Community Classroom -- Engaging educators and students through film

Welcome to Community Classroom, featuring lesson plans and film modules from award-winning documentaries and new media projects from Independent Lens and ITVS. FREE to educators and non-profit organizations, Community Classroom builds cultural understanding, sparks discussion, and fosters global citizenship through the power of documentary film.

Lesson Plans & Film Modules

Standards-based curricula and film modules accompany Independent Lens films on a broad range of topics: immigration, civil rights, women’s rights, religion, the environment, and more.

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A dark-haired girl in karate attire punching fist forward.

Women's Empowerment

Meet an indigenous Bolivian leader fighting for labor rights; a young Israeli Arab karate champion with feminist ideas; three Egyptian women working for fair elections; and a Kenyan leader sparking a nationwide environmental movement. Four compelling documentaries that explore stories of women's empowerment and leadership around the world.

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Web Originals

These sites and features invite visitors to interact through non-linear storytelling and social issue games. Accompanying lesson plans explore the arts, culture, and society. Also featured are online extras — fun, interactive ways for students to tap into myriad subjects.

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Screen image from World Without Oil reality game.

World Without Oil

An alternate reality game imagining a global oil crisis, asked collaborators to “play it before you live it.” We encourage teachers to do the same, to get "in game" and act to make the crisis seem real.

View World Without Oil lesson plans >>