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Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years

What does it look like when you put equity at the heart of what you do? “Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years” (48 minutes) is a documentary that highlights how eight west coast early childhood teachers are doing just that. Weaving together candid interviews with scenes of daily activities, play, and conversations with the children about their families and communities, the film visualizes how these teachers incorporate their identities and anti-bias principles into their daily work. In addition to being a resource for educators, the film is a provocation to anyone looking for strategies to support young children in building a more just world.

  • Filiz Efe McKinney
    Director
  • Debbie LeeKeenan
    Producer
  • John Nimmo
    Producer
  • Louise Derman-Sparks
    Senior Advisor
  • Joyce Jackson
    Featured Educators
  • Veronica Reynoso
    Featured Educators
  • Karla Y. Gomez
    Featured Educators
  • Nadia Jaboneta
    Featured Educators
  • Claudia Garcia
    Featured Educators
  • Brian Silveira
    Featured Educators
  • Maddie Piper
    Featured Educators
  • Tsz Ting Chow
    Featured Educators
  • Jonah Kozlowski
    Director of Photography
  • Cameron Shaw
    Director of Photography
  • Filiz Efe McKinney
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    48 minutes 33 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital (4K DCI)
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.9:1 (4K DC
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Local Sightings Film Festival
    Seattle, WA
    United States
    September 25, 2021
    North American Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Social Justice Film Festival
    Seattle, WA
    United States
    October 16, 2021
    Silver Prize - Documentary Feature
  • Seattle Film Summit 2021
    Seattle, WA
    United States
    Official Selection
  • International Multicultural Film Festival - IMFF 2021
    Perth
    Australia
    August 21, 2021
    Official Selection
  • Toronto Lift-Off Film Festival 2021
    Toronto, ON
    Canada
    August 4, 2021
    Official Selection
  • IndieFEST Film Awards - August 2021
    La Jolla, CA
    United States
    ward of Merit: Educational and Use of Film for Social Change
  • Impact DOCS Awards - July 2021
    La Jolla, CA
    United States
    Award of Merit: Doc Feature and Use of Film for Social Change
  • Best Director Award - May-June 2021
    New York, NY
    United States
    Best Director of a Social Justice Film
  • Oniros Film Awards - May 2021
    New York, NY
    United States
    Best Social Justice Film
  • Accolade Global Film Competition - May 2021
    La Jolla, CA
    United States
    Winner, Award of Merit: Educational, Social Justice, Social Change
  • Toronto International Women Film Festival - April 2021
    Toronto, Ontario
    Canada
    Best Short Documentary
  • New York International Film Awards - April 2021
    New York, NY
    United States
    Winner: Best Social Justice Film
  • Istanbul Film Awards - April 2021
    Istanbul
    Turkey
    Winner: Best Social Justice Film, Best Educational Film
  • Canadian Diversity Film Festival - April 2021
    Toronto, Ontario
    Canada
    Official Selection
Distribution Information
  • Brave Sprout LLC
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
Director Biography - Filiz Efe McKinney

Filiz Efe McKinney is a Turkish-American filmmaker based in Seattle, Washington. Her work focuses on supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Filiz sees film as a provocation for deeper understanding on an emotional level, and as a springboard to broaden discussion within communities and drive organizational and cultural change. This storytelling approach is exemplified in her recent documentary, Reflecting on Anti-bias Education in Action: The Early Years (2021). When not helming Brave Sprout, her production company, Filiz serves on the boards of KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio and Northwest Film Forum, where she works to help create a more equitable and vibrant future in Greater Seattle.

A University of Washington graduate and a multidisciplinary filmmaker, Filiz holds a Master of Communication in Digital Media, a Master of Arts in Communication Strategies and Public Relations, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cinematography.

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Director Statement

As an immigrant, woman filmmaker, I’m personally invested in the topics of cultural identity, diversity, and equity. Having grown up halfway across the world, I have daily reminders that I’m not from around here, so I’m familiar with feeling like “the other”. This is one of the key motivators for putting social justice at the heart of what I do. And, the empathy I’ve developed through that experience informs the emotional core of my work. I want my films to be a provocation for critical thinking about our shared responsibility to make positive change. More importantly, I want my films to help start a conversation.

So, when the Producers Debbie LeeKeenan and John Nimmo approached me about making an anti-bias education film, I was on board immediately. As excited as I was about the topic, I was even more excited about the approach. We all agreed that we wanted to avoid presenting voices of authority and really lean into an authentic representation of how teachers were weaving anti-bias techniques into their daily work. This focus on authenticity was our north star and informed every decision we made. A big part of this was demystifying our filmmaking process for both the children and the adults. By being open about what we were doing, and giving everyone a peek at how we were doing it, they were able to get comfortable around the camera on our first day of filming. Which is how we were able to capture their authentic selves.

We started out with a well-established theoretical framework, but because we had adopted a documentary approach, I had to build a production plan without a predefined script. Instead, Debbie and John would take notes during filming and distill them into key messages. It was up to me to find ways to translate those messages into a series of vignettes based on individual classroom activities. It was a scary creative process. But, by treating specific scenes somewhat independently, I was able to experiment and even gave myself the freedom to fail at the small scale. Our collaborative approach passed the test when I edited together the first vignette. We all breathed a sigh of relief as our path forward became clear.

The film’s central question is “Why place equity and diversity at the heart of what you do?”
And, early in the film, teacher Veronica Reynoso responds by stating that building a vision for the future starts from an exploration of the self and asks, "What kind of human do you want to be?" We never give a pat answer or a simple checklist for either question. There simply isn’t one. Instead, we present a guiding framework for exploring those questions through conversation and daily activities. Our goal is to incite you to answer them yourself and to spark a conversation within your community that extends well past the credits. We hope that our film can help guide this exploration.

So, what kind of human do you want to be?