A Place in the World

A program of the CFI Education Program

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:

1. 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.
2. Use video materials as well as Teacher guides in preparation for the event.
3. 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.
4. Make every effort to attend every screening scheduled or switch (one time only) to the other concurrent screening if the time becomes a problem.
5. Be responsible for student attendance. Students migrating away from the program should be held to a minimum.
6. 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