Good films: Movies about kindness

Our “Good Films You May Have Missed” series calls attention to movies new and old that are all Filmworks worthy. Titles are available (or soon will be) from Netflix and other streaming services.

CITY LIGHTS
USA • 1931 • Dir: Charlie Chaplin
Maybe Chaplin’s best. The Tramp talks a millionaire into paying for an operation that might restore the sight of a blind flower girl.

CENTRAL STATION
Brazil/France • 1998 • Dir: Walter Salles
A bitter letter writer in Rio’s central train station, tempted to sell a motherless boy to an illicit outfit, has a spiritual change of heart and finally does right by him.

HOTEL RWANDA
USA/UK/Italy/South Africa • 2004 • Dir: Terry George
Don Cheadle plays a hotel keeper who shelters a few thousand Tutsi refugees from the rampaging Hutu army.

SLEEPWALKING
USA/Canada • 2008 • Dir: Bill Maher
A slacker loser finally does something right: He watches over a girl who has been abandoned by her alcoholic mother.

Jim Piper is a Filmworks board member, a filmmaker, and a retired film studies instructor.