Films with Class: Middle & High School

Teaching through film. RiverRun recognizes the unique and critical role arts education plays in reaching students in and outside the classroom. Titles in this program include: 13 Driver’s Licenses, Earthbound: Nzambi Matee, Growing Up Behind Barbed Wire, and Surviving Clotilda.

13 Driver’s Licenses

The discovery of 13 confiscated driver’s licenses from 1938 leads a small German town to face their horrendous and regrettable past. With no other clue but those licenses, a group of high school students, along with their tenacious teacher, research the fates of the town’s former Jewish citizens. Directed by: Ryoya Terao

Earthbound: Nzambi Matee

Amidst a catastrophic plastic waste crisis in her hometown of Nairobi, Nzambi Matee risks everything to pioneer revolutionary technology that transforms plastic waste into sustainable paving bricks. Directed by: Farhoud Meybodi

Growing Up Behind Barbed Wire

Two young Japanese American girls are uprooted from their home and lives when their family is sent to an incarceration camp during WWII, where their childhood innocence confronts the traumatic injustice surrounding them. Directed by: Brendan Bubion

Surviving Clotilda

In July 1860, the schooner Clotilda slipped quietly into the dark waters of Mobile, Alabama, holding 110 Africans stolen from their homes and families. Surviving Clotilda is the extraordinary story of the last slave ship ever to reach America’s shores. Directed by: Olivia Grillo & Kathryn Jamieson