Featured Collections

  • War Movies for Empathy Practice: Veterans tell us that nobody can know what it’s like to be in a war without actually being there. But war movies still try to approximate the experience. These films help us see war from the point of the view of those in the midst of it — soldiers, civilians, journalists, and others.
  • Films about Children for Empathy Practice: We have long felt that anyone who has seen the films about children coming out of the Middle East would question any public policy that puts them — or any other group of children — in danger. These movies may be the closest you can get to seeing daily life from these children's perspective.

More Films about Empathy

The Attack gives voice to a variety of perspectives in the Middle East, widening the scope of our empathy, through an engrossing story about the husband of a suicide bomber.

The Armor of Light is a rivetting documentary about the growth of empathy experienced by two Christians who find they cannot stand by and tolerate the vehemence of pro-gun advocates.

Bully draws us into the lives of five young people who suffered from bullying and shows us the empathic response that arose from the people around them.

The Diving Bell & the Butterfly is a classic film about "locked-in syndrome" that helps us feel what it is like to square off against loss and death on a daily basis.

E.T. – The Extraterrestrial, one of the finest science fiction fantasies ever made, tells the tale of a boy who befriends and cares for an alien, exhibiting remarkable empathy for someone so different from himself.

Good Will Hunting draws us into the world of an emotionally troubled young man blessed with three empathetic soul friends who enable him to discover his worth.

The Journey shows how empathy and dialogue enables two politicians to move beyond their differences and forge a peace in Ireland.

The Kid with a Bike offers a poignant salute to empathy and the need to cultivate it in our approach to troubled kids on the fringe of society.

A Little Princess, a luminous and buoyant screen interpretation of the children's classic, sets up a revealing contrast between characters who show empathy and those who emphatically do not.

Napoleon Dynamite is an endearing tale about an idiosyncratic teenager that challenges us to put ourselves in the characters' skins as we retread our ways down high school corridors where pain and humiliation are only a step away.

The Other Son is about a Jew and a Palestinian who were born in the same hospital but sent home with the wrong parents. This uplifting drama charts the miracles that can happen when we walk a mile in another person's shoes and truly desire to understand the broader context of another's life. The film also tutors us in the art of listening.

Pete’s Dragon centers around the mystical connection between a boy and his dragon, a special form of empathy that's picked up by some of the more observant people around them.

Remember the Titans is based on the true story of a Virginia high school football team and the two coaches, one black and one white, who show them a way out of racial hatred and bigotry.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants does a fine job in presenting the glue of shared fond feeling that holds four teenagers together even though they are miles apart.

The Woodsman challenges our capacity to empathize through the story of a pedophile struggling to build a new life after serving time in prison.