The Irish Film Centre

Teaching Film in the Classroom

Have you ever thought about teaching your students about film? Would you like to introduce your class to a wide range of films? If so, the Education Department of the Film Institute of Ireland can help you.

We run an extensive programme of film education activities for school students and teachers. This operates throughout the school year from the Irish Film Centre, Dublin and we also tour films to many different venues nationwide. Our programme culmin-ates in the annual summer school, which is supported by the Dept. of Education. Through our database we have direct contact with teachers all over the country who receive our twice yearly bulletin free of charge. We collaborate with the Cinemobile, Cork UnReel Festival, the Junior Galway Film Fleadh and Cinemagic, Belfast.

Film has become an increasingly significant part of the school curriculum. Since it was first introduced through media studies at Junior Cert. Level, it has now become an integral part of Leaving Cert. English. Each year there are six prescribed film titles and we screen several of these every term, as well as offer related workshops. Our major touring film for this autumn will be Strictly Ballroom. We will have screenings of The Dead and On the Waterfront as well. Study guides are available for My Left Foot and Strictly Ballroom.

Film in Transition Year
Transition year is an ideal time to introduce students to a broad perspective on film studies. There is time for students to see a range of films, including foreign language titles, documentary and Irish film, all of which we include in our programme.

We will begin our screenings this autumn with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This was one of our most popuular films last year and we are showing it again to mark the 10 year anniversary celebrations of the IFC. Later in the term we will have the intriguing documentary about the murdered rap stars, Biggie and Tupac as well as Irish language short films. Out touring film will be the chilling ghost story, The Others, starring Nicole Kidman. An introduction and follow-up talk accompany all our events.

We aim to provide students with the language and ability to articulate a response to film, to make a critical assessment of the films they choose to watch and to raise their awareness of the films that are on offer outside of the multiplex. Students receive oppor-tunities to meet filmmakers and other industry practitioners during our Special Events - a regular feature on our programme. For Leaving Certificate Applied students, we run special screenings and workshops.

Our new education bulletin will be available from mid-September, giving full details of all our activities. If you would like more information or to receive a copy, please contact:

Alicia McGivern or Ann Ryan
at fiieducation (01) 6795744,
education@ifc.ie.
Website: www.fii.ie