Documentary on DeSantis's New College Takeover Heads to Theatres in September
A documentary charting the right-wing takeover of New College of Florida under Governor Ron DeSantis will open in theatres next month, with Fourth Act Films setting a rolling release across more than 30 US markets. The film, titled First They Came for My College, launches 17 September at the Hippodrome in Gainesville, Florida, before expanding to New York's DCTV Firehouse Cinema on 25 September and rolling out to cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Austin, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Lawrence, Columbus and Springfield (Deadline).
Directed and produced by Patrick Bresnan, the 90-minute film embeds with the student newspaper, an outspoken professor, and students from across the political spectrum as they confront a new administration installed by DeSantis in 2023. That year, the governor appointed six ultraconservatives to the college's Board of Trustees, including Christopher Rufo — the activist behind the campaign against Critical Race Theory — and Matthew Spalding, who went on to play a leading role in Project 2025 (Deadline).
The consequences were swift. Over 40 percent of New College's 105 faculty members had left by autumn 2023, according to the college itself (New College of Florida). The Guardian reported in June 2026 that the board, hand-picked by DeSantis, is now moving to acquire a neighbouring university campus in Sarasota-Manatee as part of its expansion plan (The Guardian).
The film's release notes describe New College as the first public college transformed by a political coup, calling it a blueprint for censorship and political interference in academia. The documentary traces how faculty and students mounted what it terms a fierce resistance — exposing what they saw as cruelty, incompetence and corruption in the new administration's actions (Deadline).
Bresnan's producing team brings a personal dimension. Holly Herrick and Harry William Hanbury are both alumni of New College of Florida; Zackary Drucker rounds out the producing credits. The film features student Gabriella Batista (Deadline).
The festival run has been extensive. First They Came for My College had its world premiere at the 2026 True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri (Deadline), was included in the second wave of SXSW 2026 Film & TV Festival selections (Deadline), and screened at the Florida Film Festival, which ran 10–19 April 2026 (Deadline). Bresnan was also interviewed about the project by Lauren O'Neill-Butler in BOMB Magazine in April (BOMB Magazine).
A documentary about a small liberal-arts college in Sarasota rarely commands a theatrical footprint this wide. The release puts the film in front of audiences in politically varied markets — deep-red Springfield, Missouri and reliably blue San Francisco among them — at a moment when higher education policy remains a live issue in state legislatures across the country.
