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A Love Letter to Early Childhood Educators: Q&A with MAKE A CIRCLE Documentary Filmmakers

By Heising-Simons Foundation

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Patricia is a family child care provider who becomes an unlikely union leader working on behalf of a largely immigrant workforce. Charlotte, another family child care provider, tirelessly supports the low-income families in her care despite making less than minimum wage herself. And Anne is the director of a large preschool who finds novel ways to value and support her teachers in a world where fast food jobs pay higher wages.

These are some of the stories at the heart of MAKE A CIRCLE, a feature-length documentary from award-winning filmmakers Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide.

Supported by the Foundation’s Education program, the film pulls back the curtain on a quiet crisis where “parents can’t afford to pay, and teachers can’t afford to stay.” Against this stubborn status quo, these early educators meet the moment with optimism and a passion for supporting young children and families at a critical time in their lives. Blending the magic they create in the classroom, the challenges they face at home, and their tireless fight for respect and fair pay, MAKE A CIRCLE offers an intimate look at a workforce on the frontlines of change — and a hopeful blueprint for reimagining early care and education in the United States.

Now available to stream for free on PBS and YouTube through the end of November, MAKE A CIRCLE has received festival honors, inspired hundreds of community screenings nationwide, and is being used as a capacity-building and policymaker engagement tool by early education advocates.

The following is a Q&A with filmmakers Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide.
You describe MAKE A CIRCLE as a “love letter to educators and a rallying cry for a child care system in crisis.” Tell us more about the impetus behind telling this story and what you want your audiences to take away from this film.

Todd and I checked our IMDb pages recently and realized we’ve collectively worked on over 150 films. But I always like to point out that MAKE A CIRCLE was not our bright idea! It was born from a group of teachers at our children’s preschool who were feeling an increasing crisis in their profession. It was not just the low pay and the high turnover, but a lack of understanding and respect for their work. Even their friends and family members say things like, “So, you just change diapers all day, right?” They longed to see the true skill and impact and magic of their interactions with children and families reflected in some media—any media!—but they weren’t finding it. So, they said, “Hey, there’s a couple documentary filmmaker parents in our community. Why don’t we ask them about doing some storytelling that makes our work visible?

We had a deep love and appreciation for these teachers who had become a core part of our family, so it was easy to take that leap of faith with them. But once we actually got all of our ducks in a row and permission from the staff and families to start filming, we hit the record button for the first time in February 2020. One month later, the COVID-19 pandemic really exploded the scope of what we thought we were getting into. But it became a lens through which to appreciate what is so fragile—yet essential—about our child care system. And it was a reckoning for all of us: it’s clear we can’t go back to the status quo. So let’s light a path forward, with the early educators as our guide.

This film is unabashedly from their point of view, celebrating their expertise and impact.

We don’t think we’re ever going to build an early education system that we all benefit from if we’re just looking at early educators as “The Workforce Behind the Workforce.” They are keystones of their communities. MAKE A CIRCLE offers a positive vision of what we’re fighting for, while not shying away from the persistent injustices.

Having worked on other films about brain development (Resilience and Paper Tigers), we had an appreciation of the importance of the first five years of life, and certainly the economic benefits of families having access to quality early childhood education. Yet somehow, when we were going into debt to have two young children in care at the same time, it was more of a private struggle for us rather than something that was on our radar as a voting issue. We knew our preschool teachers could earn more if they taught K-12, but had no idea how much they were struggling behind the scenes with food and housing insecurity. Our kids’ infant teacher had a stroke on the job in her 70s. She loved her work, but she couldn’t afford to retire. That disconnect became unacceptable to us, and we asked ourselves—are still asking ourselves!—what is our role as parents and storytellers in addressing this unacceptable reality?

Because of COVID, our early months of filming were all with our immediate bubble at the preschool, filming through doorways, outside, Todd as a one-man-band camera and sound crew all masked up. We were getting so much magical—as well as heartwrenching—footage, and created some sample material. Typically, documentaries need proof-of-concept scenes and a “sizzle reel” to court funding and impact partners. We are forever grateful to some early advisors who saw those early scenes and said, “Please don’t do this project without including family child care providers.”

That urging resulted in an introduction to Alexa Frankenberg, the Executive Director of Child Care Providers United. CCPU, which represents subsidy program providers in California, had just formed in 2019 after a twenty-year battle with the State to recognize their collective bargaining rights. 

Todd Boekelheide with Patricia Moran's students in San Jose.

Alexa introduced us to Patricia Moran in San Jose and Charlotte Guinn in Oakland, who were willing to consider being a part of MAKE A CIRCLE. Within a minute of meeting each of them, it felt like kismet, and they were soon co-stars of the film.

We ended up filming historic contract negotiations between CCPU and the State of California over the course of several months that included a huge eleventh-hour victory for the providers: health care, retirement, and a significant wage increase. But just as important was showing the impact of their work with kids and families every day. Charlotte’s Mother’s Day celebration, where she prepares beautiful gifts for these incredibly hardworking moms facing adversity, is a very emotional moment in all of our screenings. It was so important to show quality early learning and family support happening in both home- and center-based contexts.

When you make a social issue documentary that’s designed for impact, you hope that people will use it in ways that you can’t predict. We worked with a wonderful agency called Impact Media Partners who helped us design both a Discussion Guide and an Advocacy & Organizing Toolkit for viewers inspired to learn more and take action.

Our impact campaign has included:

Charlotte Guinn at a CCPU protest in Sacramento, California.
Charlotte Guinn at a CCPU protest in Sacramento, California.
  • Professional development and advocacy trainings, empowering educators to see their skill and advocacy reflected back to them, and to share their stories directly with policymakers.
  • Academic screenings across fields from child development to public policy, recognizing that child care touches nearly every sector.
  • Mini-grants supporting grassroots and professional organizations to host screenings when resources are limited.
  • Integration into policy discussions—for example, The Hunt Institute’s Policy Academy for state legislators featured MAKE A CIRCLE clips in its programming at Stanford’s Center on Early Childhood, a format attendees found “powerful and unforgettable.”
  • And the most exciting part of the success of the film has been that it’s inspiring our next project: more storytelling from the early educators’ point of view like MAKE A CIRCLE but for a social media format and audience. We’re in strategy mode right now and doing some proof-of-concept filming for what we’re affectionately calling “Make a Sequel.” Stay tuned for our actual initiative name and more charm-offensive storytelling soon, all around the mission of raising respect for the profession!

The human brain is wired for emotion and connection. As much as we’d like to believe that compelling data and research can drive change, there are usually cultural and policy roadblocks that prevent progress. The roots of inequality trace back to the stories we tell ourselves about who is more worthy than whom. What is possible and what is not possible to change. We believe that more and better storytelling is a powerful lever for creating inclusive cultures and policies that we can all benefit from.

As every talented educator knows, once you have a connection with someone, they can learn anything from you. Film is a unique vehicle to create connection, raise awareness and instill hope. Independent, values-driven storytelling like this is only possible through philanthropic partnership. Our funders didn’t just make this film possible, they shaped it through shared learning and vision.

Jen Bradwell and CCPU providers at a march in Sacramento.

Narrative change is complex and sometimes hard to measure, but its ripple effects are profound. We wish every one of our partners could be in the room at a screening so you could see the laughter, the tears, and the resolve to act. We’re deeply grateful for your belief in the power of storytelling, and for joining us in honoring the early educators at the heart of our communities.

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