First They Came for My College

Patrick Bresnan brings his documentary First They Came for My College to the Wexner Center for the Arts on Thursday, October 22, for its Ohio premiere. The screening starts at 7 PM and runs 105 minutes, with Bresnan staying after for a panel discussion. It's part of Unorthodocs 2026, the Wexner Center's annual festival of creative nonfiction filmmaking, now in its 10th year, and also falls within the 2026 FotoFocus Biennial: The Long View.

The film follows the political campaign to "reconquer" higher education in America after Governor Ron DeSantis staged a coup at New College of Florida, the first public college to be transformed by such a takeover. Bresnan builds the story from the inside, following the student newspaper, an outspoken professor, and students from across the political spectrum. It's a look at the fallout of that takeover and the pushback that followed, told through the people who lived it.

Bresnan makes intimate films that counter mythic concepts of America, and his work has premiered at Berlin, Sundance, Cannes' Directors Fortnight, Toronto, SXSW, and True/False. This screening is the Ohio premiere, and it fits into a larger conversation the festival is having about the precarious state of documentary distribution: last year, only two of Unorthodocs' twelve essential films received even a modest national release.

Tickets are $12 for the general public, $8 for members, $9 for adults 55 and over, and $6 for students. The screening is at the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater, 1871 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210, starting at 7 PM on October 22.