Water Cooler: Educational films on education
Everyone is talking about school for the upcoming academic year – whether they are attending full online or hybrid, taking a gap year or finishing their degree online, or are a teacher, student or parent. With all the buzz, it’s a great time to learn more about education and the way it affects us as people across the world. Here are a few documentaries streaming on Kanopy right now, free with your local library card.
“Including Samuel” – When photojournalist Dan Habib learned of his son’s cerebral palsy, it reoriented his photography work to highlight the lives of those with disabilities and their loved ones. This film chronicles the Habib family as they navigate raising a child with disabilities, exploring their struggles and hopes, both internal and external. Directed by Dan Habib. 2008. 57 minutes.
“High School” – In a large urban high school in Philadelphia, a mostly lower middle-class student body and staff navigate another year of education, but there is more being taught and learned than what is in text books. A series of encounters between students, teachers, parents and administrators explores the more nuanced education to be found in schools, one of values, ideology and a transmitting of social expectations to the next generation. Directed by Frederick Wiseman. 1968. 75 minutes.
“High School II” - Over 20 years later, another examination of life at high school is created, this time at a successful alternative high school in New York’s Spanish Harlem. They report that 85 to 95% of their graduates go on to a four-year college. The film explores the school’s specialized approach to learning in every small facet of education, including conflict resolution between students, student-led council meetings, family conferences, faculty meetings, discussions of class, race and gender, disciplinary problems and sex education. Directed by Frederick Wiseman. 1994. 221 minutes.
“American Teacher” – A chronicle of five teachers across the United States, revealing the frustrations, struggles and realities of today’s educators. The film explores today’s difficulty with attracting and retaining talented teachers in the profession. Directed by Vanessa Roth. 2001. 80 minutes.
“I Learn America” – Follow five immigrant teenagers in a school year in attendance at the International High School at Lafayette, a New York City public school that teaches over 300 students who speak two-dozen languages. Directed by Gitte Peng and Jean Michel Dissard. 2013. 93 minutes.
“Fail State” – Investigate the dark side of American higher education that gave rise to the for-profit college industry. This film explores decades of policy decisions and marketing that draws in millions of minority and low-income students, leaving them with student loan debt and degrees that don’t always translate directly into better economic opportunity. Winner of Best Historical Documentary at the San Antonio Film Festival. Directed by Alexander Shebanow. 2018. 94 minutes.
“Finding the Gold Within” – Follow six Black men from Akron, Ohio, as they embark on their first years of college. Each of them is met with challenges, from family troubles, to homesickness, to breaking out of common pitfalls. The students are all determined to overcome stereotypes and low expectations in order to carve out for themselves and each other new culture identities. Directed by Karina Epperlein. 2014. 93 minutes.