Teaching Students, Schooling America: Robert Reich Documentary ‘The Last Class’ Acquired By Abramorama

EXCLUSIVE: Abramorama has acquired North American theatrical distribution rights to The Last Classa documentary about social media star, academic, and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

The company plans to release the film, directed by Elliot Kirschner, in theaters beginning June 27 in New York, followed by other cities in the U.S. and Canada. The documentary from CoffeeKlatch Productions and Inequality Media Civic Action follows Reich as he prepares to deliver his final course at Cal Berkeley, capping an extraordinary academic career that has seen him teach 40,000 students across four decades.

“Over the course of the film, Reich confronts the impending finality, and his own aging, with increasing candor, introspection, and, ultimately, emotion,” notes a release. “He displays a rawness of feeling he has never shared publicly before. Drawing on his lifetime in politics, he uses his class, ‘Wealth and Poverty,’ to offer us all a deeper look at why inequalities of income and wealth have widened significantly since the late 1970s, and why this poses dangerous risks to our society. One thousand students fill the biggest lecture hall on the UC Berkeley campus, the last class to receive Reich’s wisdom and exhortations not to accept that the world has to stay the way it is. His belief in the next generation’s ability to take on the fight is inspiring.”

Reich, 78, has become a prominent critic of Donald Trump, beginning with the president’s first term and now continuing into his second. He has gained a huge social media following, including 1.2 million on his YouTube channel and 1.4 million on X/Twitter. (One of his latest tweets, posted on Wednesday: “The fundamental choice has not been as stark since World War II: democracy and freedom, or dictatorship and tyranny. Trump and his sycophants are siding with the latter.” And a post also from Wednesday: “Why is Donald Trump stifling free speech? Because that’s what every dictator does.”).

In a statement, Abramorama CEO Karol Martesko-Fenster said, “The Last Class isn’t just a portrait of a great teacher and former US Secretary of Labor; it’s a rallying cry for civic engagement and the enduring power of education. It unfolds on the big screen as an inspiring, timely film, and Abramorama is thrilled to collaborate with Inequality Media Civic Action, and the filmmaking team, to bring it to audiences across North America.”

The documentary is produced by Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse, executive director of Inequality Media and Inequality Media Civic Action and the founder of CoffeeKlatch Productions, and Josh Melrod (Major Arcana), and executive produced by Lofthouse and Ian Cheney (Observer, The Most Unknown, King Corn).

The Last Class is CoffeeKlatch’s first feature-length documentary and “marks the launch of its mission to spark dialogue and civic engagement through digital media.” Lofthouse commented, “As a close collaborator of Bob for the past decade and as one of his 40,000 former students, I’m thrilled to offer viewers the opportunity to experience Professor Reich in his classroom—his inspirational and unexpected approaches to teaching, his profound humanity, and his unwavering belief in education’s ability to triumph over cynicism.”

Reich’s upcoming book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My Americawill be published on August 19. The title refers at least in part to one of his distinguishing physical features; Reich is 4’11” tall. While diminutive, his many admirers would call him an intellectual giant.

The Last Class represents the directorial debut of Elliot Kirschner. His producing credits include Human Nature (2019) and The Most Unknown (2018).

“As a filmmaker and journalist, I’ve always been drawn to stories that I felt needed to be documented lest they be lost forever,” Kirschner said. “So it was a great privilege to be with Bob as he confronted a pivotal chapter of his life with candor, humor, and grace. His lifelong passion for teaching and how he inspires future generations of leaders is a story that the world needs to hear, especially now.”

Abramorama’s many documentary releases include Sam Green’s 32 SoundsVanessa & Ted Hope’s Invisible Nation; Ron Howard’s Grammy-winning The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years; Stanley Nelson’s Miles Davis: Birth of The Cool; Roberta Grossman and Nancy Spielberg’s Who Will Write Our History; Amir Bar-Lev’s Long Strange Trip – The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead; Brett tomorrow’s Janeon primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall; Asif Kapadia’s Senna; Banksy’s Academy Award-nominated Exit Through the Gift Shop; Laurie Anderson’s Heart of a Dog; Showtime’s Listen to Me Marlondirected by Stevan Riley, and the Oscar-nominated The Look of Silencedirected by Joshua Oppenheimer.