Films
Waiting for Superman
Release 2010 – Watch full documentary online via Amazon (rent or buy)
Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.
– Written by Sundance Film Festival
Race to Nowhere
Release 2010 – Watch full documentary online via Amazon (rent or buy)
“Race to Nowhere” is a film that calls us to challenge current thinking about how we prepare our children for success.
Featuring the heartbreaking stories of students across the country who have been pushed to the brink by over-scheduling, over-testing and the relentless pressure to achieve, “Race to Nowhere” points to a silent epidemic in our schools. Through the testimony of educators, parents and education experts, it reveals an education system in which cheating has become commonplace; students have become disengaged; stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant; and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.
Class Dismissed
Rrelease – 2014 To buy the video visit www.ClassDismissedMovie.com
Frustrated with the traditional school system, a family in L.A. pulls their two kids out of school and takes their education into their own hands. Class Dismissed takes a fresh look at what it means to be educated in the 21st century and explores the rapidly growing movement of parents providing an education outside a classroom setting.
Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden
Release – 2010 Watch full documentary online via Vimeo on Demand (rent or buy)
If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it?
You would change the way it educates its children.
The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it forced Native American children into government boarding schools. Today, volunteers build schools in traditional rural societies around the world, convinced that school is the only way to a ‘better’ life for indigenous children.
But is this true? What really happens when we replace another culture’s way of learning and understanding the world with our own? SCHOOLING THE WORLD takes a challenging, sometimes funny, ultimately deeply disturbing look at the effects of modern education on the world’s last sustainable indigenous cultures.
“Generations from now, we’ll look back and say, ‘How could we have done this kind of thing to people?’”
– Written by Lost People Films
For more information, check out schoolingtheworld.org.
The Economics of Happiness
Release – 2011 Watch full documentary online on Vimeo On Demand (rent or buy)
“A must-see film for the future of the planet.” Zac Goldsmith, Member of UK Parliament
This new film from Helena Norberg-Hodge and the International Society for Ecology and Culture shows how the lessons learned from traditional societies like Ladakh can realistically be applied to modern economies. The film illustrates how ‘going local’ is a powerful strategy to help repair our fractured world – our ecosystems, our societies and our selves. Far from the old institutions of power, people are starting to forge a very different future. Featuring Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Michael Shuman, Juliet Schor, Richard Heinberg, Rob Hopkins, Andrew Simms, Zac Goldsmith, Samdhong Rinpoche.
– Written by The Movie Digest