Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962

A four-part essay-series by the director of I Am Not Your Negro, following the sentence that Conrad's Kurtz wrote on his report in Heart of Darkness. Peck narrates a history of colonialism, genocide and white supremacy from Columbus to the American West to the Congo, mixing archive footage, animation and staged scenes. It is the story the textbooks soften.

Why it’s here: The series connects things the curriculum keeps apart: colonial violence, slavery, the Holocaust, and the ideas that justified each. What's punk is the refusal of the neutral tone, and the fact that it names the thread. What's pedagogical is that it can be paused, discussed and argued with. Pairs with Discourse on Colonialism, Orientalism and King Leopold's Ghost. Note: it is long, essayistic and dense, and some critics call its sweep too broad.

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.