This course will meet on six Wednesdays, from 10:00 am-1:15 pm.
Dates are November 5, 12, and 19, 2025, and then we will resume after Thanksgiving on December 3, 10, and 17, 2025.
Of all the films about dictators, the most riveting are those that focus on the responses to repressive regimes and serious threats to democracy.
In this Coolidge Education class, we’re examining how seemingly ordinary folks respond in the face of autocratic rule through film. We’ll investigate: what’s the tipping point? What motivates individuals to take action or to become an opposition? What choices are folks willing to make in defense of liberties and freedoms? And crucially: do films inspire action?
Join us for six sessions as we dissect an array of feature films, documentaries, and shorts that address global responses from societies on the precipice. We’ll screen films grappling with this theme from various perspectives, from early classics by Chaplin and Truffaut, to recent award-winners like Pablo Larrain’s NO, alongside an array of probing documentaries. Not all of these films end happily, but they offer provocative ways to consider how ordinary people might respond to autocracy.
About Judi Freeman:
Judi Freeman is a historian and educator, the author of 10 books and numerous articles. For much of her career, Ms. Freeman was an art museum curator and educator, specializing in modern art, at museums from the National Gallery of Art to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and a secondary educator, teaching 20th-21st century history, most notably as the Seevak Chair in History at Boston Latin School. With degrees from Vassar, Johns Hopkins, Yale, and Tufts universities, Ms. Freeman has integrated the history of film into much of her work. She is currently at work on a new biography of legendary American foreign correspondent and columnist Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961).
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