Journeys in Film Webinars Make Professional Development Easy
Deepen your skills for teaching with film with Journeys in Film Professional Development Webinars. These teacher training sessions are available free, online and on-demand. Earn one hour of PD credit upon successful completion of each webinar. Participants will gain tools to boost student engagement and teach critical thinking across the curriculum.
Journeys in Film Webinars
Anti-Bias Education
Learn about teaching critical thinking with film to combat Antisemitism and Islamophobia.
This webinar highlights key aspects of anti-bias education and shares film-related resources specific to Antisemitism and Islamophobia. Featured resources include our new lesson about Antisemitism within the context of the rise of white supremacy. The webinar also explores films and film-related resources that offer students a broader understanding of Islam and the Muslim world.
Learn how to inspire students with film to build a sustainable future, with a specific focus on Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops. This invigorating panel discussion with climate educators and scientists demonstrates the power of using this series of five short films to engage and inspire students to build a sustainable future through increased understanding of forests, permafrost, the atmosphere, albedo, and regreening.
Learn how to use the power of film and biographical stories to increase student learning and engagement around sensitive subjects, with a specific focus on award-winning documentary Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down. This webinar offers tangible resources and tools for tackling challenging topics such as gun violence in the classroom. It also explores the power of this resource to teach a wide array of important themes, including civics, community service learning, mental health, media responsibility, and career pathways.
Learn how Hidden Figures can excite & engage your grade 3-12 students about 9 different subjects. This webinar uses Hidden Figures as an example to guide educators to resource techniques in teaching with film while addressing Common Core objectives. Grounded in the inspiring true story of the Black women mathematicians who worked in the NASA space program, participants explore our Hidden Figures lessons on the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, and the Space Race as tools to address gender equity in STEM fields when teaching across subjects for their own classroom.
Learn about exploring Inequity in Criminal Justice with Just Mercy. This narrative film is based on the true story of Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson and his crusade as a young lawyer to exonerate Walter McMillian, a Black man unjustly convicted for murder. The webinar explores strategies for culturally responsive teaching to support working with students on difficult and crucially important topics like inequities in criminal justice.
Teach Black History all year round! Learn about celebrating Black History through music & film with Oscar-winner Summer of Soul. Directed by Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Summer of Soul is a powerful, transporting film about the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 featuring performances by Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more. Bring Black Joy and Black Excellence to your classroom to engage students in celebrating Black History through music and film.
Learn about teaching STEAM classes with film, with a special focus on The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. This Netflix film is based on the true story of William Kamkwamba, a brilliant teenager whose creativity, persistence and courage provided a solution to devastating drought for his family and eventually for his village and many others in his country of Malawi and beyond. The webinar presents an overview of the interdisciplinary resources available for the film to support science, physics, language arts and social studies teachers in exploring the geographical and environmental context of Malawi, the history and engineering of wind power and the factors that influenced William’s journey: religion, politics, the environment, and education. William Kamkwamba himself joins the presentation for the Q&A.
Our Professional Development goes beyond Journeys in Film webinars! We can also provide professional development for your choice of films from our library to amplify your use of film in the classroom. Plus we can create customized PD for your learning community’s needs.
Interested in exploring professional development with us? Contact us!
Teach about Islam with Film
Teach about Islam with film all year round with these global education films that center Muslim stories plus our free teaching guides.
Resources to Teach about Islam with Film
Teach about Islam with Film: Children of Heaven
Children of Heaven follows an Iranian brother and sister and their adventures over a lost pair of shoes. The film showcases both modern and tradition Tehran and portrays a loving family trying to do their best.
He Named Me Malala follows events leading up to the Taliban’ attack on Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai for speaking out on girls’ education, followed by the aftermath, including her speech to the United Nations. It tells the story of an inspiring young Muslim woman who becomes a public figure and role model.
Resisterhood profiles six diverse Americans who are all civically engaged in different, inspiring ways. One of the subjects is a first-time political candidates: Muslim-American Mimi Hassanein, a first-generation immigrant from Egypt. Her story speaks broadly to the immigrant experience in the USA and also what it’s like to be Muslim in contemporary America.
Lesson Grades: 10, 11, 12, College, Adult Learning Subjects: Current Events, Civics, Government, Political Science, Social Studies, Women’s Studies
Teach about Islam with Film: The Neighborhood Storyteller
In The Neigbhorhood Storyteller, a young Syrian mother in a refugee camp in Jordan embarks on a read-aloud project to raise a new generation of successful young women.
Lesson Grades: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, College Subjects: Current Events, English Language Arts, Geography, History, Social Studies, Women’s Studies, World History
In Wadjda, a young Saudi girl signs up for her school’s Quran recitation competition as a way to raise the funds she needs in order to buy the bicycle of her dreams.
