Student Power: Back to School 2026

As students of all ages bid adieu to the summer and recommence classes, Cinema Politica aims to highlight education as a political nexus. We’ve assembled a program of films that chronicle a plethora of educational struggles, from mobilizing campuses in solidarity with Palestine (The Palestine Exception), to the continuation of Indigenous knowledges (Under the Husk), to a decommercialized university system (Blokada), and to the end of racially segregated schools (‘63 Boycott). Each of these films are a crucial reminder of the political power students wield.

Share
  • The Palestine Exception
    The Palestine Exception
    1 item

    The Palestine Exception

    1 item

    Directed by Jan Haaken & Jennifer Ruth • 2025 • USA • 71’

    As students across the country organize protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, decades-long taboos in academia around criticism of Israel–the “Palestine exception”–are shattered. This film features professors and students as they join cal...

  • The Blockade (Blokada)
    The Blockade (Blokada)
    1 item

    The Blockade (Blokada)

    1 item

    Directed by Igor Bezinovíc ∙ 2012 ∙ Croatia ∙ 93'

    THE BLOCKADE portrays the largest, longest and most politically significant student protest in Croatia since 1971, which started in April 2009 at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb. Offering a unique view fr...

×