Education : Education Documentaries

On October 22nd, 1963, 250,000 students boycotted the Chicago Public Schools to protest racial segregation. Many marched through the city calling for the resignation of School Superintendent Benjamin Willis, who placed trailers, dubbed 'Willis Wagons,' on playgrounds of overcrowded schools rather than let them enroll in nearby underutilized white schools. Unseen 16mm footage of this historic event, filmed by Kartemquin's founders, and the memories of the participants connect the dramatic story of one of the largest Northern civil rights demonstrations to contemporary issues of race, education, school closings, and youth activism.

Day One follows a group of teenage refugees from war-torn countries who are enrolled at Nahed Chapman New American Academy, a unique public school for refugees and immigrants-only in St. Louis, MO. They are guided through an inspirational program of education, healing and trauma intervention by devoted educators, some of whom have chosen to relocate to the inner city to support their students.

In 1994, California voters approved Proposition 187, a ballot initiative denying public education and health care to all undocumented immigrants. Laura Angelica Simon, a Mexican immigrant and fourth grade teacher at Hoover Street Elementary School in Los Angeles was, in her own words, "devastated," and felt motivated to a make film about the impact on her school.

It examines the incredible impact of another New Day title, It's Elementary - Talking About Gay Issues in School, over the last decade and follows up with teachers and students featured in the first film to see how lessons about LGBT people changed their lives. It's STILL Elementary also documents the story behind the controversial PBS broadcast of It's Elementary and the infamous right-wing attacks on the film and its creators. It's STILL Elementary is a call to action for parents and educators to continue working for safe, inclusive schools. "'It's STILL Elementary' is a powerful call to action to stop ignoring anti-gay slurs, and work for more welcoming and inclusive classrooms. Nobody can watch this movie and walk away without feeling that they too have a role to play in creating a climate that respects and protects all youth." Rhonda Thomason, Teaching Tolerance

Precious Knowledge reports from the frontlines of one of the most contentious battles in public education in recent memory, the fight over Mexican American studies programs in Arizona public schools. The film interweaves the stories of several students enrolled in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School with interviews with teachers, parents, school officials, and the lawmakers who wish to outlaw the classes. While 48 percent of Mexican American students currently drop out of high school, Tucson High's Mexican American Studies Program has become a national model of educational success, with 93 percent of enrolled students, on average, graduating from high school and 85 percent going on to attend college. The filmmakers spent an entire year in the classroom filming this innovative curriculum, documenting the transformative impact on students who became engaged, informed, and active in their communities. As the nation turns its focus toward a wave of anti-immigration legislation in Arizona, the issue of ethnic chauvinism becomes a double-edged weapon in a simmering battle making front page news coast to coast. When Arizona lawmakers pass a bill giving unilateral power to the State Superintendent to abolish ethnic studies classes, teachers and student leaders fight to save the program using texts, Facebook, optimism, and a megaphone. Lawmakers and politicians respond with a public relations campaign to discredit the students, claiming that a textbook used in the classes, Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed teaches victimization and sedition. Officials ask that the classroom's Che Guevara posters be replaced with portraits of founding father Benjamin Franklin. Meanwhile, the students answer back by fighting for what they believe is the future of public education for the entire nation, especially as the Latino demographic continues to grow.

Profiled knits the stories of mothers of Black and Latino youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Some of the victims--Eric Garner, Michael Brown--are now familiar the world over. Others, like Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray, are remembered mostly by family and friends in their New York neighborhoods. Ranging from the routine harassment of minority students in an affluent Brooklyn neighborhood to the killings and protests in Staten Island and Ferguson, Missouri, Profiled bears witness to the racist violence that remains an everyday reality for Black and Latin people in this country. Interviews with victims' family members are juxtaposed with analyses by evolutionary biologist, Joseph L. Graves, Jr, (The Race Myth) and civil rights lawyer, Chauniqua D. Young, (Center for Constitutional Rights, Stop and Frisk lawsuit).

Inspired by the groundbreaking book of the same name by Monique W. Morris, Ed.D, PUSHOUT: THE CRIMINALIZATION OF BLACK GIRLS IN SCHOOLS, takes a deep dive into the lives of Black girls and the practices, cultural beliefs and policies that disrupts one of the most important factors in their lives - education. Alarmingly, African American girls are the fastest-growing population in the juvenile justice system and the only group of girls to disproportionately experience criminalization at every education level. The film underscores the challenges Black girls face with insights from multiple experts across the country who have worked extensively in the fields of social and criminal justice, gender equality and educational equity, giving context to the crisis and providing a roadmap for how our educational system and those who interact with Black girls can provide a positive rather than punitive response to behaviors that are often misunderstood or misrepresented.