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

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
Dreamer
When racehorse trainer Ben Crane (Kurt Russell) is fired after a disastrous race, he decides to keep an injured racehorse, saving the animal from being put down. Although his daughter… Read More
Duma
When the young South African boy Xan finds an orphaned baby cheetah, he decides to raise it, calling it Duma. When the cat becomes too old to continue raising on… Read More
Fly Away Home
When her mother dies, 13-year-old Amy (a young Anna Paquin) moves from New Zealand to Canada to live with her father (Jeff Daniels), an eccentric sculptor and inventor. After such… Read More
Free Willy
This week’s film is a popular classic from the 90s. Hanging out with the wrong crowd, the 12-year-old orphan Jesse has become a liar and a thief. When police catch… Read More
The One and Only Ivan
Here’s a lighthearted family film featuring animals who, in typical children’s story fashion, can speak to each other, but not to humans. Rescued from poachers as a baby and raised… Read More
Penguin Bloom
After a terrible accident leaves the young mother Sam Bloom (Naomi Watts) paralyzed from the waist down, she and her family struggle to adapt to new routines. Sam is especially… Read More
The Jungle Book
Disney’s 2016 live-action (well, live-action / CGI hybrid) adaptation of The Jungle Book builds on both Rudyard Kipling’s original story collection and Disney’s own 1967 animated feature, shaping the stories… Read More