Lesson Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12 Subjects: Language Arts, Religious Literacy, Religious Studies, Social Studies, World History, World Religions
Teach about Islam with Film: The Story of God
National Geographic’s docuseries The Story of God with Morgan Freeman sheds a brilliant light on the remarkable and unmistakable similarities among different faiths.
The section on Islam in our free The Story of God Curriculum Guide includes an introduction to Muslim beliefs and practices, highlights arts of the Islamic world, explores Islamic empires, and examines Islam’s rich contributions to science.
Lesson Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12, College, Adult Learning Subjects: Language Arts, Religious Literacy, Religious Studies, Social Studies, World History, World Religions
This article was updated in August 2025 (with Resiterhood). Don’t miss out! on our new resources! To get notifications about new film guides and collections, sign up for our newsletter.
10 Powerful Films for Community Events
Pair these 10 Powerful Films for Community Events with our free Film Discussion Guides to For Successful Screenings and Rousing Conversations
We recommend these ten powerful films to screen at community events, after school settings, and library groups. These award-winning documentaries and feature films speak to contemporary issues while they educate and uplift. We offer free discussion guides designed for community viewings for these films to facilitate rousing conversations that leave your participants inspired.
Thinking of starting a film club of your own? Check out this community learning article by our National Advisory Council member Piper Hendricks: Why Book Club When You Can Doc Club?
Crip Camp
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution shares with insight, humor, and joy the experiences of a group of disabled teenagers and their journey to adulthood and activism, and delves into the rich and powerful history of disability activism and culture. The Discussion Guide deepens the knowledge and understanding of disability and of disabled people offered in the film. Get the free Crip Camp Discussion Guide.
Gabby Gifford Won’t Back Down
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down tells the extraordinary story of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords: her relentless fight to recover following an assassination attempt, and her new life as one of the most effective activists in the battle against gun violence. We offer a Discussion Guide and a flexible Learning Guide for this film, which can both be useful for community film screenings. The guides explore brain injury, resilience and recovery as well as gun violence causes and solutions. Both guides are available in English and Spanish. Get free Gabby Gifford Won’t Back Down Guides.
He Named Me Malala
He Named Me Malala chronicles the events leading up to the Taliban’s attack on Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai for speaking out on girls’ education, followed by the aftermath, including her speech to the United Nations. Her survival and recovery have been little short of miraculous. Our discussion guide emphasizes the importance of education for all and explores opportunities for action. Get the free He Named Me Malala Discussion Guide.
Hidden Figures
Disney’s hit film Hidden Figures highlights the determination of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, the three Black women known as “human computers” in the NASA space program of the 1960s. Our Hidden Figures Discussion Guide explores the Jim Crow south and the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War and the Space Race, and the role of women in historical and contemporary STEM leadership. Get the free Hidden Figures Discussion Guide.
Jane
Jane explores the life and work of the renowned primatology scientist Dr. Jane Goodall, especially her research about chimpanzees. By patiently integrating herself into the chimpanzee community she was studying, Jane pioneered a methodology of observation and allowed a new understanding of what it means to be human and proved that women could be successful as scientists in a world previously dominated by men. Get the free Jane Discussion Guide.
Navalny
Enthralling and intimate, Navalny unfolds with the pace of a thriller as it follows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in his quest to identify the men who poisoned him in August 2020. Shot in Germany as the story unfolded and offering extraordinary access to the investigation, Navalny is a fly-on-the-wall documentary that is also a study of Navalny the man. The Oscar-winning documentary speaks to a world transformed by Russia, its war in Ukraine, and the growing and treacherous threat of authoritarianism around the world. Get the free Navalny Discussion Guide.
Queen of Katwe
Queen of Katwe is based on the inspiring true story of Phiona Mutesi, a young girl selling corn on the streets of rural Uganda whose world rapidly changes when she is introduced to the game of chess. As a result of the support she receives from her family and community, she is instilled with the confidence and determination she needs to pursue her dream of becoming an international chess champion. Get the free Queen of Katwe Discussion Guide.
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind is based on the incredible true story of a thirteen-year-old boy in Malawi who finds an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine. Our free Discussion Guide explores desertification and points at opportunities for action. Get the free The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind Discussion Guide.
Unzipped: An Autopsy of American Inequality
Unzipped: An Autopsy of American Inequality explores gentrification, homelessness, poverty, and the affordable housing crisis. This intimate feature documentary explodes stereotypes and humanizes the lived experiences of people caught in the cross-fire of America’s growing housing divide. Our Unzipped Learning Guide includes pre-viewing questions and points at housing crisis solutions and avenues for action. Get the free Unzipped Learning Guide.
