Igniting the Classroom Through Film

This week, The San Francisco Film Society hosted an event that put filmmakers and educators in the same room.

ITVS has been in and out of the classroom all week. On Wednesday, we hosted a live chat with high school seniors and an Independent Lens filmmaker, and on Tuesday night we streamed video/live blogged from the San Francisco Film Society’s event: Igniting the Classroom. The event included a panel of filmmakers and educators, including ITVS’s Education Manager Annelise Wunderlich, who filed this report.

As Education Manager for ITVS, I often feel like a kid in a candy store. I am surrounded by incredibly rich content for the classroom — the work of all the independent filmmakers that receive funding from ITVS is truly an educator’s dream.

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Tags: community classroom, documentary, education, film arts forum, filmmakers, san francisco film society, students

Filmmaking Couple Shed Light on Speaking in Tongues

Filmmakers Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider — Photo by Najib Joe Hakim

The award-winning ITVS film, Speaking in Tongues, tells the stories of four diverse kids becoming bilingual in the public school system. Filmmakers Marcia Jarmel and her husband Ken Schneider, will present the documentary at a special screening and panel discussion hosted at KQED in San Francisco — Thursday, September 2^nd (6:30 to 8:30 PM).

Our idea in making Speaking in Tongues was to showcase a world where communication barriers are being addressed. An African-American boy from public housing learns to read, write, and speak Mandarin. A Mexican-American boy, whose parents are not literate in any language, develops professional-level Spanish while mastering English. A Chinese-American girl regains her grandparents’ mother tongue, a language her parents lost through assimilation. A Caucasian teen travels to Beijing to stay with a Mandarin speaking host family. Their stories reveal the promise of a multilingual America.

We’ve witnessed this transformation in our own home. Our sons are in their fourth and eighth year in a public school Chinese immersion program. They cause a stir when they order in accent-less Chinese at local restaurants. But they also have translated for a confused Chinese speaker lost at the doctor, visited shut-in Chinese speaking elders, felt at home in a traditional Chinese home, and very important for us, helped us understand our film footage. When spoken to by a native speaker, they don’t pause to translate; they think in Chinese, having learned it like a baby, by hearing it spoken around them. Their experience prompts the telling of these small stories that in turn provoke one of the most compelling questions of our day: what do we as a nation need to know in the 21st century?

Photo by Andy Black

We truly believe that the promise of a multilingual America can be fulfilled. Support for multilingualism comes from a unique cross section of America. Community leaders, teachers, policymakers, and advocates from organizations at the forefront of multilingual education, in addition to parents of bilingual children, bring a range of perspectives that when brought together, generally makes for a lively and meaningful discussion. It is a honor to have the opportunity to share this film with communities nationwide.

To find out where you can see it, how to bring the discussion to your community, or to learn more about the benefits of multilingualism, please join our mailing list or Facebook group, read our blog, and check out the resources on our website.

You can also join us for an online conversation on September 13th at the Movie Night Salon, on Firedoglake.com from 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm ET/ 5:00pm – 6:30 pm PT.

Tags: bilingual, chinese, education, mandarin, multilingual, school, Spanish, students

Hey Teachers! You’ll Dig This

If you’re a teacher, we know times are tough. You are struggling to enrich your classroom, but beset on all sides by budget cuts, growing class sizes, and a dearth of basic supplies. Fear not – the new ITVS.org will help you find free (yes free) standards-based resources for your classroom that will engage and inform your students in new and innovative ways.

Our newly redesigned website is now a content destination for educators and youth-serving organizations. It now hosts our complete collections of lesson plans, activities, learning games, and film modules drawn from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens and ITVS’s Global Perspectives Project. You asked for it, and we listened: While we’ve been producing these resources for years now, the new ITVS.org website makes them more accessible and easier to use than ever.

The search and sort function in our section for educators will allow you to find the appropriate resources that align with the subject matter in your syllabus right from the landing page. And our crisp new online video player will allow you to stream film modules in your classroom right from our site.

Now you have even more options — our lesson plans are available on the site as HTML pages, you can still download them as PDFs, or get them on a DVD you can order online.

