A Touch of Greatness

In an era when Dick, Jane, and discipline ruled America's schools, Albert Cullum allowed Shakespeare, Sophocles, and Shaw to reign in his fifth grade public school classroom. Through the use of poetry, drama and imaginative play, Cullum championed an unorthodox educational philosophy that spoke directly to his students' needs. Many of Cullum's projects were recorded on film by then novice filmmaker Robert Downey, Sr. Weaving stunning black and white footage and rare archival television broadcasts together with interviews of Cullum and his former students, this is a portrait of a maverick teacher who transformed a generation of young people by enabling them to discover their own inner greatness.

2005-01-11 | en

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.

1996-01-10 | fa

Berg Fidel

2012-09-13 | de

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.

2013-10-18 | en

The Snows of Many Years

Three hikers visit Eliot Glacier on Oregon's Mount Hood.

1917-01-01 | en

With All Deliberate Speed

Documentary filmmaker Peter Gilbert unearths the legacy of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education — where it was ruled that "in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place" — via never-before-heard stories from people directly responsible for, and greatly affected by, the original case.

2004-05-14 | en

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…

2013-09-25 | fr

School Town King

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

2020-12-17 | th

Stepping Into the Boundary

Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain, 2011. Maider, a filmmaker, moves to the very same flat where pedadogist Elbira Zipitria Irastorza (1906-1982) clandestinely established the first ikastola, a Basque school, under the harsh regime of dictator Francisco Franco. Despite of her pioneering work, developed throughout thirty years, her story is not well known, so Maider, intrigued, begins to research…

2019-05-24 | eu

Caterpillars

Elvis Sabin’s assured debut follows Albert and André, two Central African Aka Pygmies, as they attempt to establish a new education system in their forest community. The last in their village still attending school, they are determined to pass their knowledge on, holding classes for other Aka children every afternoon. But their project requires funding and they are counting on the year’s caterpillar (known as “Makongo”) harvest to provide much needed income. Evocatively capturing the visual and sonic textures of the forest, Makongo is a layered ethnographic study of two men working to build a sustainable future for their community.

2020-09-12 | fr

The Ability Exchange

A documentary about an innovative Disability Studies class at NYU Tandon School of Engineering where engineering students and adults with cerebral palsy learn to communicate, connect, and cultivate their abilities by making movies.

2016-09-10 | en

Maestra

Cuba, 1961: 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old. Over half were women. MAESTRA explores this story through the personal testimonies of the young women who went out to teach literacy in rural communities across the island - and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.

2012-03-15 | en

Learn to In-Line Skate

This video will teach you Debbie's unique Merrill Magic Program, an informative, motivational and entertaining way to learn in-line skating. You'll learn skills and drills to trick your body into a safe, fun and exhilarating skating experience. Debbie's dynamic technique will take your mind off your fears, freeing your body to skate effortlessly, easily and safely. In one hour, you can teach yourself to skate to look and feel great at any age. Debbie's skating technique cultivates personal empowerment, strength, stamina, balance, coordination, weight loss and control. See how quickly your skating will become a part of your fitness and fun! Join 27 Million people enjoying America's fastest free moving exercise.

2008-09-02 | en

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.

2011-07-07 | pt

We Are the People We've Been Waiting For

This landmark documentary explores the extent to which young people around the world are being failed by an education system created at the time of the Industrial Revolution. A provocative and relevant exploration of the most important issue of our time, We Are The People We've Been Waiting For confronts our expectations of what education systems ought to be achieving for our children.

2009-11-17 | en

American Creed

Join former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, historian David Kennedy and a diverse group of Americans to explore whether a unifying set of beliefs, an American creed, can prove more powerful than the issues that divide us.

2018-11-04 | en

Brief Tender Light

At America's elite MIT, a Ghanaian alum follows four African students as they strive to graduate and become agents of change for their home countries Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Over an intimate, nearly decade-long journey, all must decide how much of America to absorb, how much of Africa to hold on to, and how to reconcile teenage ideals with the truths they discover about the world and themselves.

2024-01-05 | en

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.

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Audism Unveiled

In American Sign Language (ASL) with subtitles available in English, Spanish and Canadian French. This powerful documentary uses real life experiences from Deaf people of varied social, racial, and educational boundaries showing how this form of oppression does lasting and harmful damage. Bonus materials include directors' comments from Ben Bahan and H-Dirksen Bauman and additional scences. Teachers: This film is a wonderful tool for beginning ASL students, as an introduction to a side of Deaf culture that cannot be found in any textbook.

2003-04-23 | en

School of Hope

In the vast expanse of desert East of Atlas Mountains in Morocco, seasonal rain and snow once supported livestock, but now the drought seems to never end. Hardly a blade of grass can be seen, and families travel miles on foot to get water from a muddy hole in the ground. Yet the children willingly ride donkeys and bicycles or walk for miles across rocks to a "school of hope" built of clay. Following both the students and the teachers in the Oulad Boukais Tribe's community school for over three years, SCHOOL OF HOPE shows students Mohamed, Miloud, Fatima, and their classmates, responding with childish glee to the school's altruistic young teacher, Mohamed. Each child faces individual obstacles - supporting their aging parents; avoiding restrictions from relatives based on traditional gender roles - while their young teacher makes do in a house with no electricity or water.

2020-12-31 | ar