Cause Cinema Selects
Who Are We Now?
This week’s selections orbit a simple but unsettling question: Who are we now? In different ways, through art, youth, politics, and community, these films explore identity under pressure and what happens when the world changes faster than we can explain ourselves. They’re not just stories about other people; they’re mirrors. Three films that ask for honesty, and a look in the mirror. Because sometimes the most powerful thing cinema can do isn’t give us answers, it helps us see ourselves more clearly.
Happyend
A youth-centered drama that captures friendship and coming-of-age inside a society under pressure, timely, human, and quietly political. It’s a film about how systems shape young people, and how young people still find ways to dream inside the constraints.
Peter Hujar’s Day
A quietly mesmerizing portrait of legendary photographer Peter Hujar and the lived-in texture of artistic life, where conversation becomes biography and a city becomes memory. A film about creativity, intimacy, and what it means to be an artist among artists.
Homegrown
A sharp, unsettling documentary that follows right-wing activists during the 2020 election era, revealing how ideology becomes identity, and how political movements are built through community, momentum, and grievance. Less about headlines, more about the human mechanics beneath them.
These films remind us that when identity is tested and honesty is required, the hardest chapters can still lead to a happy end.