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.

Maquilapolis (City of Factories)

Film. Directed and produced by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre. 2006. 68 minutes.
The impact of globalization as told through the lives of the women who experience it in Tijuana, Mexico.
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Banished

Film. Center for Investigative Reporting and Two Tone Productions. 2007. 84 minutes.
Filmmaker Marco Williams examined four examples of primarily white communities violently rising up to force their African-American neighbors to flee town.
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How to Survive a Plague

Film. Directed by David France. Public Square Films. 2012. 109 minutes.
This documentary is about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease.
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Thunderheart

Film. By Michael Apted. 1992. 118 minutes.
Captures some of the conflicts on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1970s relating to corporate/government collusion to exploit Native lands for profit.
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Even the Rain/También la lluvia

Film. Directed by Icíar Bollaín and written by Paul Laverty. 2010. 103 minutes.
As a crew shoots a film about Columbus' genocide, local people in Cochabamba, Bolivia rise up against plans to privatize the water supply.
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Storming Caesars Palace

Film. Directed by Hazel Gurland-Pooler. 2023. 85 minutes.
Tells the story of how Las Vegas activist Ruby Duncan's grassroots movement of moms fought for guaranteed income.
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