FilmSlam Student Festival

Connecting the world of film to your world in the classroom.

March 22 - 26, 2010
Weekday mornings

The Cleveland International Film Festival will prepare and present FilmSlam (High School Film Festival) on weekday mornings between March 22 and March 26, 2010 at Tower City Cinemas in Tower City Center. The educational goals of the 2010 FilmSlam are as follows: Expose students to other cultures to foster awareness and acceptance of people different from themselves; Improve media literacy among young people so that they can evaluate and criticize the messages they receive from film, television, recorded music, and the internet; and, Increase awareness of film as an art form and teach students that film is more than just entertainment and that it encompasses more than the Hollywood commercial releases with which they may be most familiar.

 

Teachers will be able to choose from the following program of films:
Foreign language (including Spanish and French films);
Documentary films;
American independent films; and
A program of short subjects

Filmmakers and guest speakers will facilitate interactive discussions at the conclusion of each screening.

A Student Advisory Committee composed of close to 50 high school students from diverse schools will be formed to help select films for FilmSlam at the 34th CIFF. Criteria for film selection is as follows:
Provoke discussion about social and cultural issue of interest to young people after the screenings and, later, in classrooms;
Represent contemporary filmmaking, with no film being more than three years old; and,
Provide an outstanding example of the filmmaking art.

A large mailing will market FilmSlam directly to educators. In partnership with the Ohio Department of Education, we have built a database of over 1,500 area teachers and school administrators. Meetings, email, US Mail, and follow-up calls will be utilized to build a larger base of partner school districts across Northeast Ohio.

Prior to FilmSlam, all participating teachers will receive a copy of "Media Viewing." In this targeted handout, all forms of media communications are analyzed with particular emphasis on film as a form of mass media. This handout will assist the teachers in conveying an understanding about the film experience the students will have, and enable the teachers to give students direction about how to best appreciate and understand the film they have selected for the class to view.

In addition, a study guide will be mailed to each teacher for every film that they register their class to attend. Each study guide will include an overview of the film, the historical background of the film, information on the type of film, suggestions for classroom discussion concerning broader issues, and curriculum links for follow-up activities to engage the students further.

Dear Lemon Lima (USA)
Louder Than a Bomb (USA)
Animated Shorts Program
French Shorts Program
German Shorts Program
Spanish Shorts Program