Every month as part of our POV Watch Club, PBS will showcase a POV documentary for you to screen at home. POV is television’s longest-running showcase for independent nonfiction films. Together, we will provide you with free access to a POV documentary highlighting intimate storytelling and contemporary social issues. The last week of the month, we will release an “After Show”—a pre-recorded discussion that highlights how this film can be used in classrooms and dives into relevant social issues in each film. We'll share free lesson plans, reading lists, and discussion guides created with you in mind.

For March, we highlighted the documentary American Promise. American Promise spans 13 years as Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, middle-class African-American parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., turn their cameras on their son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, who make their way through Dalton, one of the most prestigious private schools in the country. Chronicling the boys' divergent paths from kindergarten through high school graduation, this provocative, intimate documentary presents complicated truths about America's struggle to come of age on issues of race, class and opportunity. 

This month you will be invited into an intimate space of conversation, reflection, and honesty that reveals the costs of believing the promise of education in a racist society. Join Dr. Gina Tillis in conversation with Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson, Idris Brewster share their individual and collective wisdom. The After Show closes with some real-talk from your hosts as we honestly consider how this conversation inspired and affirmed our own reflections and experiences of education.

This After Show is filled to the brim with conversations about tips and tools for teaching for racial justice, using critical media skills to develop classroom curriculum, and what education for liberation promises and demands in our ever-changing world. We hope you love it as much as we do!

Note: If you haven’t had the chance to watch American Promise yet, we still recommend you tune into After Show to listen to critical conversations about education, race, class, society, and family. American Promise is available for rental on major streaming services.

Like what you see? Register here to join Watch Club!

For additional resources, tools, and information visit PBS TeachersLounge.