What I Did in Fifth Grade

Les chiens-loups(fr)

Fish Story(cn)

J and Jacky are good friends who attend the same school. J is from a single-parent family, and will be taken care by Jacky’s family whenever his mother has to return to Mainland to renew her visa; such kind of story is not an isolated case. These families have been uprooted for a “better future” in Hong Kong, but is this “future” that the children really long to have? A Chinese saying: “How does one understand the joy of fish, if one is not a fish?” Will the adults really understand what the children want?

Mary Kay Letourneau: Notes On a Scandal(en)

With all the ingredients of a Hollywood movie, this sex scandal shocked, enthralled, and enraged 1990s America. An examination of the affair between Mary Kay Letourneau and her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau in 1997.

Spellbound(en)

This documentary follows 8 teens and pre-teens as they work their way toward the finals of the Scripps Howard national spelling bee championship in Washington D.C.

Blindsight(en)

Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.

Bus 174(pt)

Documentary depicts what happened in Rio de Janeiro on June 12th 2000, when bus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to shoot all the passengers. Transmitted live on all Brazilian TV networks, this shocking and tragic-ending event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the scariest examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.

A, B, C... Z(sq)

Children get ready to start the first grade. They start learning the first letters.

Teach Me If You Can(fr)

The three teachers Svetlana, Sandrine and Taslima teach children and young people in places that are hardly accessible for “normal” lessons - in a nomad tent under the snow cover of Siberia, in a hut in the bushland of Burkina Faso and on a school boat in Bangladesh. They share a common goal: to enable their students to have a better future through education.

IRA(en)

A documentary-short on the life of Ira Sanders, a commodity trader turned educator whose first-hand experiences on 9/11 greatly influence his life.

Resonance(en)

The film follows three renowned vocal coaches and their students during private lessons. As the pupils prepare for their upcoming final evaluations, perfect technique is expected to produce impeccable results. Listening primarily to their voices, we feel intensity and intimacy arise between teachers and students – an atmosphere in which transcendence is being built.

Middletown(en)

Inspired by an unconventional teacher, a group of teenagers in upstate New York in the early 1990s make a student film and uncover a vast conspiracy that is poisoning their community. Thirty years later, they revisit their film and confront the legacy of this transformative experience.

Looking for Ms. Locklear(en)

We met in first grade in Ms. Locklear’s class. During the summer of 2006, we decided to search for our beloved teacher. We chose not to use the internet or the telephone, but instead to rely on face-to-face contact with people. Looking for Ms. Locklear is a documentary chronicling our search, which led us far from home and into the company of a host of characters.

Narcotics: A Challenge to Youth(en)

An educational film sponsored and distributed by the Los Angeles-based Narcotic Educational Foundation of America and directed by Gilbert Lasky with financial assistance of the Woman’s Relief Corps targets teachers as well as junior and senior high school students in the war on drugs. Narcotics are classified and effects of opiates, stimulants, and barbiturates are summarized and dramatized

Waiting for "Superman"(en)

Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for Superman is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim.

Elementary(fr)

In the Makarenko public elementary school in the Paris outskirts, children want to learn and to be cheered while teachers know they do not only teach, they also educate. With care, tenacity and efforts, children are trained to become not only responsible citizens but also human beings.

It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School(en)

Depicts what happens when students K-8 discuss LGBT-related topics in age-appropriate ways. Shot in six public and private schools (in San Francisco and New York City, as well as Madison, Wisconsin, and Cambridge, Massachusetts), It’s Elementary models excellent teaching about family diversity, name-calling, stereotypes, community building, and more.

Mary Kay Letourneau: Autobiography(en)

The story of former teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, a Seattle grade school teacher, who stunned the world when she fell in love with her 13-year-old former sixth grade student Vili Fualaau. Their subsequent relationship ultimately sent her to prison for more than seven years, isolating her from her children and altering the course of her life forever.

The English Surgeon(en)

This documentary offers a glimpse into the life of an English neurosurgeon (Henry Marsh) situated in Ukraine as we are exposed to the overwhelming dilemmas he has to face and the burden he has to carry throughout his profession.

Creating a Character: The Moni Yakim Legacy(en)

What do Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Patti LuPone and Alex Sharp have in common? They are but a few of the extraordinary actors who have studied under Moni Yakim at Juilliard, United States' greatest performing arts school. This compelling portrait of the master teacher - the sole remaining founder of the school's legendary Drama Division - takes us inside the drama classes where Moni and his wife Mina pour their love and passion into preparing the next generation of actors for the spotlight.

Mr. Connolly Has ALS(en)

A high school principal is embraced by his community as he continues to lead the school, despite rapidly losing his ability to walk and speak due to the debilitating effects of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).