Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times

In a Durham mining town during the 1984 strike, eleven-year-old Billy is sent to boxing lessons and sneaks into the ballet class next door. His father and brother are on the picket line, and the idea that Billy might dance is almost as hard for them as the strike. It is a family story, a class story and a story about who is allowed to want what.

Why it’s here: It's a film about what a community does with a kid who doesn't fit. What's punk is the strike behind the story: the film doesn't treat the picket line as a backdrop. What's pedagogical is the question it asks at the dinner table: who decides what boys are allowed to love? Pairs with Pride (suggested 10-14), The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists and Julian Is a Mermaid. Note: strike-era police violence and homophobic and gender-policing insults; PG-13 equivalent (15 in the UK).

On a distant planet, giant blue Draags keep tiny humans, called Oms, as pets. One Om, Terr, escapes with a stolen learning device and teaches himself to read. The Oms organize in the wild and the Draags have to decide what to do. Animated by Roland Topor and made in Czechoslovakia, it won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1973.

Why it’s here: The film turns a pet-and-owner story into an allegory of how a ruling class sees the people it keeps. What's punk is that the hero's weapon is literacy and the story is about who gets to learn. What's pedagogical is how easily it can be read as slavery, colonialism or cold-war Czechoslovakia, so a class can argue which. Pairs with Animal Farm, The Giver and Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Note: strange, surreal and slow in places, with some nudity and a violent first act; best for older teens and adults.