Youth v Gov
Youth v Gove tells the story of America’s youth taking on the world’s most powerful government. Armed with a wealth of evidence, twenty-one courageous leaders file a ground-breaking lawsuit against the U.S. government, asserting it has willfully acted over six decades to create the climate crisis, thus endangering their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. If these young people are successful, they will not only make history, they will change the future. Get the free Youth v Gov Discussion Guide.
BONUS: Discussion Facilitation Guidelines
This short guide gives suggestions for leading productive group conversations that broaden perspectives and encourage empathy. Get free Facilitation Guidelines.
Additional Resources
We added award-winning documentary Greener Pastures to our library in 2024. Following four Midwest family farms over several years, Greener Pastures is a story of perseverance within the farming industry in the heartland. Start with family farming, then add in climate change, a worldwide pandemic, and the increasing economic uncertainty brought on by megafarms: being an independent farmer in America is a profession of survival. This is also a superb film choice for public screenings. Get the free Greener Pastures Discussion Guide.
In The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, 13-year-old son William is forced to leave school after when his family falls behind on payments in drought-stricken Malawi. He becomes determined to help not only his family but a community facing famine — and builds a windmill out of scrap materials and bicycle parts. Students love this story of determination, STEM ingenuity, and of course the almighty bicycle. We offer a free curriculum guide with six classroom-ready lessons across 9 subjects in the both the sciences and humanities and also a discussion guide for The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.
Wadjda tells the delightful story of a convention-defying Saudi girl whose heart is set on the impossible goal of getting a bicycle, from Saudi Arabia’s first woman director Haifaa Al Mansour. Our free Wadjda Curriculum Guide features six lessons that put Wadjda’s life as a young girl in modern Saudi Arabia into context, exploring Saudi geography and culture, as well as gender equity, and introduces the groundbreaking work of filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour.
May is a great time to celebrate bicycles in the classroom! May is National BikeMonth, plus May 5 is National Ride a Bike Day and May 8 is National Walk Bike and Roll to School Day! These films that celebrate the power of bicycles are also a hit with students all year round.
We’re pleased to offer free teaching resources for award-winning documentaries and feature films with young protagonists who students can relate to. Youth-centered films are a wonderful way to boost student engagement across the curriculum and at the same time increase students’ understanding of themselves and the world around them.
Show Students Heroes That They Can Relate To — With Film
This feature film from Iran tells the story of a young brother and sister on a quest for a new pair of shoes. Our Children of Heaven Curriculum Guide features arts and science lessons, plus an introduction Iran and its culture. It’s a great global education tool.
This Oscar-nominated documentary shares with insight, humor, and joy the experiences of a group of disabled teenagers and their journey to adulthood and activism that sparked a revolutionary disability rights movement. We offer a Crip Camp Curriculum Guide with film studies, media literacy, and humanities lessons, that includes a powerful lesson on language, power and ableism, a great addition to anti-bias education toolkits. We also offer a Crip Camp Discussion Guide that empowers students around activism and civic engagement.
This BAFTA-winning documentary explores the events leading up to the Taliban’s attack on Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai for speaking out on girls’ education, followed by the aftermath, including her speech to the United Nations. We offer a He Named Me Malala Curriculum Guide with film studies and humanities lessons, including an English Language Arts lesson about her speech as the youngest ever Nobel Prize Laureate. We also offer a He Named Me Malala Discussion Guide that explores Pakistan, religious extremism, the importance of education, and community engagement.
This award-winning documentary follows the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, a Paraguayan musical group of students who play instruments made entirely out of garbage. Our Landfill Harmonic Curriculum Guide features lessons about these musical upcycling heroes for arts and science classes.
This a heartwarming feature film from India tells the story of a boy with dyslexia who thrives with the support of his new art teacher. Our Like Stars on Earth Curriculum Guide features lessons across the curriculum, including a science lesson about how the brain works, as well as introductions to India and to Bollywood films.
Please Vote for Me, about elections for class monitor in a Chinese elementary school, is a perfect movie for classroom learning on democracy and voting, especially for Grades 3-7. Our Please Vote For Me Curriculum Guide features lessons across the curriculum, including an introduction to China and several aspects of Chinese culture, as well as a civics lesson about democracy.
Hit Disney film Queen of Katwe follows the rise of young chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi from a slum in Uganda to become an international chess star. Our Queen of Katwe Discussion Guide explores themes of Black Excellence, Black History, Chess, Gender Equity, Mentoring.
In Chewitel Ejiofor’s directorial debut, William Kamkwamba is forced to leave school after when his family falls behind on payments in drought-stricken Malawi. He becomes determined to help not only his family but a community facing famine — and builds a windmill out of scrap materials and bicycle parts. Our The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Curriculum Guide features lessons across the curriculum, including science lessons that get students excited about engineering and STEM fields. Our The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind Discussion Guide explores themes of Black Excellence, Black History, Character, Climate Change, Desertification, Engineering and Activism, and Wind Power.
