Courage takes many forms – organizing a march, breaking a color barrier, arguing a case that changes the law. The films below tell some of those stories. Watch them, then ask what your own might look like.

Ava Duvernay, Selma (2014)

This movie chronicles the events that transpired as Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, and others organized the March 7, 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The march contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Alan Pakula, All the President’s Men (1976)

This movie follows the trail of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they investigate and uncover the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation from office. 

Gus Van Sant, Milk (2008)

This movie provides a biopic of Harvey Milk. In 1977, he was the first openly gay man to serve in an elected office in the state of California.

Stephen Spielberg, Lincoln (2012)

This movie follows President Abraham Lincoln at the height of the Civil War in 1863 and tells the story of the 13th amendment to the Constitution and its passage.

Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave (2013)

The movie tells the story of Solomon Northup, a free man kidnapped into slavery, his eventual escape to freedom, and his role in the abolitionist movement.

Sean McNamara, Spare Parts (2015)

This movie, inspired by a true story, follows four undocumented high school students from Carl Hayden High School who enter an MIT robotics competition and win despite being at significant disadvantage with regard to funding and resources. 

Mimi Leder, On the Basis of Sex (2018)

This movie tells the story of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s ascendency to legal prominence in her litigation of Moritz v Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

Jon Goodman, Let Freedom Sing: How Music Inspired the Civil Rights Movement (2009)

This documentary chronicles the making of the music that inspired and provided the soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement from the late 1950s-1970s.

Kasi Lemmons, Harriet (2019)

This movie tells the story of Harriet Tubman and her journey to freedom from slavery, her place in the abolition movement, and her role in the Underground Railroad guiding enslaved people to freedom. 

Sandra Osawa, Maria Tallchief (2007)

This documentary follows the life of Maria Tallchief from her early life in Oklahoma to her move to study ballet in Los Angeles and her path to become the first American prima ballerina.

Brian Helgeland, 42 (2013)

This movie follows Jackie Robinson as he becomes the most prominent professional baseball player to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball and in so doing became one of the most iconic athletes in history. 

Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures (2016)

This movie tells the story of three African American women (Katherine G. Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn) who play a key role as mathematicians in Astronaut John Glenn’s launch into orbit in 1961. 

Julie Ha and Eugene Yi, Free Chol Soo Lee

This documentary follows the wrongful prosecution and imprisonment of Chol Soo Lee for a murder he did not commit. It documents the social organizing, advocacy, and the movement that successfully led to Chol Soo Lee’s freedom.