This longstanding SFFS outreach program creates a vital connection between the annual San Francisco International Film Festival and the local educational community, providing students of all ages the opportunity to participate in the Festival experience. Scheduled weekday matinee screenings for elementary, middle and high school groups are supplemented by special visits to classrooms by filmmakers whose work is being shown at the Festival. Each year, the program provides valuable teaching tools for a visual age by offering Festival tickets at a subsidized rate to over 4,000 students and teachers and sending dozens of local and international filmmakers into classrooms to share their work and interact with students.

Bay Area students and their teachers enjoy a significant discount on Festival admission (just $2.50 per person) to allow easier access to greater numbers of young people. Tickets for the program are available exclusively to Bay Area educators and students and may be purchased only through the Schools at the Festival office prior to the Festival in the spring. Schools at the Festival tickets cannot be purchased through the regular Festival box office. The 2009 program will be announced to educators in March 2009.

View the 2008 Schools at the Festival Screenings Schedule.

For more information
Keith Zwölfer
Education Program Manager
415-561-5040
kzwolfer@sffs.org

One of the first and largest programs of its kind, Schools at the Festival was founded in 1991 by the late Robert S. Donn (1931-2003), a retired SFUSD teacher with a tremendous passion for film. Since its inception, the program has attained a level of national prestige and is often used as a model on which other film organizations and festivals have based their own education programs.

“Thank you again for setting up the Q&A for the kids. They really appreciated being able to talk to the doctor and the filmmaker. . . . They were flattered that the adults were willing to come in just to talk to them. They were ALL super-interested, which if you've ever worked with teens, you know is somewhat unusual.”— teacher, Wallenberg High School

“We are students from Jefferson High School, and you have inspired us to start our own journal. We were hoping that you would come back to Jefferson High School so we can show you what we have done. We would like to thank you for inspiring us and helping us to show our creativity. We would love to share the journal with you.”—student email to director of the documentary 1000 Journals after her visit to their school

“I really was moved by both of these films. And I never thought or have been interested by documentary films and now will watch more. Thank you for opening a new door in my life! And I hope to watch more documentaries soon.”—student