Films with Teaching Idea Archives - Zinn Education Project

Teaching People’s History with Film

Strategies for viewing films with students in classroom that invite insight and critical reflection.

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Film. Directed by Phillip Noyce. 2002. 79 minutes. In 1931, three aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff and set off on a journey across the Outback.

Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek

Film. By Leah Mahan. 2013. 60 min. Documentary about the impact of “development” on a historically African American community in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Witness to Apartheid: A Teaching Guide

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 1987. Lessons and activities that accompany the 1986 film Witness to Apartheid.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Gasland

Film. Directed by Josh Fox. 2010. 107 minutes. When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he crosses the country and uncovers a trail of contamination.

Regret to Inform

Film. By Barbara Sonneborn. 1998. 72 minutes. Teaching Guide by Bill Bigelow. Chapter from A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. A profound documentary on the impact of war, with a teaching guide and the chapter of A People's History of the United States on the Vietnam War, "Impossible Victory."

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Woman screaming at Elizabeth Ann Eckford | Zinn Education Project

“A School Year Like No Other”: Eyes on the Prize: “Fighting Back: 1957-1962”

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. A companion lesson to the Eyes on the Prize segment on school integration.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Race — The Power of an Illusion

Film. By California Newsreel. 2003. Three episodes – 56 minutes each. A three-part documentary series that questions the very idea of race as biology.

Viva La Causa

Film. Bill Brummel Productions. 2008. 39 minutes. A documentary film and teaching guide on the grape strike and boycott led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in the 1960s.