With a mixture of humor, outrage and passion, MAKE A CIRCLE follows a group of childcare providers determined to change how society values the education of its youngest citizens and their own profession. The film confronts a broken system that provides early childcare and education to over 14 million American children, but where “Parents can’t afford to pay, and teachers can’t afford to stay.” Immersing viewers in both the imaginative, whimsical world of young children and the passionate, hopeful, but imperfect world of the adults who teach and care for them, the film gives voice to the educators and their ideas on how to improve the system.

Directed by Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide, MAKE A CIRCLE premieres on PBS.org and the PBS app on Monday, September 1, 2025, and on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings). The film is made available to PBS by KQED Presents, the national distribution service of San Francisco-based public media station KQED, and will air on KQED 9 as follows: Friday, 9/5 at 8pm, Saturday, 9/6 at 6pm, and Monday, 9/8 at 9pm.

“MAKE A CIRCLE is a love letter to early educators and a portrait of a childcare system in crisis,” said filmmaker Jen Bradwell, who is also a parent. “The film delves into one of the greatest disconnects in American society: the importance of a child’s first five years versus how the work of early care and education is valued.”

MAKE A CIRCLE captures the unfolding stories of Patricia, owner of a family daycare center in San Jose and leader of a new union for childcare providers; Charlotte, owner of a daycare center in Oakland, California, who tirelessly lifts up the low-income families in her care; and Anne, the director of a large preschool in Berkeley, who finds novel ways to value and support her teachers when jobs at Starbucks are offering higher pay. Within their stories are cinematic glimpses into the unique, imaginative world of the young children in their care. The film culminates as thousands of childcare workers march on their state capitol, demanding better working conditions. Weaving together the magic they create in the classroom, the struggles they endure at home, and their unwavering activism for their profession, MAKE A CIRCLE offers a rare, inside look at the lives of early childhood educators — the backbone of a childcare system on the brink.

“KQED is proud to be the presenting station for MAKE A CIRCLE,” said Amy Miller, Director, Video Production & Distribution for KQED. “We are committed to offering the finest programs to public television stations around the country. MAKE A CIRCLE is a great example of how public media delivers value to communities and viewers nationwide, offering important perspectives of critical national issues like child care.”

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FACTS ABOUT EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION*

Childcare costs more than rent in all 50 states.
Early childhood educators make an average of $13 an hour nationwide.
Approximately 25 million parents in the US rely on childcare and over one million people make up the early care and education workforce.
Every dollar invested in high-quality early care and education can generate up to $7.30 from beneficial impacts on health, children’s future labor incomes, crime, education, and mothers’ labor incomes, and more.
80% of a child’s brain develops before age three, and 90% before age five.

MAKE A CIRCLE has been an official selection at a range of notable film festivals, including SXSW EDU, Doclands, Heartland International Film Festival and the United Nations Association Film Festival.

MAKE A CIRCLE is written and directed by Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide and produced by Rebekah Fergusson, Bradwell and Boekelheide. The Editor is Jen Bradwell. Todd Boekelheide and Aldona Watts are Co-Editors. The Director of Photography is Todd Boekelheide. Music is by Emily Rice. Sabrina Schmidt Gordon is the Consulting Editor. Additional Cinematography by John Behrens, Jason Blalock and Rebekah Fergusson. Sam Lehmer is the Re-Recording Mixer. Justin Pearson is the Sound Designer and Sound Effects Editor.

More information is available at makeacirclefilm.com.

About the Filmmakers
Jen Bradwell (Director, Editor) has edited more than 15 feature documentaries, including the Emmy Award-winning Time For Ilhan, The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia (Sundance/HBO), Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s Fair Play (Hulu), and Erika Cohn’s What You’ll Remember (NYT Op-Docs). Two seminal projects she wrote and edited (Resilience and Paper Tigers) have had more than 50,000 community screenings to date, helping ignite a national conversation about childhood trauma. Jen has taught editing master classes at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and UC Santa Cruz’s Social Documentation program. Years of editing and story consulting have inspired her to direct her first feature documentary.

Todd Boekelheide (Director, Cinematographer) has had a long and varied career, beginning with editing picture and sound on Star Wars and The Black Stallion. He subsequently mixed sound on numerous Oscar-winning films and won an Academy Award for Amadeus. He then built a career composing music for documentaries, including Hearts of Darkness, Ballets Russes, Senorita Extraviada, and 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets. He has worked with a stellar list of filmmakers: David Fincher, Carroll Ballard, David Lynch, Jon Else, Milos Forman, Philip Kaufman, David Peoples, Bill Couturié, Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, Lourdes Portillo and many others. Todd brings his decades of experience to his directorial debut.

About KQED Presents
KQED Presents is the national television distribution service of KQED, the San Francisco-based PBS and NPR member station. Since 1987, KQED Presents has worked with independent producers to bring the highest-quality documentary films and series to public television stations across the country. KQED Presents guides producers through the complexities of public media distribution, ensuring their programs meet all technical, editorial, and funding standards necessary for national broadcast.

PRESS CONTACTS:
Mary Lugo / Cara White, CaraMar, Inc.
cara.white@mac.com; lugo@negia.net

Downloadable photos and additional information available at MAKE A CIRCLE photos.

*Sources:
1. Fortune.com
2. Berkeley.edu
3. Cscce.berkeley.edcu
4. First Five Years Fund
5. Firstthingsfirst.org

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KQED Presents New Documentary 'Make a Circle' on PBS September 1st