Filmmaker Patrick Bresnan tells the inside story of the right-wing campaign to “reconquer” higher education in America in the new documentary First They Came For My College.
The documentary made its World Premiere at the True/False Film Festival, followed by SXSW, DC/DOX, IFF Boston, SFFILM, and the Florida Film Festival, where the film won the Feature Documentary Audience Award.
First They Came For My College is slated for a theatrical release by Fourth Act Film in over 30 markets, starting on September 17th at the Hippodrome in Gainesville, Florida, and will continue up the coast with a run at DCTV in New York City starting September 25th. Additional cities include but are not limited to: Austin, TX, St. Petersburg, FL, Los Angeles, CA, Lawrence, KS, Houston, TX, Columbus, OH, Springfield, MO, San Francisco, CA, and Sarasota, FL.
First They Came For My College tells the inside story of the right-wing campaign. New College of Florida was the first public college to be transformed by a political coup—a blueprint for our new era of unprecedented censorship and political interference in academia. By embedding with the student newspaper, an outspoken professor, and students from all sides of the political spectrum, this verité feature reveals a microcosm of America’s culture wars and serves as an essential document for students today grappling with their moment in history.
Through the eyes of students, the documentary opens with the shocking “hostile takeover” of New College, which begins on January 6, 2023, in the run-up to Ron DeSantis’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. DeSantis appoints six ultraconservatives to the school’s Board of Trustees, including Christopher Rufo, the right-wing activist behind attacks on Critical Race Theory, and Matthew Spalding, who would go on to play a leading role in Project 2025.
But conquering a school is not the same as running it. The college community mounts a fierce resistance, exposing what they see as the new administration’s cruelty, incompetence, and corruption. Meanwhile, the administration enacts policies meant to transform the culture and the campus, and the college begins to change before their eyes. As the tension mounts, students and faculty battle to preserve the school’s unique character and the integrity of the academic program – all the while warning the rest of the nation, “Your school is next.”
“For me, we will hopefully look back on First They Came For My College like we do on civil rights-era films or Vietnam-era films and we say, ‘I can’t believe that’s who we were,’” said Director and Producer Patrick Bresnan. “I can’t believe that’s what we did to our greatest professors. I can’t believe that’s what we did to college students.’ What kept me going is the need to finish this document so that we can remember this period and so it doesn’t happen again.”
“As alumni of New College, we couldn’t look away when we heard about the state of Florida’s plans for an ideological remaking of the school,” said Producers Holly Herrick and Harry William Hanbury. “New College’s academic environment changed our lives, and we wanted to understand what it would mean for students experiencing that same transformation to have their education interrupted by a staged battle in America’s culture wars: one that targeted LGBTQ+ students and the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and tried—unsuccessfully—to silence dissent. In sharing this story around the country, we hope to inspire others to defend and support the freedom to learn and the freedom to be who you are.”
Watch the official trailer for First They Came for My College above.
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