During Black History Month, spark thoughtful and productive dialogue surrounding Black history, education, economic justice and racial inequity with this selection of new documentary releases from Bullfrog Films.

Available on DVD with public performance rights and streaming for school and library use. In-person and virtual campus-wide or community screenings are available now through Bullfrog Communities.

Where I Became weaves together the stories of 14 South African women who, though hailing from diverse backgrounds, all grew up under the oppressive system of Apartheid. When offered the opportunity to leave South Africa and study at Smith College in Northampton, MA, under a full scholarship program, each woman summoned courage, faith, and determination in leaving home and family for the opportunity of a lifetime.

Set against the backdrop of the complex history of apartheid in South Africa, we follow the journeys of these women, narrated in their own voices and depicted in personal photos, archival footage, and present-day interviews, as they grow up in South Africa and come into their own at Smith.

In the Bay Area, minimum wage employment doesn’t afford families — particularly those of color — the basic necessities for raising their children in decent housing with childcare, food, transportation, and adequate health care.

A Rising Tide explores the impact of homelessness on Black families and service providers in California’s Alameda County. Directed by Cheryl Fabio, the Executive Director of the Sarah Webster Fabio Center for Social Justice, the documentary juxtaposes the perspectives of various stakeholders in the “new housing” industrial complex. Seen through the eyes of children and their families living through housing insecurity, the film captures the adversity faced by homeless families in Oakland, and explores the plight of service providers and social workers involved in the housing crises.

The Lincoln School Story follows the heroic fight for school desegregation led by a handful of Ohio mothers and their children in 1954. In the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, school districts nationwide were mandated to integrate. But when African American mothers in Hillsboro, OH, tried to enroll their children in the local, historically white schools, the school board refused. Five mothers and their children took the school board to court.

With Constance Baker Motley as the lead lawyer and help from a fledgling NAACP chapter, they marched for two years—despite segregationist redistricting, cross burnings, job losses and legal threats—in one of the longest sustained civil rights marches in American history. Weaving personal interviews with rare archival photos and film, this is the first film to feature these women and highlight their struggle.

For additional films on Black History, African American Studies, Racial Justice and more, please browse our subject areas.

To order these or other Bullfrog Films releases with public performance rights,

visit the Bullfrog Films online catalog.

Order by phone at (610) 779-8226

or email us at info@bullfrogfilms.com

Bullfrog Films is the oldest and largest publisher of documentary films about the environment in the United States. We define "environment" broadly, and our catalog includes programs on ecology, energy, agriculture, indigenous peoples, women's studies, genetics, marine biology, sustainable development, community regeneration, economics, ethics, and conflict resolution.