TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES 2011 MEDIA EDUCATION PROGRAMS, REACHING OVER 12,000 STUDENTS ACROSS NEW YORK CITY

TFI to Provide 100 NYC Public School Classrooms with Experienced Filmmakers

To Enhance Film Education Curriculum

[New York, NY] The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) has announced its 2011 educational programs, highlighted by two new initiatives. The first is an in-school program that will provide 100 New York City public school classrooms with TFI Teaching Artists, experienced filmmakers who will assist teachers in implementing the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts: The Moving Image curriculum and improving their instructional practice around the media arts. The second is TFI’s first bilingual, after-school film program in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Both programs will kick off this month.

TFI’s expanded youth programming complements the established Tribeca Youth Screening Series and TFI Teen Programs (Tribeca Film Fellows and Our City My Story) that will take place during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), from April 20–May 1, 2011. As it enters its 10th year, the not-for-profit organization will offer more than 12,000 New York City public school students the opportunity to make, watch and learn through and about film.

“As citizens of our nation’s cultural capital, New York City students should have the best tools available to unlock their creative potential and pursue higher education,” said Beth Janson, newly appointed Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute. “We’re proud to be able to expand and enhance our multi-dimensional approach to using film and the media arts as a creative and educational tool.”

“We now have the capacity to provide even more students with access to films and filmmaking,” said Lisa Lucas, Director of Education for the Tribeca Film Institute. “This year, teachers will receive the additional training they need to support sophisticated film-based art-making in the classroom and students will get the direct benefit of TFI’s experienced teaching artists as we launch the next phase of the Moving Image Blueprint curriculum. Together, we are offering young filmmakers new ways to tell their stories, expanding audiences for independent film, and making the film industry more accessible to our city’s teens.”

Through four tiers of programming, TFI will offer a diverse slate of programs that address the needs of educators, young filmmakers, students and the field at large throughout 2011.

Services to the Field

In 2010, Tribeca Film Institute served as the cultural partner on the development of the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts: The Moving Image, which was produced with the New York City Department of Education and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, through the generous support of JP Morgan. In 2011, TFI will continue to improve the consistency and quantity of film and media-based instruction throughout New York with professional development and in-school workshops led by industry professionals.

Through a new initiative this year, TFI will send experienced filmmakers—Tribeca teaching artists—into schools across the five boroughs to support The Moving Image Blueprint, the first curriculum designed for the study of film, television and animation in elementary, middle and high schools. In addition to providing 100 NYC public school classrooms with teaching artists to help implement the curriculum, TFI will offer professional development workshops for public school teachers. These development opportunities will offer teachers, administrators, and media arts partners a comprehensive plan that provides students with access to media arts, while delineating clear and concise learning expectations in the discipline.

Tribeca Teaches
Tribeca Teaches, TFI’s in-school and after-school arts education program, will expand beyond the Bronx and Brooklyn this year to include MS 131 in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Tribeca Teaches’ first bilingual program. The 18 week program will give students the opportunity to create their own documentaries and share their lives and experiences through film. Middle school students from the Bronx Preparatory Charter will participate in a 10 week in-school program, while CAMBA’s Beacon Sites at PS 269 and PS 271 in Brooklyn, and Dr. Sun Yat Sen MS 131 will work after-school to create their own documentaries, gain exposure to independent films and meet professional filmmakers. The four groups of student filmmakers will conceive, shoot and advise on the editing of short documentary films that will all focus on change from a personal, community and/or world perspective. The collection of their films will be screened during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

Teen Programs

Applications are now open for TFI’s core teen initiative: the Tribeca Film Fellows. The Tribeca Film Fellows program will select 20 teens to explore the possibilities of cinema and develop their voices through film before and during the 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival. Now in its seventh year, the Tribeca Film Fellows program allows these budding filmmakers to get an all-access look at the film industry through a series of workshops, creative filmmaking exercises, screenings, panels, mentoring by Tribeca Film Festival film directors, and special events.

At the culmination of the program, four Tribeca Film Fellows will each receive a $1,500 scholarship to further their education in film, and all participants receive one-on-one college and career counseling, tours of local colleges and help with applications. This after-school college preparatory program supports both the Film Fellows and students participating in Tribeca’s Summer Arts Institute program and is designed to help guide and empower film students to understand the scholastic opportunities available to them.

The Tribeca Film Fellows work together to create a short film that captures the essence of all five boroughs of New York City through their eyes. The work will serve as the introduction to Our City, My Story, TFI’s annual screening series during the Festival that showcases outstanding film and video made by New York City teens.

Screenings for Youth

Each year, TFI offers free screenings to thousands of New York City public school students throughout the year and during the Festival to introduce them to subject matter not typically explored in mainstream Hollywood. Teachers are supplied with study materials that serve as a unique supplement to their humanities curriculum. New this year, TFI will deploy teaching artists to middle school classrooms throughout the city to conduct workshops for its screening series which features film adaptations of classic literature: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Time Machine and Romeo and Juliet (1996).

During this year’s Festival, TFI will once again offer teens in New York City the chance to screen their own films through its Our City, My Story program. Designed to celebrate the excellence and diversity of New York City youth-made film and video, TFI will screen the selected short films at its youth media gala screening and as part of a special student outreach event.

Our City, My Story offers young filmmakers a unique opportunity to share their work with their peers and the greater Tribeca arts community. Each year, roughly 1200 students and community members attend the program. Young film lovers will also be able to attend four screenings of films in this year’s Festival. Schools will be encouraged to send classes to these free screenings which will provide another opportunity for teens to get an inside look at the world of independent film.

About the Tribeca Film Institute (www.tribecafilminstitute.org)

The Tribeca Film Institute is a 501(c)(3) year-round nonprofit arts organization founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in the wake of September 11, 2001. TFI empowers filmmakers through grants and professional development, and is a resource for and supporter of individual artists in the field. The Institute’s educational programming leverages an extensive film community network to help underserved New York City students learn filmmaking and gain the media skills necessary to be productive citizens and creative individuals in the 21st century. Administering a dozen major programs annually, TFI is a critical contributor to the fabric of filmmaking and aids in promoting and protecting filmmakers and media artists.

For more information and a list of all TFI programs visit http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/