This joyful feature film follow the adventures of two young refugee Tibetan monks who are determined to watch the World Cup. Our The Cup Curriculum Guide introduces students to Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, and the world of refugees, with lessons across the curriculum.
This heart-warming feature film follows a young Saudi girl despite cultural norms about girls’ roles in society desperately wants the freedom of a bicycle. Our Wadjda Curriculum Guide introduces Saudi Arabia, social constructions of gender, and also Saudi Arabia’s historic first woman film director Haifaa Al Mansour (the director of Wadjda).
This acclaimed feature film from Aotearoa / New Zealand follows a young Māori girl who is determined to fulfill her destiny despite traditional gender barriers. (Wadjda and Whale Rider make a great global education double bill!) Our Whale Rider Curriculum Guide introduces Māori culture and features lessons across the curriculum.
This powerful documentary follows the 21 youth plaintiffs suing the US federal government in a landmark climate justice case for their right to a safe climate. Our Youth v Gov Curriculum Guide features lessons that dig into the connections between climate laws, fossil fuels, the government, and the court system. We also offer a Youth v Gov Discussion Guide that caps off the exploration of the films main themes with an inspiring section on community action and engagement.
We hope these materials can help you give your students the unparalleled experience of seeing young people like themselves and their friends on screen as heroes and role models.
Get Students Excited about Service Learning with Film
Looking for service learning lessons and community service projects for your classroom? Film is a powerful tool to excite students about service learning: it provides an intimate and engaging look at the work of contemporary activists, many of whom are young people themselves, who are making a difference in the world. Our films show students that positive change is possible and the have the power to make an impact on the world around them in both large and small ways.
The National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) defines service learning as an approach to teaching and learning in which students use academic and civic knowledge and skills to address genuine community needs. We’ve rounded up some of our best service activities in our recent film guides for your classroom use. Many of these lessons combine well together! We hope you’ll find them helpful for Volunteer Week April 14-20, Volunteer Month in April, and all year round.
Seveeral of these lessons and activities have an environmental theme that makes them great choices for Earth Month. Our curriculum guides include classroom-ready lessons for common core subjects across the curriculum: you can also collaborate on project-based learning centered on a film with teachers in other departments or coordinated across your whole school.
Foundations for Community Service
He Named Me Malala Lesson 5: Working for Change. This lesson equips students to critically evaluate people and organizations working for change; it’s a great lesson to pair with any of our service learning projects and with many social impact films. The lesson includes an extension activity where students design and host a community fair that allows nonprofit and education centers in their communities to explain and demonstrate their work. For grades 7-12.
Landfill Harmonic Lesson 3: Planting a Small Seed, Watching it Grow. This powerful 3-part lesson introduces students to the world of community service organizations, including what they are, how they operate, how to research them, and how to get involved and make a difference. The lesson also asks students how they want to change the world and supports them in taking action. This is another great foundational lesson to introduce students to community service work that pairs well with our other resources. For grades 7-12.
The Neighborhood Storyteller Discussion Guide:Grassroots Work, Life Skills, and Future Vision. This section introduces students to grassroots work and invites them to become changemakers in their communities. The broad focus of this section makes it a great foundation for service work that complements all of our service learning resources and also pairs well with our social impact films on every theme. For grades 9-12.
Education and Gender Equity Service Projects
He Named Me Malala Discussion Guide: What Can You Do? This section includes 8 suggestions for service learning and community service activities to support Malala Yousafzai’s advocacy work for girls’ education. He Named Me Malala pairs well with The Neighborhood Storyteller. For grades 7-12.
Environment and Climate Service Projects
Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops Lesson 5: Regreening. This upbeat, empowering lesson explores how students can be part of environmental change locally and globally. (It’s a great antidote to climate anxiety!) For grades 9-12.
River of Gold Lesson 11: Next Steps: What Can We Do? This lesson invites students to help save the Amazon Rainforest by creating awareness campaigns about the damage caused by illegal gold mining in the Amazon. There’s also an option to hold a fundraising campaign. This lesson is a great introduction to awareness campaigns in general and pairs well with other service projects. For grades 9-12. This guide is also available in Spanish and Portuguese.
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind Lesson 6: Helping the Children of Malawi. This lesson introduces students to the problems facing children in Malawi and what relief organizations are doing to help. Students will explore and evaluate the best partnership for bringing about change for children, and, optionally, get involved with an organization they have researched. For grades 7-12. This lesson pairs well with the Landfill Harmonic lesson about researching service organizations.
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind Discussion Guide: What about You? Getting Involved. This discussion guide section includes suggestions for 4 service learning activities. You may find some of the Foundations for Community Service Lessons at the top of this article helpful to support these activities. For grades 7-12.
