Learning New Ways on Summer Days
By Tanner Sell Summer Days is a short film from Director Isue Shin that tackles ideas of emotional maturity for a high school student who is just coming of age. We come across these emotions alongside the student firsthand and view, with no words needed, the personal revelations that occur. Isue Shin pushes us to question the fleeting nature of these moments and poses the consequences of putting a box around them with names. ...
Esperanza Y Futuro: A Place of Refuge for Abused Teenage Mothers
By Alex Silverman Esperanza Y Futuro is an orphanage located in Guatemala that helps young children and teens who have faced terrible abuse and even rape. Director Claire Imler gives us moving insight into the children’s tragic lives together with the generosity and hope that Asociacion Esperanza Y Futuro has been able to offer them. Those who live in the orphanage include girls in their early teens who have been...
Great White Sharks: An Imaginative Lego-Animated Film on Protecting Our Deep Sea Predators
By Alex Silverman Great White Sharks is just what you’d think it’s about. However, this short by student Lakan Duskin is portrayed in a fun and imaginative manner. With the power of LEGO and stop motion animation, 10 year old Director Lakan Duskin (assisted by his Mom, Darling Duskin) creates a well-built (pun intended) short film. Duskin documents from birth to death the life of a great white shark. We learn about the important...
The Dhust – Meet the Micro-Sized People Who Make Our World Go Round
By Reilly Wisniewski The Dhust is an extremely creative animated short that focuses on the micro-sized people that make our world go round. The talented director that helmed this, Bianca Pietersz, produced this film entirely during the pandemic. Her first animated short, The Dhust, starts off by showing us two scientists watching Albert Einstein struggling over his work. Enter the Dhusts, who help Einstein uncover the world’s...
Steps in the Street (1936) – Martha Graham’s Response to Facism in Europe Conveys a Compelling Message
By Ethan Thomas War and its effects on those involved need no elucidation. Dance and other art forms have long been a powerful way to express the pain and anxiety people experience in times of suffering. Steps in the Street (1936) is a unique interpretation of this experience. Steps in the Street was curated for Planet Classroom by the Martha Graham Dance Company. It was choreographed by Martha Graham in 1936 with music by Wallingford...
Is Democracy in a Global Crisis? Explores Some of the Themes Threatening Modern Democracies
By Ethan Thomas For many people around the world, living in a country that has a democratic form of government is all they have known their entire lives. They learn about democracy in school, and how the founders of their country went to great lengths to establish such a system. However, the modern world is complex and many nations are experiencing threats to the traditional theories of Democracy. Is Democracy in a Global...
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