1. If You Build It
A year in the life of one of America's most innovative classrooms where students design & build to transform their hometown community. The film follows Emily Pilloton and Matt Miller as they teach the fundamentals of design, architecture and construction to a class of high school juniors in rural North Carolina.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
2. Maestra
Cuba, 1961: 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old. Over half were women. MAESTRA explores this story through the personal testimonies of the young women who went out to teach literacy in rural communities across the island - and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.
3. Under the Same Sky (Under the Same Sky)
The Chinese government is sponsoring a national campaign on "equal" education. UNDER THE SAME SKY documents school children in the city as well as the country to compare the two educational experiences. UNDER THE SAME SKY had been nominated for best short documentary at the 2017 Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2017 St. Louis International Film Festival, Long beach indie Film Festival and Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival. It's also been shown and won awards at 15 other film festivals around the world, including the Cannes Short Film Corner and The Impact Docs Awards.
4. The Big One
The Big One is an investigative documentary from director Michael Moore who goes around the country asking why big American corporations produce their product abroad where labor is cheaper while so many Americans are unemployed, losing their jobs, and would happily be hired by such companies as Nike.
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.
5. Marked by Darkness (Poznačení tmou)
Short, evocative documentary on the education of blind and partially sighted children.
6. On the Way to School (Sur le chemin de l'école)
These children live in the four corners of the earth, but share the same thirst for learning. They understand that only education will allow them a better future and that is why, every day, they must set out on the long and perilous journey that will lead them to knowledge. Jackson and his younger sister from Kenya walk 15 kilometres each way through a savannah populated by wild animals; Carlito rides more than 18 kilometres twice a day with his younger sister, across the plains of Argentina; Zahira lives in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains who has an exhausting 22 kilometres walk along punishing mountain paths before she reaches her boarding school; Samuel from India sits in a clumsy DIY wheelchair and the 4 kilometres journey is an ordeal each day, as his two younger brothers have to push him all the way to school…
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
7. L'École de la vie - Une génération pour tout changer (L'École de la vie - Une génération pour tout changer)
(L'École de la vie - Une génération pour tout changer)
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
8. Dance for All
(Dance for All)
9. Bitter Sweet Ballad (风起前的蒲公英)
This is a story about youth with music. It all happens at the Dandelion School, Beijing’s first middle school specifically established for the children of migrant workers. Every year when new pupils arrive, Ms. Yuan Xiaoyan, who has worked in the school choir for eight years, would choose a group of music-loving first-years with solid musical foundations to join the choir. A new group of children join the choir while those who have advanced to the second year have to discuss with their families their future choices. For choir members, their music career in middle school will eventually stop due to the pressure of high school entrance examinations and the inevitable parting. But along this journey accompanied by music, they have been savoring the joys and sorrows of their youth, burying them deep in their hearts, and transforming them into growth-promoting nutrients.
10. Teach Me If You Can (Être prof)
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.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
11. A Way Out (出·路)
For six years the film follows 3 young Chinese from different social levels, different regions and different mindsets into their adult lives.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
12. Pull of Gravity
North Philadelphia, PA – Kev, El and Andy are three men united by one struggle: they are trying to defy gravity. As part of the 700,000 prisoners released into society every year, they find themselves faced with a chilling outlook: 67% of ex-offenders re-offend within three years. What explains this invisible force that keeps former inmates in a seemingly unending cycle of incarceration? Filmed on the street over the course of two years, Pull of Gravity is an intimate portrait of these three men that confronts head-on the gritty details of lives cut short by poverty and drugs, where dealing is seen as the only route to economic prosperity, where using offers an escape from powerlessness, and where prison is too often the next stop. The film’s unfiltered lense captures its subjects as they lay bare their stories, fears, and tentative dreams.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
13. Tractor Ted Diggers and Dumpers
Tractor Ted takes us to see some amazing diggers and dumpers at work. The huge excavators are at work in the quarry, where we see them blasting rock and then down at the river clearing banks. Dave is working on his digger showing us different jobs he can use it for and the children have a tricky job trying to catch the lambs.
14. Standard Operating Procedure
Errol Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.
It has an average vote of 6.842 on TMDB.
15. O Zé Analfabeto e o Trânsito (O Zé Analfabeto e o Trânsito)
(O Zé Analfabeto e o Trânsito)
It has an average vote of 3 on TMDB.
16. Inside Pinochet's Prisons
The horrifying story of what went on inside General Pinochet's secret prisons.
17. Women Behind Bars with Trevor McDonald
Trevor McDonald goes to Rockville Correctional Facility in Indiana to speak with some of the women that live there.
18. On ne naît pas féministe (On ne naît pas féministe)
(On ne naît pas féministe)
19. I Am Hope
Through fly-on-the-wall footage and insightful interviews, director ShakaJamal chronicles the effort to create a first-of-its-kind yoga and mindfulness program for Oakland Unified School District middle schools. Aimed at expanding students’ awareness and refining their goals, the initiative has been a unique success, and I Am Hope offers a poignant portrait of the day-to-day struggles of diverse young people united in their desire to pursue big dreams.
20. To Be and to Have (Être et avoir)
The documentary's title translates as "to be and to have", the two auxiliary verbs in the French language. It is about a primary school in the commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, France, the population of which is just over 200. The school has one small class of mixed ages , with a dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez, who shows patience and respect for the children as we follow their story through a single school year.
It has an average vote of 7.254 on TMDB.