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EDUCATION MEDIA LITERACY Our work recognizes that many students are already documentarians, constantly recording, archiving, and compiling fragments of their daily lives, and making rhetorical and editorial decisions on social media platforms. In a world of ever-changing media, and it’s essential that students have the skills to be thoughtful, discerning creators and consumers of media. We know the Fest has the power to create deep impressions on youth at the crucial time they are discovering and inventing themselves. By bringing students together with artists, filmmakers, and artistic mavericks of all stripes, they are inspired to envision the possibilities of crafting a life within the arts and empowered to navigate the complex world they’re poised to inherit. Year-round, RFS’s Community Partnerships & Education team also coordinates class visits, hosts special programming opportunities at Ragtag Cinema, and supports many more initiatives!
EDUCATION SCREENING Every year, T/F welcomes 1,400 high school sophomores, all of whom arrive by bus from four different high schools (Battle, Douglass, Hickman, and Rock Bridge) to the festive sound of a musical opener. What follows is the screening of a captivating T/F film and a post-film Q&A with the filmmaker. This year, T/F and Columbia Public Schools are partnering to show Step (T/F 2017), directed by Amanda Lipitz. The film follows three Baltimore high school students in their senior year as they grapple with the challenges of living in the city as young black women, their steadfast determination to win the championship in their final year on their school’s step team, and their futures. The Education Screening is a robust program in which students and teachers engage with the themes presented by the film in the classroom in the lead-up to and following the Education Screening.
CAMP TRUE/FALSE Camp T/F is curated specifically as an inside track for high school students in which 40 students local to the Columbia area dive into the Fest experience by interacting with a diverse set of films, art, and music. Throughout the Fest, campers watch six to eight films, engage in meaningful film analysis, participate in workshops with camp counselors, take part in conversations with resident artists, and have dinner with Fest filmmakers.
TRUE LIFE FUND ASSEMBLIES Columbia Public Schools has a long history of supporting the True Life Fund. With CPS hosting TLF assemblies with the director and subject(s) at all four high schools, this is an opportunity for high school students to learn about the fund and its philanthropic motivations. This year’s film is The Territory, a film about the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous surveillance team as they strive to protect their land against Brazilian farmers intent on colonizing protected land. In addition to creating greater awareness of the topics explored and life experiences highlighted in the film, conversations with filmmakers and subjects have further inspired students to critically engage with nonfiction films and the way reality is documented.
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