KQED Tackles Dropout Crisis with Town Hall Meeting

By Annelise Wunderlich
ITVS’s Education Manager

ITVS’s Community Classroom, along with over 150 Bay Area educators, gathered at Laney College for KQED’s town hall meeting about the dropout crisis.

Panelists included educators Cesar Cruz of ARISE High School, Dr. Kimberly Mayfield of Holy Names University, Dave Orphal of Skyline High School, Josue Diaz Jr. of Oakland Tech, and Betsy Shulz of Emiliano Zapata Street Academy.

Here are some startling facts:

• Every year, roughly 1.3 million students in the U.S. drop out of high school. That’s 7,000 students each day.
• More than 20 percent of California high school students drop out of school before graduation*
• In the City of Oakland, almost 40 percent of students don’t graduate*

ITVS Community Classroom attended the March 13th event at Laney College, sitting in an auditorium filled with passionate teachers, present to talk about the growing dropout crisis in American education. It is hard to grab headlines with this story in a news environment already saturated with reports about the sad state of the public education system in this country. But with their American Graduate initiative, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in partnership with America’s Promise Alliance and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is keeping the conversation alive. KQED is one of 20 “hub” public media radio and television stations across the country that CPB tapped to host public forums about the crisis. › Continue reading

Tags: community classroom, drop out crisis, education, KQED, Oakland

Oakland Rallies Behind The Interrupters

Last week, Community Cinema broke records at the Oakland Museum of California with more than 450 audience members in attendance for The Interrupters.  The documentary, by filmmaker Steve James, will premiere Tuesday February 14 on PBS’ FRONTLINE. Watch a clip from the Community screening in Oakland, below:

In partnership with KQED, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Youth ALIVE!, the Urban Peace Movement, and a host of other youth organizations represented, the film showed to a standing room only packed house in two theaters.

Youth were at the center of the discussion and made up the majority of the audience.  The panel included Ameena Matthews and Eddie Bocanegra, Violence Interrupters featured in the film.

Tags: ameena matthews, community cinema, Frontline, Oakland, steve james, the interrupters

Community Cinema Rocks the Bay Area

Sara Brissenden-Smith, regional outreach coordinator for the Bay Area, gives us highlights from a season of Community Cinema screenings.

I just completed my first full season of Community Cinema — that’s 18 screenings, with more than 30 community partners, 40 panelists, and more than 1,000 audience members.

A DJ spins at the Copyright Criminals screening in Oakland

Copyright Criminals brought out some of our most energetic and diverse viewers. People flooded into the theater and almost immediately lost themselves in the music.  Maybe it’s because I’m a hip hop fan, but having youth DJs mixing Lauryn Hill and Tribe Called Quest started my night off right. Law students, hip hop enthusiasts, teenagers, established authors, and DJs all contributed to conversations about artistic expression, creative ownership, and the overall impact on hip hop.

› Continue reading

Tags: between the folds, community cinema, copyright criminals, documentary, garbage dreams, Oakland, PBS, Young@Heart

Donate Life California and ITVS Partner for D TOUR Community Cinema Screening

Currently there are more than 100,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, of which 20,000 on the wait list live in California. Due to a lack of donors, 18 patients die every day awaiting a second chance at life.

Donate Life California and ITVS have recently partnered to spread awareness about organ donation for the upcoming Community Cinema screening of D TOUR in Oakland, CA at 6:00 PM, September 23, at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. The film chronicles musician Pat Spurgeon’s search for a living kidney donor and the challenges associated with finding a viable match.

Taking a few minutes to register as an organ and tissue donor can mean a lifetime to someone else.

For those living in California, register on the Donate Life California Web site >>

Find out about upcoming screenings of D TOUR near you >>

Tags: California, kidney, Oakland, organ donation

The Masculinity Project: Watch Tonight’s Virtual Screening of NEVER WILL BE FORGOTTEN: Oscar Grant Tribute

The National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) and Independent Television Service (ITVS) joined up to present a web-based “virtual screening” series, which showcases some of the latest short documentaries from the Masculinity Project.

Be sure to check out tonight’s virtual screening at 8:00 PM EDT of the film NEVER WILL BE FORGOTTEN: Oscar Grant Tribute, which looks at the police shooting of Oakland teenager Oscar Grant in early 2009 and two teens who decided to use music to express their frustration. Working with Youth Movement Records, an Oakland-based youth media organization that teaches youth to create hip-hop music, the young producers crafted a song for Grant and showcase their song, its production process and thoughts on the incident. Following the screening, join a live Q&A with the filmmaker.

Launched in November 2008 by NBPC, ITVS and the help of national partners, the Masculinity Project is an interactive multimedia and community engagement initiative. The initiative delves beyond stereotypes to reveal what it means to be a black man in America through an online mix of new and re-released works from emerging and veteran filmmakers, focusing on the areas of community, justice, culture and family.

Watch NEVER WILL BE FORGOTTEN at 8:00 PM EDT tonight and join the discussion >>

R.S.V.P on Facebook >>

Learn more about the Masculinity Project >>

Tags: African American, Masculinity Project, Oakland, Oscar Grant