Grab some popcorn and enjoy the research, learning, and teaching potential of film at APSA’s 2024 Annual Meeting!

Documentary film can serve as primary source material for research, elevating the voices of marginalized communities and undiscovered stories. Film can also serve as a valuable tool for advocacy and teaching by exposing students to political themes that come to life before their eyes. With the success of the 2023 Mini-Film Festival, APSA is thrilled to offer another unique film showcase at this year’s conference.

The 2024 Film Showcase will feature an advanced screening of War Game, sponsored by the APSA Graduate Student Committee, followed by a Q&A with the cast of the film and political science scholars. This year’s films will also include a series of four interviews from the APSA Oral History Project, sponsored by APSA Diversity and Inclusion Programs.

All films will be screened on Friday, September 6 in the Pennsylvania Convention Center (PCC), 114 LEC.

APSA Oral History Project

Friday, September 6
8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
2:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

This collection of interviews contributes to a continuous project that seeks to amplify the scholarship and contributions of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to the discipline and investigate the history of race and racism in the political science profession.

Advanced Screening of War Game

Friday, September 6
12:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

Q&A Panel on Teaching War Game
2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
PCC, 113

A real-life political thriller set on January 6, 2025, War Game imagines a nation-wide insurrection in which members of the US military defect to support the losing Presidential candidate, while the winning candidate and his advisors—played by an all-star roster of senior officials from the last five administrations—war games the crisis in the White House situation room. They have 6 hours to save democracy as the country teeters on the brink of civil war. This film is directed by award-winning filmmakers Jesse Moss (Girls State, Boys State) and Tony Gerber (Jane). View the trailer.