Five feature documentaries now tell the story of America’s school closures. I want to congratulate every filmmaking team.
Families waited years for the country to look back at what happened to its children. Now these filmmakers have done that work, and they deserve our thanks.
I made one of these films, so I write as a fellow filmmaker. Each film brings its own view, and together they give children a fuller record.
Here is each film, where to watch it, and what I admire about it. I link every fact so you can check my work.
Watch all five, and then help me bring the filmmakers together on one stage.
1. Homeroom (2021)
Watch: Hulu and Disney+
Peter Nicks began filming at Oakland High School in 2019, so he was already in the building when the pandemic arrived.
Homeroom completes his Oakland trilogy about health care, criminal justice and education, and it premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance in 2021.
Its editors, Kristina Motwani and Rebecca Adorno, won a Sundance editing award for the film.
The film captures the class of 2020 with real tenderness. Peter Nicks gave the country an early and honest look at what that spring meant for young people.
2. Bucks County, USA (2025)
Watch: on your local PBS station. Check PBS for details.
Barry Levinson and Robert May followed two 14-year-old best friends, Evi and Vanessa, in Pennsylvania’s Central Bucks School District.
The first two episodes premiered at Sundance, and the full five-part series reached PBS in September 2026.
Levinson has said the series is not about heroes and villains. That generous view invites every viewer to listen.
The producers also built a discussion guide so any community can hold the same conversation. I love that idea, and I admire how the series helps neighbors talk with each other.
Paul and his daughter Vanessa Martino appear in Bucks County, USA, and he also appears in 15 DAYS. I am grateful to him for taking part in both films.
3. School District (2025)
Watch: PBS.org and the PBS app, presented by GBH.
Leigh and Jason Morfoot, both Stamford public school parents, spent the 2020 to 2021 school year inside Stamford Public Schools.
Their fly-on-the-wall camera followed a district of more than 17,000 students through that year.
PBS describes the series as a look at a district navigating a year like no other, and the first part reached viewers in October 2025.
I admire the access the Morfoots earned and the patience it took. The series gives viewers a close look at how educators, administrators and families worked through those months.
4. Generation COVID (2026)
Watch: available November 13 on SalemNOW.
Jennifer Sey and Andrew James directed Generation COVID, which follows children and families in California, New York, Oregon, Colorado and Connecticut.
Sey and James worked on the film for years. One report calls it four years in the making. Congratulations to both of them.
Generation COVID is an important addition to the canon, and I am glad it exists. The film stays close to the children and lets their stories carry the argument.
Garrett Morgan appears in 15 DAYS, and he also appears in Generation COVID. Two teams found the same witness and heard the same story, and that agreement strengthens the record. I hope an enormous audience watches Jennifer Sey’s film.
5. 15 DAYS (2025)
Watch: Restore Childhood Substack · Amazon Prime Video · Apple TV · Google Play
We spent three years on 15 DAYS and recorded nearly 60 interviews for a film that runs 69 minutes.
The film features Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, now director of the National Institutes of Health, along with Dr. Scott Atlas, Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg, Martin Gurri and Anya Kamenetz. It also features the students and families who lived through the closures.
15 DAYS asks why schools stayed closed so long. It examines how $189.5 billion in federal ESSER funds was tied to extended closures.
Critics have been generous. Film Threat called it “An institutional autopsy with a pulse.” The film has also had dozens of screenings across the country. For the full list of reviews and press, see 15 DAYS: Reviews, Press and Where to Watch.
15 DAYS: Reviews, Press and Where to Watch
In March 2020, I was a New York City mom with two kids in public school. I spent the next year fighting to reopen schools, and I sued Mayor Bill de Blasio to get them open. Then I spent more than three years interviewing nearly 60 people about who closed our scho…
The film is also my own story. My family brought me from Odessa to Brooklyn when I was six, and New York City public schools gave me my English and my footing in a new country. Few people can picture how completely an immigrant family can depend on its neighborhood school.
Two collaborators gave the film its sharpest edge. Our filmmaker, Hawk Jensen, directed Witness Project films for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Martin Gurri, a former CIA analyst of global media, has spent decades decoding propaganda. Their insight shaped how the film treats the messages families heard during the closures.
One weekend, all five films
These five films belong together. I would love to see them screened over a single weekend, with every filmmaker in the room and a moderated conversation after each screening.
I would be honored to share that stage with Levinson and May, the Morfoots, Sey and James, and Nicks. Their films have taught me a great deal, and an audience would learn even more hearing from all of us.
Restore Childhood will happily host. We know how to convene an event like this, and we have the relationships. We need a venue and sponsors to make it happen.
If you run a theater, a foundation, a university program or a company that wants to support the first public gathering of these films, write to me at natalya@restorechildhood.com. You can also support Restore Childhood here at any level, and every dollar goes to the work.
To the other four filmmaking teams: thank you for your work. The invitation is open, and nobody has to agree with me to accept it.
The children who lived through those years are old enough now to watch all five films and judge for themselves. They deserve that chance.
Start with 15 DAYS
15 DAYS: The Real Story of America’s Pandemic School Closures runs 69 minutes. Paid subscribers watch the entire film here, any time.
If you read this for free, a paid subscription gets you the film and the full Closed Classroom investigative series, and it funds this reporting.
On December 8, 2026, Restore Childhood will host a Capitol Hill viewing of 15 DAYS, with a keynote by NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and a panel Q&A with Sen. Ron Johnson and me, moderated by Jan Jekielek of The Epoch Times. RSVP here.
