Instant Family: This movie shows foster care through a Hollywood lens, but it's ultimately endearing and easy to watch. It has some rude language and stressful scenes, but is generally palatable and a good introduction to foster care. It's available on Amazon Prime for free starting November 14th, 2019.

The Florida Project: This movie shows the life of a young girl and her mother, who is struggling to provide a healthy home for her daughter. It has lots of intense language, sexual innuendo, violence, etc. It's generally disturbing and uncomfortable to watch, but necessarily shows viewers the experiences of the young girl that will impact how she grows up. It's currently available on Amazon Prime for free.

Short Term 12: This movie shows a few days in the life at a residential care center. The children that live there have been temporarily surrendered to the state and were not able to be placed with foster families because a) they have very high emotional or medical needs, or b) there were not enough homes available. This movie has lots of intense language, sexual scenes, allusions to rape and abuse, violence, blood, and reference to abortion. It is a difficult watch, but also a very important and realistic depiction of the lives of children who come from hard places and are surrendered to state care. It's currently available on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hoopla, and Vudu for free.