by | March 18, 2026
‘First They Came for My College’: A Documentary of Desantis’s War on Woke at New College
This hot-button documentary about Sarasota's New College digs into the controversial takeover of an educational institution cherished by generations of graduates.
The unmaking of Sarasota’s New College, targeted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for its progressive liberal arts programs as part of his war on woke in 2023, is the subject of the film “First They Came for My College,” which recently enjoyed high-profile festival launches at Missouri’s True/False and Texas’s South by Southwest Film Festival.
The campus underwent a harsh and unexpected conservative makeover, upending a small liberal arts college of just 700 students. Books written by Black and Indigenous authors were removed from the library, community gardens were flattened and the curriculum was replaced.
Produced by New College alum Holly Herrick (head of Film & Creative Media for the Austin Film Society) and directed by Patrick Bresnan (whose project “Naked Gardens” explored a Florida nudist colony), the film deployed students themselves to help tell their story: five of them, armed with camera phones, to capture everything from Board of Trustees meetings and campus protests to school newspaper meetings. “They present a world that no reportage on New College had given voice to,” Bresnan says. It’s a collaborative approach that the filmmaker previously used in his debut feature (co-directed with Ivete Lucas) “Pahokee,” set in a mostly Black high school in the Southeast Florida town of the same name.
“What Gov. DeSantis set in motion had the opposite effect of what he intended,” Bresnan stated in the film’s press notes. “It galvanized the community to preserve and fight for the college they love, and it created a blueprint of resistance and stories that will inspire all those who defend academic freedom and diversity.”
The mere existence of the film has already struck a nerve. Richard Corcoran, installed by DeSantis as New College’s new president, published a letter ahead of its first SXSW screening, denouncing the work as “sensationalized” and “inflammatory.” “That was pretty amazing,” says Bresnan, who credits it with generating nearly $5,000 in online donations to the film’s impact campaign.
The film will continue screening on the film festival circuit, with a Sunshine State debut on April 11 at the Florida Film Festival in Maitland.
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About the Author
Steve, a Tallahassee native and Flamingo contributor since 2017, has written about film, music, art and other popular culture for publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, GQ, and The Los Angeles Times. He is the artistic director for the Tallahassee Film Festival and writes a monthly film newsletter for Flamingo, Dollar Matinee.
