Focus on French Cinema's
Educational Initiatives
KEY GENERAL QUALITIES OF OUR FESTIVAL:
✓ We have developed a very loyal audience over 10 years-- they trust us to please, challenge, and surprise them.
✓ Both audience members and festival guests have remarked over the years at the feeling of intimacy and proximity that is very special and particular to FFC.
✓ Our selection this year showcases the many strengths of French and francophone cinema, including popular genre and art films, shorts, animated films, and documentaries. The films we will show touch on some of the most important topics of our time, including religious and cultural identity, education, immigration, and communication.
EDUCATION—OUR TRACK RECORD, OUR VISION:
Our Track Record…
From our very first year of the festival, when we began in a university theater and filled the auditorium with students and community members to meet Coline Serreau and Philippe Muyl and watch their beautiful films, education has been at the center of our mission and activities. Over ten years, Focus on French Cinema (FFC) has fulfilled our educational mission in the following ways:
✓ Middle and High School screening: welcoming 300+ area MS & HS students each year for over a decade— in addition to films and post-screening discussions, we provide pedagogical materials to support the films;
✓ Meet Directors and Actors Breakfast/Round Table: free for the entire community, including dozens of university students each year;
✓ University on campus kick-off screening targeted to students: free for the entire college community;
✓ Student filmmaking contest: festival provides airfare, room and board for French film director and casting agent to work with students for the week of the film contest; films screened during the festival and featured on festival website;
✓ On campus Master Class for students (past Master Classes have included Mia Hansen-Love, Gilles Bourdos, Jean-Marie Téno, and more);
✓ We offer specialized, semester-long internships for college students (positions offered yearly include: student volunteer leader; filmmaking workshop manager; social media specialist; event photographer; film production);
✓ Dozens of volunteer opportunities for students: high school and college students have the chance to give a few hours serving as ambassadors for the festival, helping with the Opening Night Gala, handing out programs, assisting patrons to their seats; in return, they attend the entire festival for free.
New For 2015…
✓ For the very first time, we will hold 3 student screenings/events in Greenwich, CT and NYC, reaching well over 1,500 students: a screening of Sur le chemin de l’école for all public middle-school students in the Town of Greenwich (pop. 60,000), to be held on site at one of the town’s middle schools; a high-school screening in Greenwich of Les héritiers; and in partnership with FIAF, a student event/screening with our guest Abd-Al Malik through FIAF’s Young Audiences Program—regular participants include Wayne Valley High School (NJ), Flushing High School (Queens), PS205 (Bronx) and PS 189 (Brooklyn).
2015 Guests Related to Our Educational Initiatives…
✓ Abd-Al Malik, poet, rapper/slammer, novelist, and director of Qu’Allah Bénisse la France, will appear at the Young Audiences event at FIAF;Des Étoiles director
✓ Dyana Gaye will screen her film and participate in a post-screening discussion at Yale University in the week following our festival, co-sponsored by the Yale African Student Association and FFC.
