Pet

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.

In 2021, twenty-six royal treasures looted by French troops from the Kingdom of Dahomey in 1892 are returned to Benin. Diop follows one artifact, a statue numbered 26, as it is packed up in Paris and carried home, and ends with Beninese students arguing over what the return means and who it is for. Part documentary, part essay, with the statue itself given a voice.

Why it’s here: It's a film about what it takes to return what was taken. What's punk is a statue that speaks and a room of students who tell the government it's not enough, twenty-six pieces out of thousands. What's pedagogical is the debate at the end: who owns history, and who decides? Pairs with Open Veins of Latin America, King Leopold's Ghost and Discourse on Colonialism. Note: short (68 minutes), slow and poetic; French, Fon and English with subtitles.