Short films that drop your students into the gray area of school leadership — where the policy runs out and the judgment begins. Then let them question the characters themselves.
The Series
Original short films built with school leaders and dramatized from real cases — each one ending at the moment a leader has to make a tough choice.
The Films
Every film runs 10–13 minutes and ends with no clear choice. The discussion starts where the credits roll.
This film addresses several topics including student/teacher conflict, teacher-assistant principal conflict, and assistant principal-principal conflict. The central idea consists of doing the right thing for students when it may jeopardize your own career opportunities or the climate of the school.
This film touches on the sometimes delicate relationship between a vendor and school leadership. These relationships can lead to innovative partnerships but can also place the principal in compromising positions if not handled appropriately.
Empathy and understanding are foundational traits for a healthy home school relationship. Conflict, particularly in a special education situation, can bring about tense emotions and feelings in the school setting. This film explores the escalation of tension between home and school when we do not lead with empathy.
This film takes on a different approach from the other films in the series. It is recorded as “mockumentary”, which means there is a mix of character interviews and screenplay. The school has been selected as a highlighted success story for the district’s upcoming “Spotlight on Schools” series to document the recent improvements in achievement under the new administration. The film explores the ideas of fairness and loyalty as two teachers, one who was a key component to the principal’s success and the other a toxic personality on the team, have similar audit violations and findings on the annual report.
This film touches on a familiar topic in today’s educational landscape: book banning. The school district has recently adopted a new reading curriculum to the dismay of many teachers who were happy with the old curriculum. The rollout has been met with resistance, and now the parents in the school community want certain books banned from the school. In the middle of all of this is the school principal who is trying to navigate competing positions in the community.
Do the rules apply to everyone? Are there ever situations where additional, contextual information may go into making decisions, or is every decision guided by policy alone? This film explores the concept of teacher non-renewal and the difficult task of making selections for employee displacement and what happens when the relational element of human beings is added to the mix.
In this film a school is highlighted that has seen a recent uptick in violence and drug activity. The principal takes a very strong and public stance on these issues and promises zero tolerance for weapon and drug violators. But is such a broad statement able to be administered to all situations? Are student histories, family connections, future potential, or even race a factor in an administrator’s decision for school discipline? This film will explore these complex issues as each situation, while aligned to the same policy, may be a unique situation.
Social media is a challenging topic for school leaders with the rise of cyberbullying and inappropriate content sharing. What happens, though, when the inappropriate content sharing is by an anonymous user after school hours? Is there any recourse for that, and what happens when the anonymous Twitter poster is revealed and turns out to not be who you expected in the school?
How do you discipline someone for insubordination when what they are doing is working? This film explores the challenges of curriculum adoption and instructional innovation. Driving implementation of a new curriculum or instructional approach can be tough and met with resistance if what was previously installed was working. In this film, the school leader finds herself dealing with a teacher who is a respected, master teacher who gets results but refuses to follow mandates to implement a new curriculum. Do you squash a record of success or push forward with unproven, but required, methods?
Navigating local politics, school board politics, pressure from the superintendent, and the general pressures of school improvement can be very challenging and emotionally draining. This film explores all of these aspects but also adds the sensitive element of community demographics that are in conflict with the political ideations of the local leaders. In this film, the principal finds herself stuck between a county commissioner focused on deporting illegal immigrants from the community, a superintendent in a contract year, and a community of Latino families who are looking to her for leadership to help their children in the ELL classroom.
Interview the Characters
After the screening, students open a conversation with any character in the film. Every character holds their own knowledge, motives and blind spots — so students have to probe, listen, and reckon with a point of view they were ready to judge.
“Screening Clever Minds in my class led to really deep discussions. The film was powerful and stirred a lot of emotion in the students in the class.”
Institutional licenses include all ten films, facilitation guides, discussion protocols and AI character access for every enrolled student.