Youth v Gov Lesson 4: Climate Close to Home. This lesson supports students through writing a letter to their elected officials about climate-related policies. For grades 7-12.
Youth v GovDiscussion Guide:What Can You Do? Community Action and Engagement. This section explores community service in the context of climate justice, and asks students to consider what actions they find inspirational and what they find effective. For grades 7-12.
Social Service Learning Projects
Greener Pastures Discussion Guide Moving Beyond a Rock and a Hard Place: Community Action and Engagement. This section suggests ways to get involved and make a difference in social issues explored in the film: mental health, rural healthcare access, food scarcity, supporting farmers, and regenerative agriculture. For grades 8-12. This guide is also available in Spanish.
Unzipped: An Autopsy of American Inequality Learning Guide: Looking Ahead: Hope and Possibilities. This guide explores the driving question of how students can contribute to improving housing in their communities, on a statewide, national, or even international level. This section invites students to play a role in transforming the systemic barriers that create affordable housing, homelessness, and housing insecurity. The guide includes powerful information on housing solutions, blueprints for moving forward, and additional resources. For grades 9-12.
Would you like us to partner with you for educational engagement or professional development about the films mentioned in this article or other resources in our library? Contact us!
Related Resources
Are you making the case for including service learning in your school or organization? Check out this Edutopia article by Amy Meuers, CEO of the National Youth Leadership Council: Developing SEL Skills With Service Learning — Service learning provides a way for students to grow their social-emotional learning skills while helping their community.
Watch and Write: New Classroom Warm-Ups
We’re launching a new classroom warm-up series: Watch and Write! Give your classroom a creative kickstart with a super-short film plus a prompt for writing or discussion. This is a great way to get students engaged and focused.
These exercises are for elementary school, middle school, and high school. They feature animated and live-action films as short as just one minute! The prompts can work for quiet journaling and reflection or for lively classroom discussions — whatever suits your needs.
This new tool is only available in our newsletter as a way of saying thank you to our subscribers. Check out the first installments:
Watch & Write #5 – Middle School and High School – Dance, Performance, Achievement
Watch & Write #6 – Elementary School / All Ages – Adventure, Imagination
Not a subscriber yet? We’d love to deliver a new Watch and Write to your inbox every month. Sign up now!
Have you been using our Watch and Write exercises in your learning environment? Leave a comment below or send us an email to let us know how they’re working for you!
Related Resource
Watch and Write warm-ups combine well with our free Windows and Mirrors media analysis handout!
Make Teaching Easy with Classroom-Ready Lesson Plans
Simplify your school year with classroom-ready lesson plans from Journeys in Film! Our free curriculum guides for award-winning films contain ready-to-teach lessons for elementary, middle school, and high school instruction.
Our lesson plans are created by teams of area experts and instructional designers to boost student engagement and teach critical thinking across the curriculum. The lesson plans feature handouts, classroom activities, and experiential lessons. The lessons align with Common Core standards and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Featured Lesson Plans
Anti-Bias Education
Teach about contemporary antisemitism to grades 9-12 plus higher ed. Lesson Eight of our Schindler’s List Curriculum Guide explores contemporary Anti-semitism and its connections with white supremacy. This lesson is also available as a standalone download from our Schindler’s List page. This is a powerful resource for teaching anti-bias education, social emotional learning and media literacy which we highly recommend to Social Studies teachers.
Civics
Teach about the principles of elections and democracy to grades 6-8. Lesson Two of our Please Vote for Me Curriculum Guide explores the values that are essential for a functioning democracy and what happens when elections are not well run. This non-partisan teaching tool is a great educational resource for election years that can be adapted to use with students of different ages.
Mathematics
Yes, you can teach math with film! Teach how to calculate percentages for grades 6-8. Lesson Four of our Like Stars on Earth Curriculum Guide explores fractions, decimals, and percents to demystify how teachers calculate the student averages for grading their classes.
Science
Teach science to grades 5-7. Lesson Eight of our Whale Rider Curriculum Guide is all about the science of how whales communicate with echolocation. The lesson includes a fun science activity that will get students on their feet and engaging with these science principles.
Visual Arts
Teach visual arts to high school students. Lesson Three of our Rebel Hearts Curriculum Guide features a hands-on visual arts lesson for grades 9-12, inspired by the dynamic pop art of Corita Kent.
Children’s screen time and media consumption are in the news — and we are here to help. A new study reports that screen time is prevalent under grandparents’ care. The study from the University of Arizona looked at study looked at children’s screen time under their grandparents’ watch. It found that nearly 50% of the time American children spend with their grandparents involves interacting with or watching media on a screen.
