Behind Our Walls (2023)

Tehachapi

French visual artist-director JR (co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary FACES PLACES with the legendary Agnès Varda) situates his latest social-art intervention in a Southern Californian supermax prison, where he has imagined an enormously ambitious collaboration with the facility’s inmates.

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.

Preschool to Prison

Preschool to Prison is a compelling examination of how the United States public school system is built and operated like prisons. Zero-tolerance policies are used to justify suspension and arrests that set up a pathway to send children of color and children with special needs from school to prison. Children are being suspended, restrained, dragged, physically manhandled, and subsequently arrested for minor offenses such as throwing candy on a school bus. These personal accounts from people affected by the school-to-prison pipeline give riveting tales about the generational impact on society.

The University of Sing Sing

An inside look at the notorious Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where one of the U.S.’s only in-prison college programs, Hudson Link, offers long-time inmates an education – and a new lease on life.

Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?

Morgan Spurlock tours the Middle East to discuss the war on terror with Arabic people.

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.

Mind Over Matter

A young man born with Cerebral Palsy battles a paralyzed left hand, bullies and stereotypes about the disabled to defy the odds and make it as a rock and roll guitarist. Ultimately, sharing the stage with the very band that inspired him to start (or to achieve the impossible).

The Making of a Japanese

Intimately following 1st and 6th graders at a public elementary school in Tokyo, we observe kids learning the traits necessary to become part of Japanese society.

Our People Will Be Healed

Legendary documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin provides a glimpse of what action-driven decolonization looks like in Norway House, one of Manitoba's largest First Nation communities.

Chihuly Short Cuts III

For nearly half a century, Dale Chihuly has traveled the world, creating and installing his artwork. From sculptures to large-scale installations, his blown-glass works revolutionized the American studio glass movement. In Short Cuts III, Chihuly's role as both artist and teacher is revealed, uncovering the stories and the process behind some of his most celebrated projects, from working with students in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington, to exhibitions in prominent botanic gardens worldwide.

Education Rebuilt

In 2018 the 1st & 2nd EPA.L. Agia Paraskevi relocates to a new state of the art building after 20+ years of being in an unsuitable and ready to fall apart one. The situation got so bad that the students where literally hanging out with the chickens next to the building and as the principal of the school council told us they actually felt like they themselves where the chickens. The construction of the new building was held up since the original contractor "ran out of money" and thus the building was abandoned mid construction, the building stayed in this stage for more than 5 years where it was looted and vandalized. The situation had reached an impasse and so the students decided to step up and speak directly to the mayor resulting in getting heard by the secondary school administration, so years later a second contractor was hired to complete this project and finally put into operation.

Misa's Fugue

The true story of one boy's journey as a victim of Nazi oppression. While exposed to some of the most horrific events of the Holocaust, Misa was able to endure the atrocities of genocide through his love of art and music.

Odyssey

Six California kids test their brains and talents against students in Odyssey of the Mind, a problem-solving competition requiring mechanical, creative and intellectual skills. With little money and zero adult participation, the teens build a robot to tell a story about bullying, exclusion and mental health. But how does their solution measure up?

The Interrupters

The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters — former gang members who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once caused.

He Named Me Malala

A look at the events leading up to the Taliban's attack on the young Pakistani school girl, Malala Yousafzai, for speaking out on girls' education and the aftermath, including her speech to the United Nations.

So Much for So Little

Little Johnny Jones, to be born in the next year, is shown growing to a ripe, healthy old age, thanks to the efforts of his local public health officers. But without them, he might be one of the 5% or so that dies in the first year. The price for the public health service: about 3 cents a week. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

School Town King

It follows two teenage rappers in Bangkok who use their musical talent to navigate their difficult circumstances.

Lost and Found

An inspiring feature documentary film about overcoming homelessness and addiction in the City of Los Angeles.

First Graders

A documentary film about a boys school in Iran. The film shows numerous, funny and moving interviews of many different young pupils of this school summoned by their superintendent for questions of discipline. The man is not severe, but clever and fair. He teaches loyalty, fellowship and righteousness to these boys. Besides these interviews, we see scenes of this school’s quotidian life.

American Promise

In 1999, filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson turned the camera on themselves and began filming their five-year-old son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, as they started kindergarten at the prestigious Dalton School just as the private institution was committing to diversify its student body. Their cameras continued to follow both families for another 12 years as the paths of the two boys diverged—one continued private school while the other pursued a very different route through the public education system.

Raising Kratos

A documentary following the five-year, herculean effort to reinvent one of the greatest stories in gaming, God of War. Facing an unknown future, Santa Monica Studio took a massive risk, fundamentally changing their beloved franchise and re-establishing their rightful place in video game history. Witness the incredible defeats, the unpredictable outcomes and the down-to-the-wire tension on full display in this true-life redemption story.

Sticky: A (Self) Love Story

"Sticky" is everything your mother was too embarrassed to tell you about masturbation, in one stimulating documentary. Full of candid interviews from celebrated figures to everyday people, health care professionals, sex therapists, zoologists, anthropologists, and religious figures, this feature length doc answers age-old questions like: What is masturbation? Will it make me go blind? Is it "normal"? Is it wrong? And why are we so afraid to be caught in the act? In a world where confusion about sexuality remains at the root of so many societal problems - rape, sexual abuse, and the threat of sexually transmitted diseases - "Sticky" will help shatter misconceptions and myths surrounding this intimate aspect of human sexuality.

The UFO Movie THEY Don't Want You to See

In an age when misinformation, alternative facts, and conspiracy theories have become mainstream, UFOs have risen to become one of the most-talked about pop culture phenomena. With all of this noise, how can we expect anyone to know how much of this is true? What is in our skies? What do we know, and how do we know it? And most importantly: Are we being visited?

