New York videomaker Shelly Silver explores Japanese women's experiences of leaving home in her engaging new documentary 37 Stories about Leaving Home, interweaving personal stories told by grandmothers, mothers, and daughters. The women's choices vary with temperament and changing social norms, and have surprising and poignant ramifications on the next generation. The humorous, saucy traditional folktale, "The Oni Laughs," recurs throughout, accompanied by haunting, evocative images, and serves to underscore ideas that arise from the conversations, themes of intervention by outside forces and the bonds between women. -Kathy Geritz