Narratives are a deeply meaningful way that we learn about ourselves, each other and the world. And film can be a powerful medium for expression, connection and learning, helping to build empathy and understanding.
Learning for Justice Through Film builds on our program’s 30-year history of educational films, with learning opportunities for classrooms and communities. Film can bring liberation to life, inspiring and challenging us to build a more inclusive, multiracial democracy. This moment — in which democratic values are being weakened and history erased or altered — requires commitment from each of us to learn and teach honestly about our experiences and our nation’s past, including the “hard histories” of oppression and injustice.
Let’s learn together for the purpose of justice, share our experiences, and build the civic knowledge and skills for collective action.
Explore our current films and stay tuned for new resources.
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Teaching Hard History: American Slavery |Key Concepts Videos
In these short streaming films, historians and scholars explore the undertaught history of African and Indigenous enslavement, explain critical concepts, and share recovered narratives that can help us better understand the individual and collective impact—and the damaging legacy—of hundreds of years of American slavery.
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New Film: The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors
Special Episode Alice Qannik Glenn is the host of Coffee and Quaq and assistant producer of The Forgotten Slavery of our Ancestors. This short, classroom-ready film offers an introduction to the history of Indigenous enslavement on land that is currently the United States. This new resource from Learning for Justice features an extensive group of…
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The Strength of Ordinary People: A Conversation With Jo Ann Bland
As a child, Jo Ann Bland participated in the Selma, Alabama, march that became known as Bloody Sunday. In this video and Q&A excerpt, Bland inspires us to civic action.
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There’s Good People Out There: A Conversation With Charles Person
Charles Person, the youngest of the original Freedom Riders of 1961, reminds us that collective civic action is essential and so is being one of the good people out there.
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Listening and Learning: A Conversation With Valda Harris Montgomery
Valda Harris Montgomery, who witnessed pivotal moments of the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery, Alabama, emphasizes the importance of learning the honest history of the movement.
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The Torch Is in Your Hands: A Conversation With Helen Sims
Helen Sims, aka the Old Storyteller of Belzoni, Mississippi, encourages us to accept the torch that is being passed to us.
Support Democracy and Education Justice
To build a multiracial inclusive democracy requires educating for liberation and civic and political participation across the South and the nation.
