The very best shows go beyond that, acting as catalysts for social change, shifting public perspectives, and showcasing resilience. We watch fearfully as our heroes fall, and then we swell with pride when they inevitably pick themselves back up. The “never give up” attitude of a hero exemplifies a resilience we may already have, or one we hope to achieve. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last winter, resilience and adaptability have been key in helping us deal with our suddenly changed circumstances. Illness, loss, grief, fear, uncertainty, unemployment, and isolation are just a handful of issues the first pandemic in more than a century has dealt us — each incredibly difficult on their own even in normal times. But if overcoming and even learning from the most difficult parts of life is a key factor of resilience, we’ll hopefully all come out of this with newfound strength. In the meantime, if you need some inspiring stories to get you through the next half year or more — or simply a distraction to get your mind off of everything — we’ve curated a list of films and shows about resilience in relationships, racism, mental illness, and everything in between. Here are our top 25 picks:
2. Beautiful Boy
3. Heroin(e)
4. Maudie
5. The Sessions
Shows About Overcoming Racism, Oppression, and Injustice
6. He Named Me Malala
7. Rabbit-Proof Fence
8. Selma
9. Warrior
10. When They See Us
Shows About Family, Friendships, and Romance
11. Dead to Me
12. Roma
13. The Florida Project
14. Wild
Shows About Resilience and Overcoming Discrimination in the LGBTQ Community
15. Believer
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormon Church) is known for renouncing its LGBTQ members, which may be tied to the significant suicide rates amongst LGBTQ youth in that community. In the documentary Believer, Dan Reynolds, frontman of Grammy Award–winning band Imagine Dragons, is on a mission to change the way the church he grew up in perceives and treats LGBTQ youth. Reynolds meets with parents of adolescents who have died by suicide while organizing the innaugural LoveLoud Festival in Orem, Utah. The third annual festival took place in Salt Lake City, Utah this past June, benefiting LGBTQ rights organizations like The Trevor Project.
16. Boy Erased
17. Special
Shows About Resilience in Music and Sports
18. 42
19. Joe’s Violin
In the short documentary Joe’s Violin, a Holocaust survivor donates his violin to a local instrument drive, changing the life of a schoolgirl named Brianna from the Bronx, New York, one of the country’s poorest districts. Brianna has her own challenges at home, and playing music gives her respite. When Brianna invites Joseph to attend a performance at her school, she tells him, “it’s more than a violin” before playing a song he learned from his mother. Brianna tells Joseph she admires him for never giving up, and his gift of the violin exemplifies how one small act can change a person’s life.
20. Losers
21. They Will Have to Kill Us First
22. Wild Rose
Rose-Lynn (Jessie Buckley) is a young Scottish woman who dreams of being a country singer. She was raised in a working class family, her mother a bakery attendant, but Rose-Lynn is convinced she belongs in Nashville, Tennessee. To complicate matters, she is fresh out of prison on a drug charge, the single mother of two young children, and her dream seems to be the only thing keeping her alive. When she takes a job cleaning a house for a wealthy couple, the wife hears Rose-Lynn singing as she works, and everything begins to change. A true rags-to-riches story, Wild Rose is inspiring for anyone who has ever dreamed of a life they never thought they could live — and the music is fantastic.
Shows About War, Veterans, and Living With PTSD
23. Beasts of No Nation
24. Hell and Back Again
Just before his six-month stint in Afghanistan is up, Marine Sgt. Nathan Harris is hit by a sniper bullet and his leg is shattered. The Oscar-nominated documentary Hell and Back Again follows Harris as he navigates life as a civilian upon his return home to North Carolina and his wife, Ashley. The hardest part of Harris’s recovery isn’t living with a devastating injury, but learning how to live as someone other than a combat soldier. Variety reviewer Robert Koehler wrote that “the impact isn’t so much to shock audiences with the violent spasms of combat … as to show why Harris feels more naturally at home leading men in war than he does as a vulnerable invalid in a rather cold and lonely America.”
25. Lioness
Lioness is a documentary that tells the story of the first group of women soldiers to be sent into ground combat zones. Despite not having the same kinds of training as their male counterparts, these female warriors fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq War. Through journal entries, archival footage, and interviews, Lioness also examines the women’s experiences in Iraq, giving a unique female perspective to the emotional and psychological effects of war. With additional reporting by Anna Brooks and Maura Corrigan.
