Mar 29, 2016
Education, Festival
San Francisco, CA — The San Francisco Film Society‘s Education department continues its year-round outreach to Bay Area students and educators with the annual Schools at the Festival (SATF) and College Days programs at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 21–May 5. A pioneering film literacy initiative, Schools at the Festival exposes a new generation of viewers to the best in international and independent cinema, bringing thousands of Bay Area students to Festival screenings and engaging them with filmmakers from around the world. College Days provides an exclusive three-day educational opportunity through a joint undertaking with San Francisco State University. Students of all ages have the opportunity to participate in the Festival through private, subsidized screenings at Festival theater venues and interactive visits to classrooms by filmmakers whose work is being shown at the Festival.
Five narrative features, six documentaries and 28 short films have been carefully selected for this year’s Schools at the Festival offerings to suit a broad range of curricula and grade levels, with scheduled weekday matinees open to all Bay Area high school, middle school, elementary school and home school classes. Targeted subject areas include foreign languages such as Chinese, French and Spanish, as well as issue-based programming for school subjects such as computer science, language arts, ethics, health, history, journalism, politics, science, social studies and world affairs.
Thanks to the generous support of the Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Education Fund, all public school students and teachers will pay just $1.00 per ticket for all SATF screenings; all other students and teachers will pay the discounted ticket price of $2.50 for Festival admission. Available exclusively to Bay Area educators and students, tickets may be purchased only through the SATF office by contacting Youth Education Manager Keith Zwölfer at kzwolfer@sffs.org or 415-561-5040. Schools at the Festival tickets cannot be purchased through the Festival box office.
Supplementing a two-week schedule of educational screenings at Festival theater venues, dozens of local and visiting filmmakers will also travel to numerous Bay Area classrooms to screen their work and interact directly with students. Filmmakers and artists who have visited classrooms in the past include Justine Malle, Jennifer Lawrence, Zachary Heinzerling, Debra Granik, Stephen Gaghan, Tim Hetherington, Ryan Fleck, Mike Ott, Tanya Hamilton, Allison Bagnall, Dice Tsutsumi, Jay Rosenblatt, Doug Pray, Jean-Marie Téno, Amanda Micheli, Ivy Ho, Jose Antonio Vargas, Les Blank, Leland Orser, Lourdes Portillo, Michel Ocelot and Ousmane Sembène.
Study guides developed by SFFS Youth Education staff will be made available for most Schools at the Festival films. Each guide is created to help teachers integrate the film’s content into their curricula, prepare students before screenings, direct post-screening discussions and provide additional resources, follow-up activities and projects. SATF curricula are designed in alignment with the Common Core and the Visual and Performing Arts Standards for California public schools. SATF study guides will be available for download on FilmEd, the Film Society’s online community and toolkit for media viewing and media making in the classroom. Visit filmed.sffs.org for more information.
Schools at the Festival will also feature its seventh annual Student Essay Contest. Made possible by the Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Education Fund, the contest aims to cultivate students’ imaginations, enhance their critical thinking and creative writing skills and instill a greater appreciation for the magic of movies in young audiences. Students in grades 2–12 are invited to submit essays in response to designated questions about select Schools at the Festival films. Contest winners will be announced in late May and receive cash awards ranging from $50 to $500.
Films offered to middle and high school students range from complex narratives to in-depth cultural explorations and gripping documentaries including Leaf Blower (Mexico 2015), Neither Heaven nor Earth (France/Belgium 2015), The Return (USA 2016), Life, Animated (USA 2015) and The Fits (USA 2015).
For elementary schools, there will be three separate screenings of Shorts 5: Family Films, a collection of animated and live-action films from England, Japan, Iran, Australia and the United States. This diverse program includes the newest animated short from Academy Award-winning Moonbot Studios, Taking Flight, as well as the delightful Moom, from Academy Award nominees and 2014 SFIFF alumni Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo.
In addition, Schools at the Festival will feature two exclusive screenings open only to SATF students and teachers. Bay Area filmmaker Robin Hauser Reynolds will present her documentary, Code: Debugging the Gender Gap, in which she examines the reasons why more girls and people of color are not seeking opportunities in computer science and explores how cultural mindsets, stereotypes, educational hurdles and sexism all play roles in this national crisis. Code: Debugging the Gender Gap will screen Monday May 2 at 10:00 am. A special collection of short films, titled A Child’s Perspective, explores the lives of children across the country taking on a variety of different topics including immigration, STEM curriculum, and music in public schools. A Child’s Perspective will screen on Wednesday April 27 at 12:45 pm.
Closing out SATF on Thursday May 5 at 12:45 pm is the annual presentation of Shorts 6: Youth Works, which features eight of the best new short narratives, documentaries, experimental works and animation by media makers aged 18 and under from the Bay Area and beyond.
Together with Schools at the Festival, the San Francisco Film Society’s Education department also announced the Festival’s seventh annual College Days series as part of its year-round Colleges & Universities program. A collaboration with San Francisco State University, this specially curated three-day class (April 29–May 1) includes screenings of five Festival films (Audrie & Daisy, NUTS!, Radio Dreams, Suite Armoricaine and Very Big Shot) and Q&As with filmmaker guests. Screenings and discussions will take place at Alamo Drafthouse New Mission.
Developed in coordination with College Days, “Film Festivals, Archives, and Movements in the San Francisco Bay Area” is a one-unit course taught by Professor Ingrid Schulz during the 2016 spring semester at San Francisco State University. A limited number of tickets are available for additional select college students for $45 per person. Faculty members may participate if attending with their students. Tickets may be purchased through the SFFS Education office by contacting education@sffs.org or415-561-5042. SFIFF College Days tickets are not available through the Festival box office.
The SFFS Education department and its Schools at the Festival endeavor are designed to develop media literacy, broaden insights into other cultures, enhance foreign language aptitude, develop critical thinking skills and inspire a lifelong appreciation of cinema. Since inception in 1991, SATF has served more than 100,000 Bay Area students and teachers from more than 500 educational institutions. The Colleges & Universities program supports and encourages students preparing to transition from the academic arena to the professional world. It offers an array of creative, educational, social, and professional opportunities, creating a valuable bridge that connects and engages students with the Film Society and the Bay Area filmmaking community.
For general information visit festival.sffs.org.
To request interviews or screeners, contact your Festival publicist.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/press.
59th San Francisco International Film Festival
The 59th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 21-May 5 at the Castro Theatre, the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission, the Roxie Theater and the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco and BAMPFA in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, SFIFF is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities, featuring nearly 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards with nearly $40,000 in cash prizes and upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests.