Code Oakland Screening Series for Youth!

We're so excited to launch our first youth screening series here in Code Oakland's hometown! The first event is at Impact Hub Oakalnd -- such a cool venue -- and one where we shot part of the film no less!  This will be a youth-centered event to celebrate the stars of Code Oakland, especially the young up-and-coming tech stars featured in the film. Organized in collaboration with Oakland Public Libraries, Youth Radio, Downtown TAY, Black Girls Code, #YesWeCode, Qeyno Labs and other great local organizations, this fun event will include food, entertainment (the local all-girl band, Sisters Keeper!), the short film screening and a taste of the hackathon experience. 

Then, we have two screening events coming up at Oakland Public Libraries, 81st Ave. Branch and Rockridge Branch. Some details on the flier below and more coming soon!

Thanks to the Kapor Center for Social Impact for sponsoring these great events for Oakland youth!

Go HERE to grab free tickets for the Impact Hub screening on May 9th, 6:30 pm. For the library screenings, just show up! We're going to give you an opportunity to see what coding & hackathons are all about -- NO experience required.

Haven't seen the Code Oakland trailer? Watch it HERE.

Upcoming Code Oakland Screenings!

Our newest film, Code Oakland, is already getting into film festivals not just around the U.S., but the world! We have screenings coming up in St. Tropez, Canada and even one in India (not on the list yet -- stay tuned for those details). Meanwhile check out the dates for the Art of Brooklyn, Julien Dubuque, Humboldt Internat'l, "(In)Justice for All" in Chicago and more.

Go to our screenings page for dates & details.

Also, if you're in the Bay Area, save the date of May 9th, 6:30-8:30, for a very special screening of Code Oakland at Impact Hub Oakland! Details coming soon.

We ♥ NYC!

Thanks to React to Film, NYCAN & its Exec. Director Derrell Bradford, the Museum of the Moving Image and the staff of Loudspeaker Films, we had a fantastic premiere screening of Code Oakland in NYC. Read the details here, the press release here and watch the student presentation and panel discussion HERE. 

Our Producer/Director Kelly Amis and Code Oakland film star Kalimah Priforce also got to join React to Film in ringing the Nasdaq bell! Thank you to React to Film founders Dennis and Coralie Dennis for this amazing opportunity.

Code Oakland: Screening and Celebration

NOW POSTED: PHOTOS & VIDEO FROM THE CODE OAKLAND PREMIERE! Check out the PHOTO GALLERY and a great video our intern Vanessa made from the event: Code Oakland Premiere Party.

Please join us for the premiere and celebration of Code Oakland, a new TEACHED short film by Kelly Amis. 

The evening will include a performance by local girls band Sisters Keeper, music by DJ Oracle, and a chance to meet the stars & director of Code Oakland. It is brought to you by West Wind Artists, Youth Aid (both founded by performer & music producer D'Wayne Wiggins) & Loudspeaker Films, and is generously sponsored by the Kapor Center for Social Impact, the Salesforce Foundation and the Port of Oakland. 

We'll have scrumptious food (including veggie options), a hand-crafted cocktail created by local mixologist Danny Ronan, delicious organic teas provided by Numi and tastings of fine wines from Clos Pegase, the Clif Family Winery, Cal Vin & Hocks and other generous donors.

This is an invitation-only event; please RSVP by Jan. 27th.  

Parking is limited: please use public transportation, a ride service, taxi or carpool. The nearest BART station is Coliseum. You can walk from there (10 -15 min.) or grab a taxi to Mindseed SoundStage.

Haven't seen the Code Oakland trailer? Watch it HERE.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

TEACHED at BAEO Black Alliance for Educationial Options Symposium 2014

We are proud to be presenting TEACHED and our interactive screening model at this year's Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) Symposium being held in New Orleans. We will be showing clips from our films and talking to the Emerging Leaders of BAEO's Bailey-Sullivan Leadership Institute on how to organize communities and advocate for educational equality using our short films. 

BAEO’s Annual Symposium has convened for 14 years to inform, inspire, and empower emerging leaders (age 16-35), parents, educators, elected officials, community leaders, and clergy from across the country as they work to increase access to high-quality educational options for Black children by actively supporting transformational education reform initiatives and parental choice policies and programs that empower low-income and working class Black families. The Symposium remains the largest gathering of Black education reform supporters in the nation, drawing as many as 1,000 participants.

BAEO was founded by 

Dr. Howard Fuller

, an inspiration to the TEACHED series and a star of our short film 

The Blame Game: Teachers Speak Out

.  He has also just announced the publication of his new book "No Struggle, No Progress" coming out in the fall.  We send our congratulations and can't wait to read it!

TEACHED Vol. I at South-by-Southwest EDU

We are thrilled that TEACHED Vol. I will be screened at the innovative SXSWedu Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas this year.

If you are attending, please join us on March 4th at 2pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to watch the TEACHED Vol I trilogy of short films and hear from Producer/Director Kelly Amisand our amazing lineup of guest speakers including former Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty:

Pearl Arredondo is an amazing teacher and star of our film The Blame Game: Teachers Speak Out, who received much acclaim for her candid Ted-Ed talk last year.  

