Pride

Ana is a Mexican-American teenager in East Los Angeles, accepted to Columbia on a scholarship, working a summer in her sister's tiny dress factory. Her mother wants her at home. Her boss wants the order done by Friday. The film follows a hot summer of sewing, body shame and a girl deciding whether to go.

Why it’s here: It's a film about a first-generation teen and a garment workshop that the American Dream forgot. What's punk is that a sweatshop scene becomes a scene of women refusing to be ashamed of their bodies. What's pedagogical is how clearly it shows what a family gives up to send one kid out the door. Pairs with Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909, The Circuit and Esperanza Rising. Note: PG-13; some nudity, frank talk about bodies and sex; set in 2000s LA, English and Spanish.

In postwar Rome, Antonio finally gets a job pasting posters, but it requires a bicycle. When his is stolen on the first day, he and his young son Bruno spend the day searching the city. De Sica used non-professional actors and shot on the street, and the result is a simple story about what a bicycle means to a family.

Why it’s here: The film shows poverty as a trap with a clear shape. What's punk is that it refuses to make the thief a villain or the hero a saint. What's pedagogical is the father and son's walk, which shows a child watching an adult's dignity break. A foundation of neorealism, pairs with Children of Heaven and Rosetta. Note: subtitled and black and white; it's slow by modern standards but short.