Superpower

Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman’s documentary, shot just before and after Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022, and featuring several interviews with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mocha

A collective work created by students of Bachillerato Popular Mocha Celis in Buenos Aires, the first of its kind in the world, the place offers transvestite and transgender adults the opportunity to complete their high-school studies. The films focuses on identity, inclusion, political activism and equal access to the right to education.

Elementary Genocide 2

Rahiem Shabazz continues the conscience-raising dialogue generated by his acclaimed documentary Elementary Genocide: The School To Prison Pipeline with his equally hard-hitting Elementary Genocide 2: The Board of Education vs The Board of Incarceration. The Board of Education vs The Board of Incarceration uncovers the true purpose of today’s educational system and how it’s failing the African child. Going beyond the school-to-prison pipeline headlines and conspiracy theories, The Board of Education Vs. The Board of Incarceration proves that something sinister is afloat by digging deep to explore its origin, its existence and how to plot its destruction to save every Black child.

On the Way to School

These children live in the four corners of the earth, but share the same thirst for learning. They understand that only education will allow them a better future and that is why, every day, they must set out on the long and perilous journey that will lead them to knowledge. Jackson and his younger sister from Kenya walk 15 kilometres each way through a savannah populated by wild animals; Carlito rides more than 18 kilometres twice a day with his younger sister, across the plains of Argentina; Zahira lives in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains who has an exhausting 22 kilometres walk along punishing mountain paths before she reaches her boarding school; Samuel from India sits in a clumsy DIY wheelchair and the 4 kilometres journey is an ordeal each day, as his two younger brothers have to push him all the way to school…

The Whole Gritty City

Young members of 3 New Orleans school marching bands grow up in America's most musical city, and one of its most dangerous. Their band directors get them ready to perform in the Mardi Gras parades, and teach them to succeed and to survive.

The Forbidden Education

An analysis of the logics of modern schooling and the way of understanding education, while showing different, non-conventional educational experiences that raise the need for a new educational paradigm.

Teach Me If You Can

The three teachers Svetlana, Sandrine and Taslima teach children and young people in places that are hardly accessible for “normal” lessons - in a nomad tent under the snow cover of Siberia, in a hut in the bushland of Burkina Faso and on a school boat in Bangladesh. They share a common goal: to enable their students to have a better future through education.

Education Week

Young scholars get busy for Newcastle-on-Tyne's 'Education Week' in the tour of Tyneside classrooms.

The Prison Within

Survivors of violent crimes and prisoners incarcerated for murder connect to undergo astonishing transformations, liberating themselves from the debilitating constraints of trauma, and shattering preconceptions of "us and them."

Our Forgotten Creativity!

This independant documentary linking poetry, artistic testimonies and performances offers a positive, innovating outlook on our creativity. It exposes the obstacles that may hinder it as well as the powerful assets creativity provides throughout our lives and in many different fields. Catherine Vidal, neurobiologist and director of the Pastor Institute, Albert Jacquard, geneticist and humanist, Jacques Salomé, social psychologist, Cédric Chapuis, director of performing Arts share their convictions regarding this topic essential to individual and collective development. The film offers a constructive vision inviting viewers to explore their own creativity and emphasizes the importance of placing it at the heart of children’s development through an education based on happiness.

Reach for the SKY

Can one day shape the rest of your life? A feature documentary on the South-Korean education system.

On ne naît pas féministe

Discovering your womanhood at 33 when you're a feminist is like exploring a new continent as an adventurer. It sparks a desire to embark on a journey, to understand the world around us, to search for ourselves, over and over again. To engage in the new sexual revolution and trace the roots of sexism and gender, questioning whether sexual education in France can prevent future generations from the patriarchy. But are we ready to deconstruct everything?

Integration Report 1

Integration Report 1, Madeline Anderson's trailblazing debut, was the first known documentary by an African American female director. With tenacity, empathy and skill, Anderson assembles a vital record of desegregation efforts around the country in 1959 and 1960, featuring footage by documentary legends Albert Maysles and Richard Leacock and early Black cameraman Robert Puello, singing by Maya Angelou, and narration by playwright Loften Mitchell. Anderson fleetly moves from sit-ins in Montgomery, Alabama to a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C. to a protest of the unprosecuted death in police custody of an unarmed Black man in Brooklyn, capturing the incredible reach and scope of the civil rights movement, and working with this diverse of footage, as she would later say, “like an artist with a palette using different colors.”

The Motivation Factor: to Become Smart, Productive & Mentally Stable

This award-winning documentary shows the irreplaceable role classical Physical Education plays to develop smart, productive and mentally stable citizens, and the out-of-control consequences we face today with its absence in our society.

High School II

HIGH SCHOOL II is a film about Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), a successful alternative high school in New York's Spanish Harlem, 85-95% of whose graduates go on to four year colleges. The film illustrates the school's emphasis on the “Habits of Mind” program (weighing evidence; awareness of multiple points of view; seeing connections and relationships; speculating on possibilities; and assessing values.) Sequences illustrating the school's approach to learning include: classroom activities in the humanities and sciences; family conferences; discussions of race, class, and gender; faculty meetings; disciplinary problems; sex education; conflict resolution by students; and student council meetings.

Leap

The LEAP Movie tells the story of a one year experiment seeking to discover whether coaching can help ordinary people achieve extraordinary things. Four participants will be pushed to their limit as they seek to transform their lives with the help of an elite team of coaches.

First Case, Second Case

First Case, Second Case is 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.

Vocacional: Uma Aventura Humana

The clash of a libertarian school with the military dictatorship in the 60s. An exciting and little-known page in the history of public education in Brazil.