Six young black men from Akron, Ohio, enter college, determined to redefine society’s images and low expectations. Despite their confidence, the stark reality of being away from home brings a series of crises. Well trained in critical and metaphorical thinking, and unusually articulate about their inner lives, each of the protagonists guides us to his core. Since sixth grade, they have been part of an innovative mentoring program called ‘Alchemy, Inc.’ that uses mythological stories, drumming and writing. In the twice-yearly reunion workshops everyone speaks of his trials and his triumphs with authenticity, intelligence, honesty and heart. In turns quiet, thoughtful and exuberant, the six protagonists grow before our eyes, whether navigating racial provocations, or seeking support with new friends, estranged fathers and wise grandmothers.

A friendship develops between a young paralysed man from a wealthy Bangkok family and his male nurse from Isan in the North of Thailand.

When a capable dancer is provoked by the evil design of his employer, naturally he will be out to prove his mettle.

The world has been ravaged by nuclear war. The planet is frozen and radiation kills anyone or anything that ventures outside of ‘The Dome’. Soft is a shepherd for the last remnants of humanity who have gathered together as they await rescue from a mysterious craft known only as ‘The Ark.’ He wanders among the masses, performing his regular daily tasks; keeping morale from plummeting, wooing prostitutes, squashing rebellions, and sometimes feeding the hungry. But as the true and sinister nature of ‘The Dome’ comes to light, Soft must ask himself if humanity is worth saving…

Max is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Eventually Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewish because in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a relationship with an openly gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.

A young mother (Kate Lyn Sheil) seeks a rural retreat from the doldrums of married life.

After getting in a car accident, a woman is held in a shelter with two men, who claim the outside world is affected by a widespread chemical attack.

In front of their little boy, Camille and Georges dance on their favorite song “Mr Bojangles”. With them, there is only place for fun and fantasy. The one who shows the way is the mother, an unpredictable wisp. She leads them into a whirlwind of poetry so that the party continues again and again, no matter what happens. Mad love has never lived up to its name so well.

An adolescent arrives in a new town where he tries to join the drag-racing crowd.

Marian is a factory worker determined to leave the assembly line behind and move up in the world.

In an invisible territory at the margins of society, at the border between anarchy and illegality, lives a wounded community that is trying to respond to a threat: of being forgotten by political institutions and having their rights as citizens trampled. Disarmed veterans, taciturn adolescents, drug addicts trying to escape addiction through love, ex-special forces soldiers still at war with the world, floundering young women and future mothers, and old people who have not lost their desire to live. Through this hidden pocket of humanity, the door opens to the abyss of today’s America.

Sidney J. Furie’s The Veteran is a respectable straight-to-DVD movie that was headed for the “pleasant surprise” category before self-destructing with a terrible, out-of-the-blue ending.