Resource Type: Films

Below is a collection of our recommended films for middle and high school. We offer additional lists and articles about films. See the links here: Films with a Conscience is an annotated list of films that we recommend for middle and high school. It includes many of the titles listed further below. Teaching People’s History with Film offers some strategies for viewing films with students in the classroom that invite insight and critical reflection. Film Clips is our collection of short clips, many of which are from the Voices of a People’s History “People Speak” productions.

Israelism

Film. Directed by Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen. Tikkun Olam Productions. 2023. 84 minutes.
Examines young Jews who are fundamentally changing not just their attitudes about Israel, Palestine, and Palestinians, but about their own role in the world, and coming to see themselves as solidarity activists.
Continue reading

On Coal River

Film. Directed by Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood. 2010. 81 minutes.
This film takes viewers on a gripping emotional journey into a community surrounded by a looming toxic threat.
Continue reading
Slavery by Another Name (Film) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Slavery by Another Name

Film. By Sam Pollard, Catherine Allan, Douglas Blackmon and Sheila Curran Bernard. 2012. 90 minutes.
Reveals the interlocking forces in the South and the North that enabled “neoslavery” post-Emancipation Proclamation.
Continue reading

Triangle Fire (Film)

Film. Written by Mark Zwonitzer and Directed by Jamila Wignot. 2018. 52 minutes.
After a tragic workplace accident, the private industry of the American factory would never be the same.
Continue reading

Cured

Film. Directed by Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer. 2020. 82 min. and 35 min. versions
The award-winning PBS documentary Cured chronicles a pivotal moment in LGBTQ+ history: the early 1970s campaign to remove the diagnosis of homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association’s manual of mental disorders.
Continue reading

Golden Lands, Working Hands

Film. By Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers. 1999. 170 minutes.
Ten-part film series brings the hidden history of working people in California to light, from the Gold Rush through the present.
Continue reading

Boycott

Film. By Clark Johnson. 2001. 120 minutes.
Dramatic account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Continue reading

Columbus in America

Film. By Paul Puglisi. 2017. 89 minutes.
Documentary on the symbol of Columbus in the United States and the campaign for Indigenous Peoples' Day.
Continue reading

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.
Continue reading

Glory

Film. Directed by Edward Zwick. 1989. 122 minutes.
The all-Black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment is brought to the screen in this star-studded Civil War film.
Continue reading

Banned Together

Film. Directed by Kate Way. 2024. 93 minutes.
Follows three students and their adult allies as they fight to reinstate 97 books suddenly pulled from their school libraries.
Continue reading

Counted Out

Film. Directed by Vicki Abeles. 2024. 89 minutes.
Explores misconceptions about the role math plays in our lives, who can learn it, and how it should be taught.
Continue reading

Remember Us

Short Film. By Pablo Leon. 2024. 14 minutes.
In this animated historical fiction film, a journalist documents the experiences of three people who lived through the tragic 12-year-long Salvadoran Civil War in the 1980s.
Continue reading

Walkout

Film. Produced by Moctesuma Esparza. 2006. 111 minutes.
Walkout tells the true story of the Chicano students of East L.A., who in 1968 staged several dramatic walkouts in their high schools to protest academic prejudice and dire school conditions.
Continue reading

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.
Continue reading

Sir! No Sir!

Film. By David Zeiger. 2005. 84 minutes.
This award-winning film demonstrates the role soldiers and veterans played in the anti-Vietnam War movement.
Continue reading