The study found that media consumption is not only important for grandchildren, but that understanding media is just as important for grandparents. “Through our research, we discovered that media consumption is not only important for grandchildren, but that understanding media is just as important for grandparents. Grandparents may want to watch along with their grandchildren or just want to understand what the children are watching,” said lead study author Cecilia Sada Garibay.
Good news: we have free tools to make screen time a learning experience for kids and families.
If you are a grandparent or anyone else caring for children, we offer media-based learning materials and activities for kids as young as 8 years old to enrich their media experience. Like all of our resources, these fun, engaging learning tools are free for everyone. Many of those films, series and games are also available for free, as well.
Short Films For Kids
We’ve just launched a new series of free creative prompts based on super-short films that are bite-sized for kids’ attention spans: Watch and Write. Watch a film that’s as short as one minute, then springboard off a prompt for reflection, journaling, discussion or creative writing. The super short films cover a range of subjects and themes, suitable for kids of all ages, from elementary school through high school. The films and prompts are all free. These can be great resources for family viewing and discussion — or for setting up independent kids for watching and writing on their own. They are also a great way to get kids and adults engaged in active media consumption and co-viewing to make the most of screen time.
Check out our Watch and Write exercises.
Watch and Discuss
We offer free film discussion guides appropriate for children as young as 8 years old. They can help kids dig deeper into the facts and themes of a film — on their own, in discussion with a parent or grandparent, or as a prompt for journaling and reflection. These are great tools for enriching family screen time!
Several guides include hands-on arts and crafts activities, like the instructions for making a bug kite for the free short film The Love Bugs (for ages 8 and up.)
You can search for our free resources for kids by film length, age, subject, theme, running time and more in the Journeys in Film Resource Library.
Also, if you’re using our resources as a grandparent, parent or babysitter, or otherwise outside a formal learning environment, we’d love to hear what you’re using and how it works for you. Please let us know!
We release new short film exercises, discussion guides, activities and lessons for kids all year long. Sign up for our newsletter to get updates when we launch new free materials for kids and families.
Teach with Film for World Health Day
April 7 is World Health Day. We recommend the following films plus our free teaching guides for teaching about the intersection of individual health, public health, and human rights:
Wadjda and Whale Rider, about gender equity in contemporary society.
These teaching materials are available for free to help you teach about the complex social issues that affect individual health and public health — today and all year round.
12 Fun Films to Teach For Earth Month
Film is a powerful tool for engaging students across the curriculum (not just in science classes!) about the wonders of the natural world, environmental science, and youth climate activism. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite Earth-related resources to help you inspire your students for Earth Month, Earth Week, Earth Day and all year long!
Films to Teach for Earth Month
Grades 3-5
The Love Bugs – This guide is also available in Spanish.
Get Students Excited about Service Learning with Film
Looking for service learning lessons and community service projects for your classroom? Film is a powerful tool to excite students about service learning: it provides an intimate and engaging look at the work of contemporary activists, many of whom are young people themselves, who are making a difference in the world. Our films show students that positive change is possible and the have the power to make an impact on the world around them in both large and small ways.
The National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) defines service learning as an approach to teaching and learning in which students use academic and civic knowledge and skills to address genuine community needs. We’ve rounded up some of our best service activities in our recent film guides for your classroom use. Many of these lessons combine well together! We hope you’ll find them helpful for Volunteer Week April 14-20, Volunteer Month in April, and all year round.
Seveeral of these lessons and activities have an environmental theme that makes them great choices for Earth Month. Our curriculum guides include classroom-ready lessons for common core subjects across the curriculum: you can also collaborate on project-based learning centered on a film with teachers in other departments or coordinated across your whole school.
Civic Engagement Inspiration
The Crisis Scientistsis an inspiring 6-minute short film about extraordinary people working galvanize policy makers and the public to act to save the planet. This Mini Discussion Guide focusses on empowering students to turn knowledge into civic action in their communities. It’s a great way to get students excited about making a difference through activism and community service. For high school and higher education.
Foundations for Community Service
He Named Me Malala Lesson 5: Working for Change. This lesson equips students to critically evaluate people and organizations working for change; it’s a great lesson to pair with any of our service learning projects and with many social impact films. The lesson includes an extension activity where students design and host a community fair that allows nonprofit and education centers in their communities to explain and demonstrate their work. For grades 7-12.
Landfill Harmonic Lesson 3: Planting a Small Seed, Watching it Grow. This powerful 3-part lesson introduces students to the world of community service organizations, including what they are, how they operate, how to research them, and how to get involved and make a difference. The lesson also asks students how they want to change the world and supports them in taking action. This is another great foundational lesson to introduce students to community service work that pairs well with our other resources. For grades 7-12.
The Neighborhood Storyteller Discussion Guide:Grassroots Work, Life Skills, and Future Vision. This section introduces students to grassroots work and invites them to become changemakers in their communities. The broad focus of this section makes it a great foundation for service work that complements all of our service learning resources and also pairs well with our social impact films on every theme. For grades 9-12.
