UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A multi-university collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is producing a new documentary film to bring attention to the life and legacy of Polish pediatrician, author, playwright, radio broadcaster and educator Janusz Korczak, whose ideas in the late 1800s-early 1900s about children’s rights were considered revolutionary for their time.
Born Henryk Goldszmit in Warsaw in 1878, Korczak wrote under a pen name, arguing that children were not incomplete adults, but full human beings with their own inner lives, moral reasoning and rights. Through both his clinical work and his prolific writing, including ‘How to Love a Child” and “The Child’s Right to Respect,” he challenged authoritarian models of education and discipline long before children’s rights were recognized internationally.
The film, titled “Janusz Korczak: Guardian of Innocence,” seeks to bring Korczak’s story to a wider global audience and to ask: What might his message mean for young people and democracies today?
Though little-known outside specialist circles, Korczak’s life and legacy may be more urgently needed now than at any moment since his death, according to Mark Brennan, Penn State professor of leadership and community development and UNESCO Chair on Global Citizenship Education for Sustainable Peace through Youth and Community Engagement.
“His ideas helped shape modern understandings of children as rights‑bearing citizens, and his actions stand among the most profound moral examples of the 20th century,” said Brennan, who recently won an award named for Korczak, in recognition of his efforts working with youth and communities, as well as his work researching and promoting empathy, peace and global citizenship in education.
The film project grew out of the Janusz Korczak INNOCENCE Project, a UNESCO-aligned initiative supported by Penn State Global, connecting universities and youth organizations in the United States, Poland and Ireland.
Producers of the film are Brennan and Associate Professor Boaz Dvir at Penn State; Anna Odrowąż-Coates, UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair in Social Pedagogy at the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw; and Pat Dolan, UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth & Civic Engagement at the University of Galway.
“Guardian of Innocence” has been developed at the intersection of filmmaking, pedagogy, and public scholarship, Brennan said. The producers’ involvement reflects a shared commitment to translating research into public-facing educational impact.
Putting ideas into practice
In 1912, Korczak co-founded the Dom Sierot Jewish orphanage in Warsaw, where he put his ideas into daily practice by establishing a children’s parliament, a peer-run court, and systems of shared responsibility and self-governance. He also founded a national newspaper written by and for children, titled Mały Przegląd (The Little Review), giving thousands of young people across Poland a public voice. His ideas ultimately formed the basis for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Brennan said.
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Korczak refused multiple opportunities to escape the Warsaw Ghetto, choosing instead to remain with the children in his care until they all were deported, marching defiantly together to the trains that took them to their deaths at Treblinka in August 1942.
“His story is as much one of love for the children in his care, as it is a story of a visionary, and a heroic sacrifice,” Brennan said, adding that the film is “not a simple historical biopic.”
“Across many societies, antisemitism and racism are resurging, public discourse is increasingly hostile, and young people are disengaging from active citizenship, often out of disillusionment rather than apathy. By returning to Janusz Korczak’s radical belief in dignity, dialogue, and participation, especially for children, the film asks what it means to nurture democratic life when its foundations appear increasingly fragile,” Brennan said. “The film will feature young people from all over the world descending on Poland to engage with Korczak’s ideas and see if the man who went with his children to perish in Treblinka, may have left a blueprint behind for us today.”
Academic leadership as creative partnership
“This film is an exciting extension of practice,” Brennan said. “It brings research on youth, democracy, and peacebuilding into conversation with lived experience.”
Dolan added, “For Korczak, children’s participation was never symbolic. It was foundational and that principle runs through every strand of this project.”
Odrowąż-Coates noted that Korczak’s legacy demands more than commemoration: “Korczak believed democracy had to be learned early and practiced daily. The film shows what that looks like today, in real places, with real young people.”
Dvir brings to the project a long-standing commitment to documentary filmmaking as a tool for civic dialogue, historical memory and Holocaust education. He is also director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative at Penn State, where his work focuses supporting K-12 students to learn critical thinking, fact-finding, active listening and civic discourse skills.
“It’s an honor to participate in telling Korczak’s story to a wide audience,” Dvir said. “His ideas and principles are as relevant and urgent today as they were when he was alive.”
Academy Award–winning actor Cillian Murphy, who is patron of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre University of Galway, will narrate key sections of the film.
The film has been advanced by Penn State Global, which helped catalyze the international, cross-disciplinary collaboration.
“This project exists because institutions believed in collaboration across borders and sectors,” Heery said. “Penn State Global played a crucial role in making that collaboration possible.”
For the filmmakers and academic partners involved, the project is ultimately about responsibility.
“Korczak saw children as moral equals,” Brennan said. “This film asks whether we are prepared to take that idea seriously, now, when it matters most for democracy and peace.”
In production, seeking support
Production is well underway and, once completed, the film is expected to premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival, followed by an international festival run, broadcast outreach, and university screenings anchored within Penn State’s global academic network.
Watch a preliminary trailer for “Janusz Korczak: Guardian of Innocence” on YouTube.
The team is now fundraising to complete remaining filming, post-production, original music composition, sound design, and to develop educational versions of the documentary for schools and universities.
Those who wish to support the completion of the film can make donations through Penn State’s crowdfunding platform, Let’s Grow State, with contributions directed to the UNESCO Chairs Janusz Korczak Documentary Fund.
Those interested in learning more about the documentary, and supporting production or partnerships, are encouraged to get in touch with Mark Brennan, mab187@psu.edu, and Boaz Dvir, bcd14@psu.edu.
Support for the UNESCO Chairs Janus Korczak Documentary Fund advances the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.