This story is part of True/False Conversations, a series of in-depth interviews with the filmmakers of this year’s True/False Film Fest. Find the full series here.
The film First They Came for My College offers a glimpse into a southern college’s transformation – from a beacon of liberal arts education to one controlled by the state’s governor Ron DeSantis. The film documents the New College of Florida takeover in 2023.
KBIA’s Nora Crutcher-McGowan talked with Filmmaker Patrick Xavier Bresnan about his experience on campus and the effect of the takeover on students. Here's an excerpt from their conversation.
Nora Crutcher-McGowan: How did you first get involved in this story?
Patrick Xavier Bresnan: The project was kind of incited by an alumni of the college, Holly Herrick, who went to New College. She's the artistic director of the Austin Film Society. And she called me one day and was like, "I need you to go on a shoot." She said, "They're about to deny tenure to all of these professors at the college I went to, and the governor has done a hostile takeover of my college. And it's a really big news story." That's how I was brought in.
I didn't see this as fascism, I think, for the first year. As I was seeing how destabilizing what they were doing was to the life of the students, was to the professors, it really started to feel deliberate and deliberately hurtful and very, very much politically motivated.
When I got to the New College of Florida, I kind of fell in love with it because it's – despite all of the political turmoil – it's like a little paradise. It's on the bay. The academics are extremely rigorous. There were just so many compelling kids, students and teachers who were opposing this takeover of their college. So, I was just drawn in right away.
Purposefully or not, on January 6, 2023, Ron DeSantis appointed a new board and they dismissed the current president at that time, Pat Okker, from the college. Pat is a longtime – she was a dean, I think, at your college in English – and they replaced her with someone who had no experience working in college administration. They brought in a number of out-of-state Board of Trustee members.
Crutcher-McGowan: I also wanted to ask a bit about the title of the documentary, because, of course, that made me think of the poem from the German pastor. I knew I'd recognized it and I looked it up. Was that intentional? Where did that come from?
Bresnan: I didn't see this as fascism, I think, for the first year. As I was seeing how destabilizing what they were doing was to the life of the students, was to the professors, it really started to feel deliberate and deliberately hurtful and very, very much politically motivated.
You would hear people at protests and various events call this fascism. I just thought that's such a serious term. I really, really wanted to have a better understanding of the motivations before I referred to it as anything like that.
But what I saw on campus was the complete destabilization of student life. Students didn't know where to go for Title IX offenses. I saw students in extreme psychological states where when I would leave campus, I worried about people taking their lives. They created a level of stress on these beautiful young learners that was deliberate. I believe what we were seeing at New College is very reminiscent of what's happened in fascist regimes. And so that's where the title comes from.
Crutcher-McGowan: If you went to college, did your own college background inform these ideas about higher education?
Bresnan: You dream, I mean — I'm sure you did — about getting away from the town you grew up in and meeting people and studying under really interesting professors and partying – all of these things.
It was completely disrupted for these students. Their teachers were leaving. The librarian was fired. The majority of safety regulations in place for people of color, trans, queer kids were removed from the campus. You wouldn't wish this on anybody.
