Kiss of the Spider Woman

Collin has three days left on probation in Oakland when he sees a police officer shoot a man running away. His best friend Miles, loud and reckless, is the last person he can talk to. Written by and starring Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, both Oakland natives, it's a comedy, a drama and a rap film about a city that is changing around the people who live in it.

Why it’s here: It's a film about gentrification, race and a friendship that cannot hold both men's fear. What's punk is how it turns on the question of who gets to be seen as dangerous, and the rap monologue near the end. What's pedagogical is the title, which names a trick of perception and then makes you do it. Pairs with The Hate U Give, Dear White People and Between the World and Me. Note: R-rated; police shooting, guns and strong language; older teens and adults. English.

Every year about 1,000 Texas high school boys spend a week building a fake government, with parties, campaigns and elections. The directors followed four of them, including a Black teen who is the first to win a seat and a conservative strategist who learns to play the game. A funny and unsettling look at how people learn to win power.

Why it’s here: The film makes a civics class feel like a Lord of the Flies preview. What's punk is how fast a made-up democracy turns into one that plays dirty. What's pedagogical is the way it lets students see rhetoric, tactics and compromise play out among peers. Pairs with How Democracies Die and the Fascism bundle. Note: it's boys-only by program design, and the American Legion runs the program, which the film shows with some irony.