Web site Aims to Turn Kids on to Classic Cinema

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Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 8/28/2007 2:05:00 PM

How many times has a middle school student told you about a great black-and-white film that he’s seen? The answer is probably zero.

That’s why The Story of Movies, a curriculum created by the Film Foundation, an organization founded by legendary director Martin Scorsese, hopes to "teach students to understand the visual language of film"--and it's all free, says Jennifer Ahn, managing director of the foundation, which created the program, in partnership with IBM and Turner Classic Movies. The foundation supports the preservation of film.

The site, which mainly targets kids in grades eight to 12, offers teachers, media specialists, and public librarians three interdisciplinary lessons on the classic films To Kill a Mockingbird, directed by Robert Mulligan in 1962; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, directed by Frank Capra in 1939; and The Day the Earth Stood Still, directed by Robert Wise in 1951.

The main goal is to introduce classic cinema to kids at an early age so that they gain an understanding of the social, cultural, and historical significance of film. The lessons also teach students how to “read” and interpret the language of film, and introduce the concept of ownership and piracy.

The lessons were designed to meet state standards in English, language arts, history, social studies, art, and science through the creation of the first ever National Film Study Standards so that teachers can easily incorporate the curriculum in their classes, Ahn adds.

Since its launch in 2005, the site has had a steady stream of schools sign up, Ahn says. So far, more than 8 million students from about 20,000 schools across the country have incorporated the lessons into their curriculum. There are future plans to include foreign and independent films, as well as to expand the target market to elementary schools.

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