Pearl grew up in East Los Angeles, the daughter of a high-ranking gang member. Explaining that she was written off by teachers when she was a student, Pearl is now inspiring both other teachers and students with her work as the founder of a teacher-run pilot school and education advocate.

RiShawn Biddleis the Publisher and Editor of Dropout Nation, a website of commentary and analysis of American public education that is required reading for anyone who believes in education equality for all children.  

An acclaimed reporter and current columnist with The American Spectator, RiShawn now has over 20,000 unique readers visiting Dropout Nation each month to learn about the policies and practices that contribute to the achievement gap, the depths of our nation's dropout crisis and related issues including juvenile justice.

Adrian Fenty, recent Mayor of Washington, DC, has much to be proud about for the reforms he ushered into a long-dysfunctional and failing education system, reforms that have proven effective and are still evolving today under Mayor Vincent Gray and DC Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson.

On his first day as mayor, Adrian introduced legislation to assume control of the public school system; once approved, he brought in founder of The New Teacher Project Michelle Rhee to serve as Chancellor. Together, they pursued a difficult but necessary reduction of the system's central office staff and underused school facilities as well as a new performance-based compensation plan for teachers. 

Kalimah Priforce runs Qeyno Labs, which works with local schools and partners to make "career day" an everyday experience for the millions of students that cannot afford private college and career guidance.

An Echoing Green/Black Male Achievement Fellow, Kalimah is committed to empowering the minority-led startup community throughout the country and is also educator-in-residence for the Oakland-based "Hidden Genius Project", a program that trains black male youth in entrepreneurial thinking, software development, and user experience design

We hope to see you in Texas with plenty of questions for our esteemed panelists. For more details about our screening event at SXSWedu go HERE.

The Many Ways to Host a Successful Interactive TEACHED Screening

Since its premiere, TEACHED Vol I has been screened more than fifty times coast-to-coast by groups and individuals committed to educational equality.  Education champions are using this trilogy of short documentary films to engage their communities and provoke thoughtful debate around education issues, especially the school-to-prison pipeline, teacher quality and charter schools.

Whether your screening is for 8 or 800 people, we can assist you in making sure your event has maximum impact. Here are some ways you can use the TEACHED Vol. I films to raise awareness around education inequality nationally or in your community: 

Show All Three Short Films At Once

TEACHED Vol. I includes three short films, all under 15 mins, which allows you to host one screening interspersed with guest speakers and panel discussions after each one.

We can assist you in securing speakers at your event and help you create an agenda to possibly include a reception, live entertainment, audience Q&A, information tables and more!

Screen Each Film Individually

Screening the films individually gives you time to more deeply immerse your audience in the issues each one addresses and discuss how they effect your community locally.  

Interactive screenings are effective ways to group together and find solutions for education equality within your hometown.  Consider ending your event with time for group brainstorming and action-planning.  

Have Your Local Library Purchase the TEACHED DVD for Screenings

Ask your local library to purchase the DVD for screening use and encourage your colleagues and friends to (literally) check it out.  You can have the screenings in your home, in your dorm or practically anywhere!

Your library might even help you host a screening onsite as well. This is an excellent way to really get the word out and host many intimate screenings.

Be sure to take advantage of the many resources we have including staff to help you plan your event, marketing materials such as posters and flyers, our email and social media community where we can promote your screening and even tee shirts and swag for you to purchase.  

We have met a lot of amazing people through TEACHED interactive screenings and we look forward to connecting with you and your community.

For more details and information please see our Host A Screening page or contact us directly at screenings@teached.org.

How to Make $...

We are thrilled that the first TEACHED short film The Path to Prison is being screened this week along with a new feature-length documentary film titled How to Make Money Selling Drugs, thanks to a great non-profit organization called React to Film.

React to Film has chapters at universities and colleges across the nation -- it helps the student-led groups organize film events with a social justice aspect. RtF also has a high school film/advocacy program, sharing films and producing curricula with high school teachers.

I will be speaking at the Berkeley RtF chapter's How to Make $/Path to Prison screening this Friday; links to that event and all the other chapter events are here.

If you want to organize your own screening event around The Path to Prison and/or our other short films, go to the Host a Screening page.

Upcoming San Francisco Screening!

I usually write something for this blog on the weekend, and frankly, I never run out of topics to write about. However, I have been working on a new post for weeks now and it is turning into a rather long piece. Maybe it's the start of that book that is waiting to be written.

In any case, I have been remiss in keeping this baby going but I think a redesign of our website (coming soon!) will help with that. Meanwhile, all I have to share today is the nice news that Education Pioneers Alumni of the Bay Area and Teach for America Bay Area are co-hosting a TEACHED Vol. I Screening & Discussion on July 31st, 6-8:30 (with food!) that should be really interesting. If you're in the area, please join us! Details and tickets here:

http://teachedsf.eventbrite.com/