After completing their College Board exam, students in Rachel Ackley’s AP U.S. History classes traded multiple-choice questions and document-based essays for movies and microphones, spending the final weeks of the school year researching, writing, and producing original podcasts reviewing historical films. 

“I wanted to put an emphasis on more in-depth topical research as well as the arts,” said Ackley. “A film review seemed to be the best marriage of the two.”

The three-week project required students to research the historical topic of their selected film prior to viewing it, formulate a hypothesis about the film's thesis, and consider the influence of the director's other projects. When watching their chosen film, students were asked to identify key scenes to fact-check. Research was used to write and record a podcast examining the film’s historical context, thesis, and accuracy, while including the importance of the time period in which the film was made.

“My goal was to have them use historical inquiry in the more mundane,” said Ackley. “The thoughtfulness that we approached a rigorous primary source text in class can also be applied when watching a Steven Spielberg film.”

The lesson was a hit, with students diving into topics ranging from the Civil War to the War on Terror while thoughtfully examining how the era in which each film was produced influenced its historical interpretation.

“I got to pick a movie that really piqued my interest, but was also something I did not really know about,” said Lexi Perry ’27, who chose “Zero Dark Thirty.” 

“Through this project, I was able to go into a deep dive on how this movie was created, what was factual and fiction, and what it was like living during the time period my movie took place in,” Lexi said.

“I enjoyed having the opportunity to slow down and focus on one specific period of American history,” said Phoebe Dai ’27, who reviewed the 2004 remake of “The Manchurian Candidate.” 

“Since AP U.S. History covers such a large amount of content in a short time, it was nice to take a deeper dive into a topic that interested me,” she said.

Click Here to View and Listen to the Full List of Historical Film Podcasts