Submitted by Pickford Film Center
In October 2014, with support from the Mary Redman Foundation, Pickford Film Center (PFC) created a program called Doc-ED that provided more than 1,100 Bellingham middle and high school students an opportunity to attend documentary film screenings at no cost to their schools or guardians. Doc-ED aims to expose students to films that will inspire, educate and introduce them to a wider world outside of their classroom.
This year, through a grassroots fundraising effort, PFC was able to raise over $10,000 from 82 donors, in addition to a second year of support from the Mary Redman Foundation. As a result, Doc-ED has expanded and will be able to offer all 2,400 students in all four of the Bellingham public middle schools the chance to attend a film for free, as well as offer assistance for transportation costs.
The Doc-ED films are all newly released feature films chosen to support the curriculum and lessons being addressed in the classroom. In 2014, documentaries about science, math, literacy, society and culture were offered. Michael Falter, PFC Program Director, curates more than 50 titles for the annual Doctober festival at PFC, and a few select titles are offered during Doc-ED for schools to choose from.
In addition to access to free films, PFC is offering the opportunity for a Media Literacy expert to visit schools and present a media literacy workshop, which PFC sees as an important topic that is not offered in many schools. The workshop can be offered to students, teachers and parents alike.
Doc-ED is only one part of an expanded education initiative PFC has started with K-12 education — continuing and creating new programs to serve the community and to build a new audience of future film-goers. The Guerilla Film Project, a popular three-day film-making competition for high school students has been offered every year over Presidents Day Weekend for the last 11 years. PFC also hosts the Bellingham Children’s Film Festival, which features family-friendly films as well as special school screenings, related art projects and an ice cream social; National Theatre Live and Shakespeare’s Globe On Screen theatre performances to high school classes; and the theatre space is available to schools for field trips year round. Beginning this month, PFC is banding together with Village Books, the Bellingham Public Library and the Children’s Literature Collection at Western Washington University to present Great Adaptations, a monthly series of film adaptations of beloved children’s books, joining Family Classics, a monthly weekend matinee series of classic titles, scheduled around every teacher workday during the school year.
