Iron Will
In the last week of January 1917 (that is, 106 years ago this week), a young man raced through brutal winter weather and rough terrain to finish a 500-mile dog… Read More