Washington Political Film Foundation

Sculpture Garden of the National Gallery of Art with the National Archives and US Department of Justice in the backgroundd

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The Washington Political Film Foundation provides a unique, more purposeful path for constructive political engagement that unleashes the power, promise and creativity of film.

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2026

A Republic, If We Can Keep It

1776 - 2026 - A Campus Conversation

november 18, 2026

To round off the 250th anniversary year of American independence, the Washington Political Film Foundation will convene a single, simultaneous event across leading colleges and universities.

Our initiative is inspired by a singular exchange, recorded at the very birth of the American republic.

— Benjamin Franklin's Challenge

On September 17, 178 7, in the same Philadelphia hall where the Declaration of Independence had been adopted eleven years before, the delegates of the Constitutional Convention signed the new U.S. Constitution and brought the new government into being.

As the delegates dispersed, Benjamin Franklin was approached by Elizabeth Willing Powel, who knew many of the delegates personally. The exchange is recorded in the journal of James McHenry of Maryland: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy? ” “A republic,” Franklin replied, “if you can keep it."

This initiative takes its name from Franklin’s reply, with one word changed: his you becomes we, because ‘keeping the republic’ is the responsibility of each generation. The conversation reaches across the Atlantic to bring a European perspective as well as a national one.

The Event

A single event, on the same date, at the same time, with the same program at every participating campus - two and a half hours in two acts. Act One unfolds within each campus’s own room; in Act Two, every campus is linked live in a single conversation.

Act One - Looking Back

A sixty-minute retrospective on 250 years of American history. After introductions, the program begins with a 25-minute video presentation, using memorable scenes from the “Hollywood” prism of film, television, and streaming. The video is shown at the same time, in every room, and lays the foundation for the next 30 minutes. Moderated by an on-stage host, academic experts and commentators selected by each college/university offer their own interpretation of history and how it has been represented artistically, and creatively, “on film."

[Act One: 60 minutes]

Intermission - 20 Minutes

Act Two - Looking Forward

In this part of the event, the switches are flipped and now every campus is linked live for a cross-campus conversation on American democracy. This looks not only at the outcome of the midterms but the longer-term trajectory of American politics and power - and the prospects for democracy, at home and abroad. Overhead screens carry split-screen feeds from every campus, joining the rooms into one.

[Act Two: 75 minutes]

- Why November 18th

The event is deliberately timed to the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. November 18 falls two weeks after the vote of November 3 - far enough out that counting, ballot certification, and the post-election legal challenges that have become routine are substantially resolved. By that date, the new balance of power in Washington - control of the House and Senate - should be clear, or very nearly so. From there, Act Two turns to the years ahead: how American politics and power, and America’s standing with friends and adversaries, take shape. What endures beneath the politics is democracy itself - and whether the ideals of the American Constitution will continue to be the rock upon which the American republic stands.

The Foundation and its mission, initiatives and events have been underwritten by generous support from the

Goldman Sachs Foundation

For more information, contact Lisa Friday Scott - Senior Advisor, External Affairs

lfriday37@gmail.com