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.
The Strength of Ordinary People
As a child, Jo Ann Bland participated in the Selma, Alabama, march that became known as Bloody Sunday. In this conversation, Bland inspires us to civic action. (2024, 16 min.)
There’s Good People Out There
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. (2024, 10 min.)
Listening and Learning
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. (2024, 14 min.)
The Torch Is in Your Hands
Helen Sims — aka the Old Storyteller of Belzoni, Mississippi — encourages us to accept the torch that is being passed to us. (2024, 14 min.)
The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors
This short film offers an introduction to the history of Indigenous enslavement on land that is now the United States. (2020, 12 min.)
Teaching Hard History Key Concepts
In each of these 10 short videos, a scholar or historian explores one of the central ideas of the Teaching Hard History: American Slavery framework. (2019)
One Survivor Remembers
This Oscar-winning documentary presents Gerda Weissmann Klein’s account of surviving the Holocaust as a child. (1995, 42 min.)
Bibi
This story of a Latinx father and son explores intersectionality in a powerful way, illustrating the beauty and conflict that can arise as we move between languages, places and societal expectations. (2020, 18 min.)
An Outrage
This film takes viewers to the very communities where heinous acts of violence took place, offering a painful look back at lives lost to lynching and a critical look forward. (2017, 34 min.)