Filmfest DC 2026
Teaching for Change is partnering with Filmfest DC: The Washington, D.C. International Film Festival (April 16–26, 2026) for a 15th year to bring films and filmmakers into D.C. classrooms. Students gain a lot from viewing the films, preparing questions, and discussing the film with the visitors. Filmfest DC is offering a limited number of opportunities for filmmakers to visit a class after the class has viewed their film April 20–24.
Please note that while most Teaching for Change programs are for the D.C. metro area, the funding for these visits is limited to schools located in the District of Columbia. Film formats (streaming from YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) for classroom screening may vary. The deadline to request a filmmaker visit has passed, but we are still accepting requests for Everybody to Kenmure Street and TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing.
See film descriptions below and read about prior year filmmaker visits.
Films
Baristas vs. Billionaires (79 min; clips available)
The Beast of the Seine (13 min)
Everybody to Kenmure Street (98 min; clips available)
From the Hill to the Horizon (17 min)
Kaju Katli (10 min)
The Magical World of Joan Danziger (23 min)
People vs. Politics (107 min; clips available)
Reading the World (70 min; clips available)
SUDAKAS (13 min)
TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing (105 min; clips available)
A Poet in Self Exile: James A. Emanuel
24 Min
By Tyechia Lynn Thompson and Rodney Kimbangu
This documentary explores the life of poet, scholar, and WWII veteran James A. Emanuel, who left the U.S. for Paris in a powerful act of self-exile. Through archival footage and interviews, this 24-minute documentary traces his journey from Nebraska to France, revealing a legacy shaped by artistic conviction, intellectual clarity, and transatlantic vision.
Baristas vs. Billionaires
72 minutes (clips available)
By Mark Mori
Starbucks baristas in Buffalo, NY, organize against corporate exploitation, sparking a nationwide, generational uprising among working-class Millennials and Gen Z as they challenge a powerful billionaire CEO and fight for their rights – a gripping story of a new generation of young workers, ages 21-35, largely women and from diverse backgrounds—who are fighting for their right to unionize at Starbucks.
The Beast of the Seine
13 min
By Jon Portman
When the children of a quaint Parisian village are terrorized by a sinister threat, a remarkable dog emerges as the unlikely hero, until a shocking revelation changes the town forever. Inspired by real events.
CHOCOLATE: A motion poetry homage to Black D.C.
8 min
By Eliamani Ismail
This work is a cinematic love letter to Black Washington, DC. It is a portrait of a city and culture at risk of erasure. Combining motion portraits with original poetry, still photography, and dance, the film operates as both a time capsule and a testimony. My intention was to capture the spirit of the city that raised me, and to preserve it’s essence as gentrification reshapes both it's landscape and memory.
Everybody to Kenmure Street
98 min (clips available)
By Felipe Bustos Sierra
The morning in Glasgow, the first day of Eid 2021, started as any other. However, when neighbors heard through community message networks that two local men were snatched up for deportation, hundreds of people left their breakfast tables, work Zoom calls, and daily lives to rush down to Kenmure Street to save them by putting their bodies on the line. Though mostly strangers, and with almost no planning, this extremely diverse group organized themselves, taking on essential roles to allow the collective to achieve their goal: protecting their own from government forces going after the weakest among them. An inspiring and profoundly moving portrait of what “normal” citizens are capable of in the face of injustice, Everybody To Kenmure Street reminds us of the power that is always inherent in the people.
From the Hill to the Horizon
17 Min
By Rakhi Varma
On the road in her RV named Lucille, former Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards leaves Washington politics behind—but not her fight for America’s wild spaces. She's determined to visit all 63 national parks, despite the challenges of multiple sclerosis. Her travels reveal why public lands are for everyone, and why they matter now more than ever.
Kaju Katli
10 Min
By Sujay Khona
Akshay, a Marathi-American teenager struggles to prepare kaju katli for the annual Diwali party, consumed by grief. He is forced to reckon the true reason he is struggling to create this dessert, redefining his place in his culture.
The Magical World of Joan Danziger
23 Min
By Susan J Goldman
This documentary is about American sculptor Joan Danziger, a renowned Washington, DC artist. Joan Danziger works in a phantasmagorical world populated with animals, nature, and myths. Delving into metaphor and psychology, Danziger’s sculptures range from playfully surreal to symbolically potent. Danziger has been a working artist since the 1960's. This film traces her evolution from an abstract painter to a multimedia artist who transforms her creations into three-dimensional sculptures.
People vs. Politics
107 Min (clips available)
By Robert M. Pease and Carol A. Wingard
This film profiles grassroots leaders around the country dedicated to reforming the uniquely partisan and polarizing nature of U.S. elections. Varying in personal background and political orientation, these reformers face similar challenges in placing citizen initiatives on the 2024 ballots in Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Alaska & Washington, D.C. They also share a common goal: enhancing people's power through opening primaries and creating ranked-choice (or instant-runoff) general elections, where winners must earn a true majority.
From DC street fairs to Native Alaskan festivals, at house parties, town halls and debates, the film captures the enthusiasm behind these initiatives and the blowback from those in power. That’s People vs. Politics.
Reading the World
70 Min (clips available)
By Catherine Murphy and Iris de Oliveira
In the early 1960s, Paulo Freire led an experimental adult education project in Northeastern Brazil. This work enabled hundreds of rural men & women to read, write, and begin to vote. But political upheaval at the time led to Freire’s arrest and years of exile, during which time he became an icon of advancing democracy through global education. Told through the collective memories of students that participated in the “Culture Circles," learning to read and write, the film contains rare archival footage of mid-twentieth century Brazil.
SUDAKAS
13 Min
By Ricardo Betancourt
What happens to highly educated immigrants when they leave their country. SUDAKAS follows the story of a Venezuelan lawyer / civil servant who was forced to flee her country in search for tranquility for her and her family. In intimate and abstract phone-recorded conversations between the director and his mother about her current feelings and social position in New Orleans.
TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing
105 min (clips available)
By Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez
The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing is a biography of the influential writer Toni Cade Bambara, whose literary works and film collaborations were a catalyzing force in 20th-century cultural and political movements. The documentary is made up of stories shared and celebrates the life of the dynamic author, editor, and activist. From her Harlem roots to her role as a self-described “culture worker,” Toni’s wit and fierce commitment to change come alive through rare footage and the voices of those who knew her best, including Toni Morrison and filmmaker Haile Gerima, friends and colleagues.