Education and Gender Equity Service Projects
He Named Me Malala Discussion Guide: What Can You Do? This section includes 8 suggestions for service learning and community service activities to support Malala Yousafzai’s advocacy work for girls’ education. He Named Me Malala pairs well with The Neighborhood Storyteller. For grades 7-12.
Environment and Climate Service Projects
Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops Lesson 5: Regreening. This upbeat, empowering lesson explores how students can be part of environmental change locally and globally. (It’s a great antidote to climate anxiety!) For grades 9-12.
River of Gold Lesson 11: Next Steps: What Can We Do? This lesson invites students to help save the Amazon Rainforest by creating awareness campaigns about the damage caused by illegal gold mining in the Amazon. There’s also an option to hold a fundraising campaign. This lesson is a great introduction to awareness campaigns in general and pairs well with other service projects. For grades 9-12. This guide is also available in Spanish and Portuguese.
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind Lesson 6: Helping the Children of Malawi. This lesson introduces students to the problems facing children in Malawi and what relief organizations are doing to help. Students will explore and evaluate the best partnership for bringing about change for children, and, optionally, get involved with an organization they have researched. For grades 7-12. This lesson pairs well with the Landfill Harmonic lesson about researching service organizations.
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind Discussion Guide: What about You? Getting Involved. This discussion guide section includes suggestions for 4 service learning activities. You may find some of the Foundations for Community Service Lessons at the top of this article helpful to support these activities. For grades 7-12.
Youth v Gov Lesson 4: Climate Close to Home. This lesson supports students through writing a letter to their elected officials about climate-related policies. For grades 7-12.
Youth v GovDiscussion Guide:What Can You Do? Community Action and Engagement. This section explores community service in the context of climate justice, and asks students to consider what actions they find inspirational and what they find effective. For grades 7-12.
Social Service Learning Projects
Greener Pastures Discussion Guide Moving Beyond a Rock and a Hard Place: Community Action and Engagement. This section suggests ways to get involved and make a difference in social issues explored in the film: mental health, rural healthcare access, food scarcity, supporting farmers, and regenerative agriculture. For grades 8-12. This guide is also available in Spanish.
Unzipped: An Autopsy of American Inequality Learning Guide: Looking Ahead: Hope and Possibilities. This guide explores the driving question of how students can contribute to improving housing in their communities, on a statewide, national, or even international level. This section invites students to play a role in transforming the systemic barriers that create affordable housing, homelessness, and housing insecurity. The guide includes powerful information on housing solutions, blueprints for moving forward, and additional resources. For grades 9-12.
Would you like us to partner with you for educational engagement or professional development about the films mentioned in this article or other resources in our library? Contact us!
Related Resources
Are you making the case for including service learning in your school or organization? Check out this Edutopia article by Amy Meuers, CEO of the National Youth Leadership Council: Developing SEL Skills With Service Learning — Service learning provides a way for students to grow their social-emotional learning skills while helping their community.
Teach Math with Film for Math and Stats Month
Did you know you can teach math with film? For Mathematics and Statistics Month in April, we’re highlighting some of our favorite math teaching tools. Our free film teaching guides feature classroom-ready lesson plans across the curriculum suitable for grade 4 all the way to grade 12 — including math lessons!
Our most popular math lesson is part of our Hidden Figures Curriculum Guide, about The Math of Space Travel: Orbits and Conic Sections, for grades 9 to 12. You can download the full Hidden Figures guide from our library, or get this lesson on its own from Share My Lesson.
Children of Heaven features two math lessons: Lesson 8: Keeping Secrets and Lesson 9: Iran: The Land of Earthquakes.
Please Vote for MeLesson 4 introduces students to Integer Calculations with Chinese Number Rods.
The CupLesson 9 looks at the math of The Value of Money.
The Way Home Lesson 9 teaches students about Using Graphs.
Whale Rider Lesson 9 shows students how to Count the Uncountable with Fermi problems, using examples from the film.
Get your free math lesson plans from our library and liven up your math classes today!
Making Professional Development Easy with Journeys in Film Webinars
Deepen your skills for teaching with film with Journeys in Film Professional Development Webinars. These teacher training sessions are available free, online and on-demand. Earn one hour of PD credit upon successful completion of each webinar. Participants will gain tools to boost student engagement and teach critical thinking across the curriculum.
New in 2025!
Teach STEM with Short Films
Get tools & media literacy techniques for teaching STEM classes with short films and dive deep into resources for our newest short film The Crisis Scientists. For grades 9-12 plus higher education.
This free webinar is now available to watch on-demand.
Learn about teaching critical thinking with film to combat Antisemitism and Islamophobia.
