GI Junkies: The Forgotten Veterans

A significant number of American children and teenagers - from all social backgrounds - suffer from mental disorders, schizophrenia, autism and emotional problems, leading them to isolation from society while treating their issues in mental health facilities. But there's no end in sight for those young individuals when they face obstacles and mistreatment in inadequate places under the supervision of careless and inexperienced professionals. The documentary follows some of those public mental institutions and another private center dealing with troubled kids and reveals what's wrong with their procedures, and the irreparable harm they cause in those patients.

Seven-year-old Travis has AIDS. Filmmaker Richard Kotuk invites us to witness Travis’s struggle. With his intense yearning for life and understanding of death, Travis describes the disease as a “monster inside of me: I’m gonna fight it. I will fight.” Supported by his grandmother and his community of cousins, Travis fights AIDS for an opportunity to be a boy with normal childhood dreams. An unsentimental portrait, Travis questions our own understanding of death and passion for life.

Racial tensions soared as the Spencers, a middle-class black family moved into Rosedale, a Queens white working-class neighborhood. In this 1976 documentary, Bill Moyers examines the fear, hatred and courage generated as the have-nots of our society battle for a tiny piece of the good life.