The conservative takeover at New College of Florida in Sarasota drew national headlines, until the cameras turned to other matters.
As eyes turned elsewhere, a group of filmmakers stayed on campus and produced the documentary, “First They Came for My College.”
Producer Harry Hanbury and director Patrick Bresnan say the film tells the story from the perspective of the students as the changes took place. It’s told mostly through the eyes of Chloe Rusek and Gaby Batista, staffers of the campus student newspaper.
Since its premiere on March 5 at the True/False Film Festival in Missouri, the documentary has been screened around the country and in Florida.
Now, it’s finally getting around to the Tampa Bay area and also returning to Sarasota.
The film played last weekend during the TIGLIFF Queer Film and Arts Festival at Green Light Cinema in St. Petersburg, and it returns to Green Light for a weeklong run beginning Friday.
From Oct. 23-29, the film returns to Sarasota’s Burns Court Cinema, where it was shown in May. The theater is about 6 miles from campus.
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In between, a Florida run takes the film to Gainesville’s Hippodome Theatre and Miami’s O Cinema from Thursday through Sept. 26.
From Oct. 9-15, the documentary is scheduled for Orlando’s Enzian theater, where it made its Florida premier in April. On Oct. 10-11, it will be part of the Tallahassee Film Festival.
In an interview with WLRN, Bresnan said the campus changes marked a turning point for higher education in the U.S, pointing to similar conservative pushes taking place in Texas and North Carolina.
“What began at New College has been rippling all around the country,” he said.
Bresnan added that while showing the film in more liberal parts of the country, like California, crowds have in some cases written off the story as something that can only happen in Florida.
“I'm just so quick to tell them, like, ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger used to be your governor. This is coming for California,' ” Bresnan said. “People think this is just a Florida thing — this is a big, big story that is coming for universities, even in liberal places.”
Information from WLRN’s Daniel Rivero was used in this report.
