School-Shooting Survivors Talk About the Aftermath One Year After the Fatal Shooting
Sep01

School-Shooting Survivors Talk About the Aftermath One Year After the Fatal Shooting

By Ishana Sen Das Directed by Lucca Vieira, Parkland: Stories from the Survivors, is a short documentary centering around a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida on Valentine’s Day 2018.  One year after the fatal shooting at their high school, the film shares the perspectives of  five Stoneman Douglas High School students who witnessed or were affected by the shooting. They talk about the experience itself, as well as...

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Neel Menon’s Girls Should Stay At Home Talks About the Important and Critical Subject of Gender Equality.
Sep01

Neel Menon’s Girls Should Stay At Home Talks About the Important and Critical Subject of Gender Equality.

By Ishana Sen Das Girls Should Stay at Home, directed by Neel Menon, documents the stories of three young women living in Mumbai; each of these women have pushed at traditional gender norms in their own way. We hear from Geeta, who plays international wheelchair basketball, Rajani, Mumbai’s first female detective, and Anita, who is a public officer. We learn about their experiences in each of their respective fields as well as the...

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Visualizing Change Focuses on Using Art to Capture Conversation
Sep01

Visualizing Change Focuses on Using Art to Capture Conversation

By Ethan Thomas How do you simplify a discussion in an impactful way so that it records the important ideas of a large group of people involved in a learning think tank?   Discussion and change start with listening. Chris Malapitan, a visual facilitator, speaker, and artist takes this idea further.  Directed and produced by Christopher Scott Carpenter, the short documentary, Visualizing Change, gives audiences a deep dive...

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Director Joe Chang Utilizes a Unique Animation Technique to Illustrate the Beauty of Birds
Sep01

Director Joe Chang Utilizes a Unique Animation Technique to Illustrate the Beauty of Birds

By Rishi Mulloth What is it about the nature of birds in nature that evokes this sense of peace and serenity? Maybe it’s the rhythmic flow of their calls, or the graceful fluttering of their wings, or maybe it is the hard-wired connection between humans and the natural world. Whatever the case is, Joe Chang’s (curated for Planet Classroom by KidsFirst!) animated short, “The Birds”, artistically displays this innate beauty within the...

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Director Gwendolyn Hamilton Explores the Social Impact of Bicycles
Sep01

Director Gwendolyn Hamilton Explores the Social Impact of Bicycles

By Rishi Mulloth “It’s often times a beautiful thing overcoming the difficulties along the way, and making your way up to the top.” This is the inspiring message from Baker Nicholaou while discussing his nonprofit enterprise Bicimaximo, a bike repair shop in Granada, Nicaragua which is the subject of the film, Second Cycles, directed by Gwendolyn Hamilton (curated for Planet Classroom by SIMA Classroom). In this film, audiences get an...

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