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Children and teens learn best
from their peers. Their peers in mainstream films are seldom more than
props, hardly ever addressing the real problems facing youth with any
understanding or empathy. This annual curriculum, now in its third year,
addresses not only the personal, individual problems of youth, but also
their interaction with the world and the many ways they cope and problem
solve - -sometimes with the help of adults and sometimes all alone. Films
and appropriate speakers form the core of the lessons, relating
everything to contemporary and local problems even when the films may
be older or from other countries or areas outside of the US.
The main events we encounter as children that form us as adults are addressed
in this curriculum as discrete units, and are based on the principal events
and structures in a child's life that have the greatest influence on their
development. Some, such as war and death, are major external traumas;
others such as sexuality and family are intimate and personal. All are
as old as the first thinking human's experience and as contemporary as
today's news.
The films are chosen from a wide
range of genres, countries, and time periods, representing an historical
and cultural continuity and a timelessness of vision. It is paramount
in this curriculum that the students experience not only the emotions
of the protagonists, but also their environment. In all films, the main
protagonist of a chosen film is a child or a youth. Through the curriculum,
the students will hopefully realize that they are not alone in the world,
not the only one experiencing these joys and disappointments. The other
important purpose of the films is to offer viable life alternatives and
to create sympathy for those alternatives.
The films are aimed at grades 7-12.
A full curriculum Teacher's Guide is supplemented by individual film teacher's
guides and film clips on DVD for classroom preparation, as well as supplemental
clips from other related films. The CFI Education manager visits each
class in their classroom before the film event and prepares both teacher
and students. The first meeting is an orientation that mixes school groups
from different schools in the entire Bay Area. We encourage classes from
different schools to join together and create new friendships. We screen
the films on 35mm film and theatrical quality digital media and in a theater
setting wherever possible. There is no cost for schools.
The Teachers Guides provide a large reference section of similar films
available more widely through libraries and video stores. We also have
post film discussions with subject area experts and/or the filmmakers
themselves where those filmmakers have been immersed in their subject
enough to offer an informed dialogue.
Teacher
and Student Input
Program participants, recruited from all Bay Area schools, are kept to
100 students or less per class and no more than four schools in each class.
We run two concurrent programs with the same material but, in some cases,
different speakers.
Since the program asks for a monthly commitment from October to April,
teachers need to have good communication with the project manager. We
schedule an orientation in October where teachers and students get to
know each other. Our ground rules are:
- Encourage students to mingle outside of their own group (beyond the
ice breaker exercises we will schedule for the first film event). A
wonderful side benefit is for the students to learn about other neighborhoods
and cultures.
- Use video materials as well as Teacher guides in preparation for
the event.
- Be responsible for students who may wander out of the screenings.
This is very important since the teachers themselves know their students
and their habits and volunteers watching the lobby will not.
- Make every effort to attend every screening scheduled or switch (one
time only) to the other concurrent screening if the time becomes a problem.
- Be responsible for student attendance. Students migrating away from
the program should be held to a minimum.
- Commit to the final meeting (which can also be held by phone) where
feed-back will provide improvements for the next year. That feed-back
will also come from students who will speak 3 times during the program
in brief forums before the films and be asked for their final suggestions
in a prepared and simple questionnaire.
Films and
Topics for 2007-2008
Orientation
We have tried to change the design of the program to better facilitate
teachers and students getting to know each other through the year. As
we explore the themes and the films it’s just as valuable to share
personal experience and values. The first meeting, therefore, is designed
as an orientation to the purposes of the program and a way to mix students
and teachers up to “break the ice”.
This session will be started with a screening of a short . Then there
will be small group break-outs and time for group Q&A’s. Attendance
at this first meeting is mandatory to continue with the program although
100% attendance within the groups of course will be impossible.
Topic: Family
My Flesh and Blood
East Bay mom Susan Tom
is a remarkable woman. She has made a life commitment to adopt severely
handicapped children into her household and care for them with an inspired
“tough love”. The film spans four seasons with the Tom family
of 11 special needs kids who are either mentally or severely physically
handicapped and very individual people. While the film is a portrait of
Tom herself, the focus is on family and how the word doesn’t necessarily
mean blood ties. These kids relate to each other and the world like no
other family you’ll ever see. Guest: Susan Tom.
Film is 83 min
Topic: Religion and Society
Osama
While an often destructive debate rages in the US about separation of
church and state/ scripture and civil laws, OSAMA paints a bleak picture
of what can happen in a country that was ruled by orthodox religious law.
During the reign of the ultra conservative Taliban in Afghanistan a family
of three generations of women have lost their only male family member
to war. Their movements and their ability to make even a sustenance living
are proscribed by sharia law. In desperation the grandmother and mother
conspire to dress the pre-adolescent daughter as a boy and send her out
to work. Tragedy follows. Guests will include at least two young
women who escaped from Afghanistan under the Taliban. Film
is 82 min
Topic: Teen Pregnancy
Bellyfruit
The rate of teen pregnancy in the US is the highest in the Western World.
Add to that, teen mothers often have to cope with a sometimes catastrophic
interruption in their education (making them unable to support their new
family without help from the father or parents), physical abuse from angry
sex partners and banishment from their families. This dramatic film about
three teen mothers from entirely different social/racial/geographic circumstances
is based on stories written in a women’s workshop for teens moms.
It is a rich portrait of three young women-- one African-American, one
Latina, one Caucasian-- who make difficult decisions, sometimes wisely
and sometimes very unwisely. Guests will be director Kerri Lee
Green and possibly one of the actors from the film. Film
is 87 min
Topic: Sexuality
The Education of Shelby Knox
When then 16yo Shelby Knox came in conflict with her Lubbock Texas High
School’s abstinence only sex education program, no one—least
of all herself—knew that it would be an inspiration for a life-long
commitment to activism. Her stance against abstinence only and against
students who discriminated against the gay teen population in the school,
brought her into the eye of a storm that rocked the town and her family.
This documentary portrait proves that even conservative values can sometimes
bow to smart argument. Shelby, now 21, has attended our screenings for
three years through her years in college and now out in the world looking
for a job in the political non-profit world. Guest: Shelby will
be joining us again this year. Film is 76 min
Topic: School
Third Monday in October
Four middle schools in diverse neighborhoods and states are looked at
through their student council president elections. Often very funny, always
incisive, Vanessa Roth’s documentary is also respectful of its young
subjects. No two elections are alike. Many people say that life is only
a repeat of High School. This film takes it down a few grades, but with
relish. Hall Middle School in Marin is included in the film. Guest:
director Vanessa Roth and a student from Hall Middle School.
Film is 91 min
Topic: Racism
Promises
One of the longest regional conflicts, between the Palestinian people
and the nation of Israel, has been stoked by racism. In President Jimmy
Carter’s book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid he condemned Israel
for pursuing a racist policy worse than South Africa’s. While that
point may be debatable, the fact is that much of the violence between
Palestinians and Israeli’s is based on a racism born of misunderstandings
of who each group “is”. Justine Shapiro, Carlos Bolado and
BZ Goldberg’s 2001 Oscar-nominated film looks at the problem through
children. With an incredible way of finding and talking to (not at) a
sensitively balanced group of children from many backgrounds (Hassidic
Jews, orthodox “settlers”, non-religious Israeli families,
Palestinian orthodox Muslims, families of militants and non-political
families), the filmmakers finally realize that if these wonderful kids
could only meet… It’s a lesson in what can come from conversation.
Guest: director Justine Shapiro. Film is 106 min.
For questions call John Morrison at 415 383 5256 x113
or email jmorrison@cafilm.org |
