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FILM LIBRARY: EDUCATION

Biblioburro: The Donkey Library
by Carlos Réndon Zipagauta

Biblioburro is the story of a librarian — and a library — like no other. A decade ago, Colombian grade-school teacher Luis Soriano was inspired to spend his weekends bringing a modest collection of precious books, via two hard-working donkeys, to the children of Magdalena Province’s poor and violence-ridden interior. As Soriano braves armed bands, drug traffickers, snakes and heat, his library on hooves carries an inspirational message about education and a better future for Colombia. His simple yet extraordinary effort has attracted worldwide attention — and imitators — but his story has never been better told than in this heartwarming yet unsentimental film. (60 minutes)

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Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

Bronx Princess
by Yoni Brook and Musa Syeed

Rocky Otoo is the Bronx-bred teenage daughter of Ghanaian parents, and she's no pushover. She is a sassy high-achiever bound for college. With freedom in sight, Rocky rebels against her mother's rules. When their relationship reaches a breaking point, Rocky flees to her father, a chief in Ghana. What follows is captured in Bronx Princess, a tumultuous coming-of-age story set in a homeland both familiar and strange. Her precocious — and very American — ideas of a successful, independent life conflict with her father's traditional African values. Reconciling her dual legacies becomes an unexpected chapter in this unforgettable young woman's education. A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS).

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Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

The Education of Shelby Knox
by Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt

What's it like to be a Christian teenage girl today? "The Education of Shelby Knox" profiles a young native of Lubbock, Texas, on the rocky road through high school. At 15, Shelby pledges celibacy until marriage, but because Lubbock has one of the highest teen pregnancy and STD rates in the state, she also spearheads a campaign for comprehensive sex education in the high schools, opposing the established "abstinence-only" curriculum. When the campaign broadens with a fight for a gay-straight alliance club in the high school, Shelby confronts her parents and her faith as she begins to understand how deeply personal beliefs can inform political action. A co-presentation with the Independent Television Service (ITVS).

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Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List

Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go
by Kim Longinotto

Variety describes it as a film "mixing ferocity with tenderness, delicacy with tenacity" — exactly like the unusual school it explores. In Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, one of Britain's leading documentary filmmakers takes a verité look at Oxford's Mulberry Bush School for emotionally disturbed children. Mulberry's heroically forbearing staff greets extreme, sometimes violent behavior with only consolation and gentle restraint. Kim Longinotto's unblinking camera captures an arduous process and a nearly unhinged environment, but it also records the daily dramas of troubled kids trying to survive and the moments of hope they achieve with Mulberry's clear-eyed staff.

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Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List

The Learning
by Ramona Diaz

One hundred years ago, American teachers established the English-speaking public school system of the Philippines. Now, in a striking turnabout, American schools are recruiting Filipino teachers. The Learning is the story of four Filipino women who reluctantly leave their families and schools to teach in Baltimore. With their increased salaries, they hope to transform their families’ lives back in their impoverished country. But the women also bring idealistic visions of the teacher’s craft and of life in America, which soon collide with Baltimore’s tough realities. A co-production of CineDiaz and ITVS in association with The Center for Asian American Media, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and American Documentary | POV. (90 minutes)

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Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

New Muslim Cool
by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor

Puerto Rican-American rapper Hamza Pérez pulled himself out of drug dealing and street life 12 years ago and became a Muslim. Now he's moved to Pittsburgh's tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family and take his message of faith to other young people through hard-hitting hip-hop music. But when the FBI raids his mosque, Hamza must confront the realities of the post-9/11 world, and himself. New Muslim Cool takes viewers on Hamza's ride through streets, slums and jail cells — following his spiritual journey to some surprising places in an America that never stops changing. Produced in association with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).

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Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

The Principal Story
by Tod Lending and David Mrazek

The Principal Story tells two stories, painting a dramatic portrait of the challenges facing America's public schools — and of the great difference a dedicated principal can make. Tresa Dunbar is a second-year principal at Chicago's Nash Elementary, where 98% of students come from low-income families; in Springfield, Illinois, Kerry Purcell has led Harvard Park Elementary, with similar demographics, for six years. Tod Lending (Omar & Pete, POV 2005) and David Mrazek followed both women over the course of a school year, discovering each one's unique styles yet similar passions. The Principal Story takes the viewer along for an emotional ride that reveals what effective educational leadership looks like in the 21st century.

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Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

FILMS FROM THE ARCHIVE

Films that are currently unavailable in our free lending library but that we recommend for group and classroom screenings.

The Boys of Baraka
by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady

African-American boys have a very high chance of being incarcerated or killed before they reach adulthood. In Baltimore, one of the country's most poverty-stricken cities for inner-city residents, the Baraka School project was founded to break the cycle of violence through an innovative education program that literally removed young boys from low-performing public schools and unstable home environments. The Boys of Baraka follows four boys as they travel with their classmates to rural Kenya in East Africa, where a teacher-student ratio of one to five, a strict disciplinary program and a comprehensive curriculum form the core of an extraordinary new journey in their transformation to men. Winner of an NAACP Image Award. A co-presentation with the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Produced in association with American Documentary | POV

This film is not currently available in our free lending library.

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Buy the Film | Visit POV Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

High School
by Frederick Wiseman

Remember high school? Renowned filmmaker Frederick Wiseman's classic documentary High School renders this nearly universal American experience in unforgettable terms. Cited by the Library of Congress as a National Treasure, this 1968 film is both a document of the times and a statement of the ways in which school is used by one generation to pass its values on to the next.

This film is not currently available in our free lending library.

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The Hobart Shakespeareans
by Mel Stuart

Teacher Rafe Esquith has a point of view — a very strong one — about educating children of immigrants. Teaching in Los Angeles at one of the nation's largest inner-city grade schools, Hobart Elementary, Esquith leads his class of fifth graders through an uncompromising curriculum of English, mathematics, geography and literature. He inspires them with cross-country trips to learn history first-hand. And at the end of the semester, every student performs in a full-length Shakespeare play: in this case Hamlet, with advice from actors Ian McKellen and Michael York. Despite language barriers and poverty, these Hobart Shakespeareans move on to attend outstanding colleges, motivated by a teacher honored with a National Medal of Arts. A co-presentation with Thirteen/WNET New York.

This film is not currently available in our free lending library.

Work with this film:
Buy the Film | Visit POV Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List

Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball
by Kenneth Eng

In Japan, baseball is not a pastime — it's a national obsession. And for many of the country's youth, the sport has become a rite of passage, epitomized by the national high school baseball tournament known simply as "Koshien." Four thousand teams enter, but only 49 are chosen to compete in the championship that grips the nation for two weeks every August. Following two teams and their dedicated coaches, "Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball" take viewers inside a world where baseball becomes a proving ground for life's challenges.

This film is not currently available in our free lending library.

Work with this film:
Buy the Film | Visit POV Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List | Lesson Plan

Larry v. Lockney
by Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck

Meet Larry Tannahill. Out of 2,000 residents in the West Texas town of Lockney, he's the only one against the school board's new mandatory drug testing policy. Larry, a third-generation farmer, believes the testing is a violation of his son's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches. He sues to overturn the policy, forming an unlikely alliance with the American Civil Liberties Union. In the battle over rights, Larry makes headlines around the country, loses his job and his family receives threats. Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck's "Larry v. Lockney" dramatically reveals the price of democracy in a small Texas town, when one man stands against the majority. An Independent Television Service (ITVS) co-presentation.

This film is not currently available in our free lending library.

Work with this film:
Buy the Film | Visit POV Film Website

Downloadable materials:
Discussion Guide | Further Reading List

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