Navrácený svět

A documentary about a vision care school that enables visually impaired children to learn the skills necessary for a full life.

To Be and to Have

The documentary's title translates as "to be and to have", the two auxiliary verbs in the French language. It is about a primary school in the commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, France, the population of which is just over 200. The school has one small class of mixed ages (from four to twelve years), with a dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez, who shows patience and respect for the children as we follow their story through a single school year.

First Day of School

A documentary about an Iranian boy's first day of school. The beginning of hardships and understanding the realities of life, and perhaps unwanted pain and suffering.

La langue est donc une histoire d'amour

First Case, Second Case

A documentary about a teacher who sends a group of pupils out of the classroom when one of them does not own up to talking behind the master's back.

Rise Above the Mark

The purpose of Rise Above the Mark, narrated by Peter Coyote, is to educate the general public about the “corporate takeover” of Indiana public schools and what parents, community members and educators can do to protect their local public schools. Legislators are calling the shots and putting public schools in an ever-shrinking box. WLCSC Board of School Trustees and Superintendent of Schools, Rocky Killion, want to secure resources and legislative relief necessary to achieve the school district’s mission of creating a world-class educational system for all children. The school district’s strategic plan will introduce a model of education that puts decision making back into the hands of local communities and public school teachers, rather than leaving it in the hands of legislators and ultimately lining the pockets of corporations.

Pilchuck: A Dance with Fire

The Pilchuck Glass School outside Seattle has been going for 43 years. Started by Dale Chihuly, when glass in America was at its infancy. This school is responsible for making the US Studio Glass movement what it is today. It's an international institution now, bringing students from all over the world. It started in 1971, during the peace movements, Flower Power and war in Vietnam This documentary tells the story of it's beginnings, and how it's now made the Pacific NW, the largest glass art center in the world.

Revúcki discipuli

A semi-dramatized documentary about the first Slovak grammar school in Revúca.

Waiting for "Superman"

Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for Superman is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim.

On the Way to School

One year in the life of a Turkish teacher, teaching the Turkish language to Kurdish children in a remote village in Turkey. The children can't speak Turkish, the teacher can't speak Kurdish and is forced to become an exile in his own country. On the Way to School is a film about a Turkish teacher who is alone in a village as an authority of the state, and about his interaction with the Kurdish children who have to learn Turkish. The film witnesses the communication problem emphasizing the loneliness of a teacher in a different community and culture; and the changes brought up by his presence into this different community during one year. The film chronicles one school year, starting from September 2007 until the departure of the teacher for summer holiday in June 2008. During this period, they begin to know and understand each other mutually and slowly.

One-room School

Grecia from Venezuela, Linda from Vietnam and Andriy from Ukraine are pupils of META, an inclusive school that supports the integration of young migrants into Czech society. Their families were brought to the Czech Republic by different circumstances and each of them has different ideas about their own future. While eighteen-year-old Andriy, an ambitious boxer, wants to become independent as soon as possible, and Grecia, an artistically gifted student, would like to get into an art high school, Linda is still not sure what she wants to do with her education and career. The time-lapse documentary engagingly captures an important stage in the lives of young people for whom not only the language barrier, but also the long-term lockdown due to the coronavirus epidemic is an obstacle.

Elementary

In the Makarenko public elementary school in the Paris outskirts, children want to learn and to be cheered while teachers know they do not only teach, they also educate. With care, tenacity and efforts, children are trained to become not only responsible citizens but also human beings.

Kindergarten

One day in a kindergarten classroom at Van Horne Public School in Montreal. The teacher encourages children to turn their curiosity into questions and organizes group activities and play periods.

Mochi

Over the course of the summer until her graduation, with changes she can't control but also being protected by the mochi which looks over important times, Yuna, a 15-year old student begins to change so that she will not forget.

The Thing That Happened

'The Thing That Happened' is a twenty-two-minute documentary short that profiles the Hope North Secondary and Vocational school on northern Uganda. Hope North struggles on a shoe-string budget to provide a home and an education for children displaced by the civil war between the Lord's Resistance Army (L.R.A.) and the Uganda People's Defense Forces (U.D.P.F.) The students are a mix of former child soldiers, orphans and the abjectly poor. Mitigating the horrific effects of the war and focusing them on their future is a monumental task

We Are Columbine

The Columbine shootings were a tragic event in American history and have proved a lasting influence in continued acts of violence ever since. In this harrowing account, student and faculty survivors of Columbine, Amy, Gus, Jaimi, Zach, Mr. Leyba and Principal DeAngelis, reflect on the event that has both shaped them and created an unbreakable spirit shared between them. This is not the story of death, but of the process of healing in the face of the unspeakable.

Wired for What?

Wired for What? visits four very different elementary schools grappling with computerization to find out if technology is helping to change our schools for the better or if it is dulling students’ creativity and draining precious resources from other crucial educational needs.

34 Days in 2018

13-year-old Anderson Cefola documents his month-long grounding in 2018 with an old handheld camera he kept.

Newtown

A look at how the community of Newtown, Connecticut came together in the aftermath of the largest mass shooting of schoolchildren in American history.

A Living Room Conversation: Mark Meckler and Joan Blades

Citizen Film created a short film in collaboration with the National Writing Project, for classroom use. The film models a “better argument” between MoveOn co-founder Joan Blades and Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler. The National Writing Project is disseminating the film to thousands of classroom teachers around the country along with prompts for reflection, dialogue and persuasive writing inspired by this short film. After viewing the film, students discuss its themes. They choose a theme to write about and their instructor guides them to craft an argument that is not only well researched, but also addresses a wide audience, including people who hold positions ideologically opposed to their own.