There were a few short subjects during Freshman English but I only remember To Build a Fire.
I had to retake a semester of Sophomore English during summer school; one day the teacher brought in a TV & VCR and put on TRON. I guess she didn’t feel like teaching that day.
I Am Joe’s --------
They made film versions of those? 
We watched a bunch of “You Are There” films in grade school (mid-'60s), but nothing in junior high. All I remember from high school are Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in drama class and some sort of documentary about Duisburg in 3rd-year German.
In 9th grade my teachers had a weird obsession with the movie Avalon (1990). We took at least 2 field trips to see it in the theater and we had to write a bunch of papers about it throughout the year (I was in a communications magnet program with about 100 other students, where our English, history, TV production, and journalism classes were basically all combined into a single 4-period block, at least through 9th and 10th grade).
Interesting side note: one of my classmates, who I didn’t know at the time but has since become one of my closest friends, had a small part in that movie. He had one line. We still tease him with it to this day.
Phoebe - another wonderfully earnest effort of the National Film Board of Canada.
The film introduces us to teenage Phoebe’s unwanted pregnancy with her throwing up in the toilet one morning. The rest of the film is her imagining scenarios of her telling her boyfriend, her parents, etc. Sometimes the other persons are understanding and supportive, sometimes they’re not. It ends on the cliffhanger of her telling her parents for real.
28 minutes. Plenty of time for classroom discussion after it was over. It made me appreciate that Catholic high school religion courses were probably a lot more interesting in the late '60s than they are now.
There were a few, but memorable ones:
Late 70s, early 80s we saw a film about a kid or kids on angel dust that for some reason sticks out.
Uncommon Valor with Gene Hackman when it was released on VHS, like 1984. I’m not sure why we were shown this.
This is a made for TV movie, so I don’t know if it qualifies, but we saw Escape from Sobibor with Rutger Hauer in probably three different classes in 1987.
I saw the same anti-drug movie in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade (early 70s). It started with a cobra hissing. (Heavy metaphor, kids!) A blonde, wholesome, athletic youth meets a baddie (identifiable by his five 0’clock shadow) who introduces him to reefer. Reefer inevitably leads to “goofballs,” and he gets increasingly dissipated, as is obvious from his unkempt hair and the dark circles under his eyes.
I also saw Night and Fog in high school. The teacher dashed after me when class ended because I was so pale, he thought I was about to faint. I lost my appetite for a few days.
Also, “Silent Snow, Secret Snow,” based on the Conrad Aiken short story.
Other than that, it was filmstrips all the way, baby.
Ah “Narcotics: Pit of Despair,” starring character actor Kevin Tighe in his first role.
Yeah, I can’t remember if it was high school or college where I first saw “Night & Fog,” but ooh that was disturbing.
Thank you! I’ve been wracking my brain for years trying to recall the name of that movie.
My biggest movie memory from school was from a Christmas assembly treat. They showed, “The Great Race”. Best. School. Movie. Ever. I quite enjoyed it, as did everyone else.
‘To Build a Fire’. Saw it in 8th grade English class in the mid 70s.
A Jack London story of a man and his dog embarking on a disastrous hike in the arctic in -75F temperatures. Orson Wells narrates.
I still think about this movie today.
We only got Disney stuff for middle school assemblies. The Black Hole one year, The World’s Greatest Athlete another year, can’t remember the third.
In Economics class we watched the “Fergie Films”, which featured a brother and sister who started a screen printing business.
[quote=“burpo_the_wonder_mutt, post:14, topic:912713”]
we had “Hemo the Magnificent,”
[/quote]Honestly, I was impressed by that movie as a kid. I knew it was schlocky as hell, but it contained good info, presented in a way I immediately got. It really got me interested in medicine. Which is where I ended up. Saw it in 8th grade, I think.
Our Driver’s Ed film was called Blood on the Highway. Gave me a real appreciation for seat belts.
The Black Hole was not a good movie, but there’s something about it. I have to watch it every few years.
I well recall the day that one of my high school teachers showed us a few old Superman cartoon shorts from the 1940s. To this day, I don’t know why. Doesn’t matter though, as none of us cared–it was a break from his boring lectures.
I also recall we had a film every Friday in grade 12 French. There was a series of films, all in French, about a group of high school friends in France, and we saw one installment a week. I cannot remember the name of the series, but it might as well have been called “Our Group of Friends” in English, since it was the same kids doing something new every week (riding the Paris metro, visiting the Eiffel Tower, etc.). The series was designed for English-speakers like us who were learning French; and accordingly, we’d have a quiz after the film about who said what to whom, and about the adventures and mishaps they had in this week’s installment. It was educational, sure; but as each installment had a storyline, it was also pretty entertaining, and we looked forward to it every week.
I know this thread is a couple years old but in 79-80 we had an all school (high school) assembly and were shown a film I think called Champions or similar, basically a film motivating you to best the best that you could. Had popular music from that time in it Queen “We are the Champions” Joe Walsh “Life’s Been Good” Styx “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)” I have looked all over the internet and been unable to find it. Anyone else have similar experience?
I remember the anti drug movie.