So what are you waiting for? Get your hands on our free resources and watch your students respond when they make connections between the facts in their textbooks and the films, games, and exercises we’re offering 24 hours a day.

Tags: classroom, education, Free, lesson plans, students, teachers

The Eyes of Me: Where are They Now?

Last night, Independent Lens aired the documentary The Eyes of Me, which follows four visually impaired teenagers in Texas as they face the usual challenges of adolescence while simultaneously learning to navigate a world designed for the sighted. Interested in knowing what happened to some of the students since the film was completed? Learn more and read their updates below:

Chas

CHAS -
Chas and his girlfriend Ashley had a baby boy, Chas Jr., in December of 2008. Chas Jr. was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, the same cancer of the retina that his mother Ashley had as a child. Chas Jr. spent much of 2009 undergoing chemotherapy and doctors are hopeful that he will be cancer-free and that they were able to save some of his sight. Chas Sr. continues to struggle from month to month with bills and the rigors of being an independent young adult and family man. He has worked off and on at the Lighthouse for the Blind and the only real constant for him has been his music. One2Cee plans to release some new music in conjunction with the release of The Eyes Of Me. Chas has yet to complete his GED.

Denise

DENISE -
During her sophomore year, Denise’s mother decided to bring her back to Dallas to attend her zoned high school. This arrangement didn’t work out too well for Denise and she ended up leaving that school as well. Denise lives with her mother and little sister – she still sings in her church choir and is taking some life skills classes and is looking for the right job training program.

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Tags: blind, students, visually impaired

The Eyes of Me Premiering Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS

“The Eyes of Me has the wisdom to illuminate a narrow, human scope on the issue of disability and blindness by focusing on intimate moments in the teens’ lives.”
- Philadelphia City Paper

How do you see yourself, when you can’t see at all? At the Texas School for the Blind students juggle all the usual pressures of high school along with the added struggles of growing up blind. Spend a dynamic year with four blind teens learning how to fit in and live independently. Forced to confront the world without sight, they share their inner visions of the outer world. Ultimately, you cannot understand their perceptions without challenging your own.

Check out a preview of tonight’s broadcast below:

The Eyes of Me premieres tonight, March 2, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Tags: blind, PBS, students, Texas, visually impaired

Community Cinema Screens The Eyes of Me in Philadelphia

Last night, Community Cinema hosted a screening of the Independent Lens film The Eyes of Me at the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, Pa. The film follows four visually impaired teenagers in Texas as they face the usual challenges of adolescence while simultaneously learning to navigate a world designed for the sighted. Regional Outreach Coordinator Cindy Burstein gives an overview of what happened and discusses the local impact.

The panel –– organized to represent an intergenerational view on being blind –– shared personal experiences as compared to those in the film.

The lobby of the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia was bustling with activity, as volunteers gathered for the Community Cinema screening of
The Eyes of Me.

Fran Fulton, a staff person with Liberty Resources, Inc. (a partner in presenting the event) was busy training a Villanova University sorority on how to serve as sighted guides. Fulton, who is blind, reminded the volunteers that some of the most basic things that sighted people take for granted are important to remember when assisting blind people, such as telling them which direction the seat is facing, and placing the hand of the blind person on the seat in front of them as a way to guide them into an available chair, which may be four or five seats down the row.

Audio describers from Amaryllis Theatre Company were setting up equipment for live audio description, and American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters from the Deaf-Hearing Communication Center were getting acquainted with the space and ready to provide sign language interpretation for the panel discussion taking place after the film.

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Tags: blind, PBS, Philadelphia, students, Texas, visually impaired

Video Extra: The Eyes of Me on Independent Lens

This is the companion piece to The Eyes of Me, which airs Tuesday, March 2, on Independent Lens on PBS. The film follows four visually impaired teenagers in Texas as they face the usual challenges of adolescence while simultaneously learning to navigate a world designed for the sighted.

In this video extra, a new student at the school, Denise, explores a brand new store in the neighborhood and learns to navigate on her own, with the help of a coach.

The Eyes of Me airs next Tuesday, March 2, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Learn more about The Eyes of Me >>

Tags: blind, PBS, students, Texas, visually impaired