My California Now

Learning Tools for Tomorrow's Leaders

Topics:

  • Free Speech Movement
  • Fair Housing - Fair Employment
  • Water & Growth
  • Master Plan for Higher Education
  • Death Penalty
  • Civil Rights
Pat Brown Documentary Poster Buy It Now

Distributed by Good Docs

1-800-343-5540

The award-winning documentary
CALIFORNIA STATE OF MIND takes students
on an exciting ride through history and politics

DVD Package Includes:

Two Versions:

  • 86 - minute theatrical version
  • 56 - minute educational version

 

Bonus Features:

3 educational short videos

  • Leadership Then & Now
  • Stories & Legacies
  • Debating the Death Penalty

In-depth Curriculum that meets state & national standards

In the turbulent 1960s, an ordinary man rose to face extraordinary challenges and powerfully shaped the future of modern California. A dynamic American dream story unfolds in this new documentary on Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown — "the Godfather of Modern California." Told through the eyes of Brown's granddaughter, award-winning filmmaker Sascha Rice, CALIFORNIA STATE OF MIND gives students an inside look at a California icon and a political family, called by some "the West Coast Kennedys." This premiere account of former Brown's life takes on startling new significance now that his son, Jerry Brown, is Governor of California – again.

As the filmmaker investigates her grandfather's legacy, viewers are invited along to assess Brown's policies, look critically at issues of government, leadership, civil rights, growth, and the clash between environment and economic development. Brown's career intersects with such luminaries as JFK, Nixon, Reagan, César Chávez, and Martin Luther King. Transporting archival footage is interwoven with revealing commentaries from speakers like former Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pete Wilson, Gray Davis and current Governor Jerry Brown as well as Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Karen Bass, and Senator Dianne Feinstein.

This exciting tale of the West is much more than an examination of the past; it's an entertaining biography and a provocative portrait of a man whose bi-partisan can-do optimism inspires students today. CALIFORNIA STATE OF MIND has screened at colleges and venues around the country including the National Archives in Washington DC, the Paley Center in New York and the United Nations Association Film Festival.

The accompanying 150-page curriculum guide provides research and discussion questions focusing on California History, the second half of the 20th Century, Leadership, Government and Civic Participation. This comprehensive curriculum is included with the film and is designed to help young people make connections between the past and present and explore their own views on important social and political issues.