This webinar highlights key aspects of anti-bias education and shares film-related resources specific to Antisemitism and Islamophobia. Featured resources include our new lesson about Antisemitism within the context of the rise of white supremacy. The webinar also explores films and film-related resources that offer students a broader understanding of Islam and the Muslim world.
Learn how to inspire students with film to build a sustainable future, with a specific focus on Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops. This invigorating panel discussion with climate educators and scientists demonstrates the power of using this series of five short films to engage and inspire students to build a sustainable future through increased understanding of forests, permafrost, the atmosphere, albedo, and regreening.
Learn how to use the power of film and biographical stories to increase student learning and engagement around sensitive subjects, with a specific focus on award-winning documentary Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down. This webinar offers tangible resources and tools for tackling challenging topics such as gun violence in the classroom. It also explores the power of this resource to teach a wide array of important themes, including civics, community service learning, mental health, media responsibility, and career pathways.
Learn how Hidden Figures can excite & engage your grade 3-12 students about 9 different subjects. This webinar uses Hidden Figures as an example to guide educators to resource techniques in teaching with film while addressing Common Core objectives. Grounded in the inspiring true story of the Black women mathematicians who worked in the NASA space program, participants explore our Hidden Figures lessons on the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, and the Space Race as tools to address gender equity in STEM fields when teaching across subjects for their own classroom.
Learn about exploring Inequity in Criminal Justice with Just Mercy. This narrative film is based on the true story of Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson and his crusade as a young lawyer to exonerate Walter McMillian, a Black man unjustly convicted for murder. The webinar explores strategies for culturally responsive teaching to support working with students on difficult and crucially important topics like inequities in criminal justice.
Teach Black History all year round! Learn about celebrating Black History through music & film with Oscar-winner Summer of Soul. Directed by Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Summer of Soul is a powerful, transporting film about the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 featuring performances by Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more. Bring Black Joy and Black Excellence to your classroom to engage students in celebrating Black History through music and film.
Learn about teaching STEAM classes with film, with a special focus on The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. This Netflix film is based on the true story of William Kamkwamba, a brilliant teenager whose creativity, persistence and courage provided a solution to devastating drought for his family and eventually for his village and many others in his country of Malawi and beyond. The webinar presents an overview of the interdisciplinary resources available for the film to support science, physics, language arts and social studies teachers in exploring the geographical and environmental context of Malawi, the history and engineering of wind power and the factors that influenced William’s journey: religion, politics, the environment, and education. William Kamkwamba himself joins the presentation for the Q&A.
Here are guides and other suggestions for educators, homeschooling individuals, community groups, and others for what to teach in April!
Celebrate Earth & The Environment
April is Earth Month! Plus April 21 – 27 is Earth Week, April 22 is Earth Day and April 26 is Arbor Day. We have collections of teaching resources that can help you celebrate the environment all month long across the curriculum: Teach With Film for Earth Month.
April Teaching Highlights
For Arab American Heritage Month, Wadjda is a film from Saudi Arabia that students love. We also recommend The Neighborhood Storyteller, a short documentary about Syrian refugee Asmaa Rashed.
For Poetry Appreciation Month, check out Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, the animated feature film about a poet based on the poetic writing of Kahlil Gibran.
Teach April Holidays With Film
Passover takes place April 12-20, 2025: introduce your students to Judaism with The Story of God, and share Steven Spielberg’s moving Passover Story from the making of Schindler’s List.
Teach about Public Health in April
National Interprofessional Healthcare Month
World Minority Health Month
National Public Health Week April 1-7
Black Maternal Health WeekApril 11-17;
National Infant Immunization Week April 22-29
World Immunization Week April 24-30
The Invisible Shield is a powerful teaching tool for exploring the importance of public health and public health workers, the critical role of immunizations in public health, and the urgency of addressing public health inequities to make healthcare available for all.
Week of the Young Child (April 5-11, 205) is a great time to screen Children of Heaven.
Discover the magic of forests for National Parks Week (April 19-25, 2025): Learn about Forests.
April 3: Pioneering primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall was born on this day in 1934. Celebrate with her biographical documentary Jane. Learn more about teaching with this film with our article at Share My Lesson: Inspiring a Love of Nature and Learning: Celebrating Jane Goodall.
April 23 is English Language Day. We are pleased to offer over two dozen film guides with English Language Arts lessons. A great place to start is the oral history assignment for Big Sonia (grades 7-12), the Crip Camp lesson on language power and ableism (high school) , the lesson based on Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech at age 17 for He Named Me Malala (grades 7-12), and rich, engaging lessons combining language arts, music, and social studies for The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (grades 7-12).
April 28: Oskar Schindler of Schindler’s List was born on this day in 1908. Introduce your students to this remarkable and complex man with Who was Oskar Schindler.
