.png){kind=small}
A Chicago Village
Education for Liberation
A Chicago Village: Education for Liberation
follows the story and people of the Institute of Positive Education and New Concept Development Center, and the community later sustained through Betty Shabazz International Charter School. It begins with a small school in the 1970s and follows its triumphs through relentless adversity.
The history is told through the memories of founders now in their 70s and 80s, former teachers, parents, and alumni. Alongside the daily work of building the school are memories of James Brown performing at its annual fundraiser, Maya Angelou and Stevie Wonder dancing at a house party, and Gil Scott-Heron stopping by for lunch.
​
Alumni will describe a school where teachers felt like family and classmates like siblings who became lifelong friends. They will also reflect on entering later schools and a wider world that looked and felt very different, as well as the internal identity struggles that followed.
​
The producer and director tell this story from inside the village: both are alumni, and two of the school’s founders are their parents. That intimate access makes the film not only a history, but a conversation across generations about what the community built and why it matters now.