Classroom to Cinema invites classrooms from across the Bay Area to celebrate Cultural Heritage Months through free screenings of powerful, independent films. Each screening is paired with stories that spark conversation, broaden perspectives, and connect directly to the cultural moments we honor. 

ALL SCREENINGS TAKE PLACE AT THE SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER IN DOWNTOWN SAN RAFAEL

We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with DEAR HOMELAND and Native American Heritage Month with SAINTS AND WARRIORS

WATCH TRAILER

DEAR HOMELAND

Director: Claudia Escobar (US 2020) 57 min | Grades 10-12

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 • 10:00AM – 11:30AM

SCREENING + IN-PERSON Q&A WITH DIRECTOR CLAUDIA ESCOBAR

DEAR HOMELAND follows Mexican singer-songwriter Diana Gameros on a 16 year journey from Ciudad Juárez to San Francisco — finding her voice as an artist while navigating life as an undocumented immigrant. Told through her haunting music, the film traces her transformation from a young woman separated from her family into a powerful advocate for immigrant rights, offering a deeply human counter-narrative to the politics of belonging.

Director: Claudia Escobar (US 2020) 57 min

IMPACT
 “I am Claudia Escobar and I like creating and following stories, making things and trying to find where reality meets magic. I directed the documentary Dear Homeland, produced by KQED in March of 2020. I am curious about human migrations, in finding what is home as a physical place or as a state of being, as Diana Gameros says in the film. As an artist who lived in the U.S. undocumented for many years, I am drawn to stories about immigration that challenge the artificial divisions we have invented around power.”

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WATCH TRAILER

SAINTS AND WARRIORS

Director: Patrick Shannon (Canada 2024) 98 min | Grades 9-12

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20 • 10:00AM – NOON

SCREENING + VIRTUAL Q&A WITH DIRECTOR PATRICK SHANNON

Throughout the course of the Haida basketball season, leaders of iconic rez ball team the Skidegate Saints compete for two titles – defending their All Native Basketball Championship, while battling for title to their land and waters with the government that stole it from them with the Indian Act.
Director: Patrick Shannon (Canada 2024) 98 min

IMPACT
“My name is Patrick Shannon and I’m an Indigenous-Haida filmmaker and SAINTS AND WARRIORS is my first feature film. Being raised in Skidegate for most of my life, it wasn’t until I left that I realized how special our relationship to basketball was, and when my producer Michael Tanko Grand asked me what I would want to do for my first feature, I immediately knew that Haida basketball and the cultural survival of our people was THE story that was in my bones that needed to be told, and I’m very excited to share this story with you.”

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