Frontier University Dreams

Acadia Acadia?!?

May 1971 •French

In the late 1960s, with the triumph of bilingualism and biculturalism, New Brunswick's Université de Moncton became the setting for the awakening of Acadian nationalism after centuries of defeatism and resignation. Although 40% of the province's population spoke French, they had been unable to make their voices heard. The movement started with students-sit-ins, demonstrations against Parliament, run-ins with the police - and soon spread to a majority of Acadians. The film captures the behind-the-scenes action and the students' determination to bring about change. An invaluable document of the rebirth of a people.

1968 - Without Losing Tenderness

May 2001 •Portuguese

The story of the University of Brasília, since it was only a project in Darcy Ribeiro's head until the fateful events in August 1968 when its campus was invaded by the police, during the military dictatorship, thus putting an end to its independence.

The Hunting Ground

February 2015 •English

A startling expose of rape crimes on US campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and their families. The film follows the lives of several undergraduate assault survivors as they attempt to pursue—despite incredible push back, harassment and traumatic aftermath—both their education and justice.

American Animals

June 2018 •English

Lexington, Kentucky, 2004. Four young men attempt to execute one of the most audacious art heists in the history of the United States.

Research and Crime: the Reich University of Strasbourg

June 2018 •German

Strasbourg was home to one of three Reich Universities founded by the Nazis, known as a project close to Hitler's heart. The university, founded in 1941, is infamous for the human experiments performed on KZ prisoners by the professors of the medical faculty. What did its dean, Johannes Stein, grandfather of documentarian Kirsten Esch, know of these crimes?

My Friend, Norman: The Man from Aberdeen

December 2006 •English

Take a journey with Norman Geske, Nebraska's Father of the Arts, with this feature length documentary about the impact one man has had on the artistic and cultural heritage of Nebraska and beyond.

Playboy: College Girls

February 1994 •English

Year in, year out, Playboy magazine's college pictorials are a big hit. Now, for the first time ever, our course in collegiate beauty comes to video with some of the most beautiful student bodies in the nation.

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment

October 1963 •English

During a two-day period before and after the University of Alabama integration crisis, the film uses five camera crews to follow President John F. Kennedy, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, Alabama governor George Wallace, deputy attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach and the students Vivian Malone and James Hood. As Wallace has promised to personally block the two black students from enrolling in the university, the JFK administration discusses the best way to react to it, without rousing the crowd or making Wallace a martyr for the segregationist cause. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1999.

The Flogsta Roar

January 2013 •Swedish

The student campus Flogsta was built in Uppsala in the 1970s. Since then, the Flogsta roar has happened every evening at 22:00. This is the moment when hundreds of students unleash their anxiety at the same time and scream out of the windows. Probably a tradition unique in the world.

At Berkeley

November 2013 •English

Direct cinema pioneer Frederick Wiseman takes an in-depth look at the preeminent American university during a fall semester that saw a vigorous debate taking place over tuition hikes, budget cuts, and the future of higher education in the United States.

Marching Band

August 2009 •French

Final Score

January 2007 •Thai

In this documentary, four boys spend their senior year of high school studying for college-entrance exams that only one in five students will pass.

Looking Back Before You Leap

January 2023 •English

A collection of memories from a tumultuous time at University.

Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities

January 2017 •English

A haven for Black intellectuals, artists and revolutionaries—and path of promise toward the American dream—Black colleges and universities have educated the architects of freedom movements and cultivated leaders in every field. They have been unapologetically Black for 150 years. For the first time ever, their story is told.

State of Exception

May 2007 •Portuguese

Estado de Excepção is a documentary about CITAC (Coimbra Theater Initiation Circle), a university theater group, revealing history since it was constituted in 1956 until the aftermath of the 1974 revolution. It is the history of the theater group university and, through it, the history of theater in Portugal, revealing two remarkable decades of the History of Portugal. Through the Academy of Coimbra, the documentary reproduces student life, the position of women in society, and the change in mentalities of being and being in the world. It reproduces the existing censorship and the fight against the dictatorship, the resistance to an exhausted regime, as well as the emerging contradictions of the democratic revolution. CITAC has a heritage of 50 years of experience in Coimbra. It carries with it the possibility of the theatrical and civic formation of thinking bodies, constituting a proper ball of a possible model, generation by generation, between studies, theater, and social drama.

University and Freedom

May 2019 •Czech

Occupation

January 1970 •English

Students seeking greater control over the hiring of faculty occupy the offices of the Political Science Department at McGill University. The film crew lives with the students and follows their action through confusion, argument, dissent, and negotiations with faculty. The result is an intimate view of a student political action.

MIAU

July 2022 •Portuguese

Sparni

December 2023 •English

It’s the second semester of junior year for Pierce “Sparni” Sparnroft, a gifted jazz vibraphonist studying at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Sparni’s prospects on the vibes were rejuvenated by their new professor, the world-renowned Steve Nelson, and are to be showcased during a student-driven recital in May 2023. But all the while, Sparni must face a crisis within.

The Janitor

January 2009 •English

This short documentary follows the daily struggles of two janitors at a North American university. The film takes a critical look at the communication, or lack of communication, that happens between janitors and those that use the facilities they clean. Shot at Capilano University, in North Vancouver, BC, Canada.