go back
1993:
The seeds for the Festival-in-the-Schools program are sown one summer when a collaborative program between Pima Community College and The Screening Room was initiated. In an effort to expose independent media to Tucson youth, 100 students from Cholla, Pueblo, Tucson High, Wakefield, Pistor and Maxwell middle School attended a series of programs highlighting different aspects of independent production.
1994 - 1997:
During the summer months, The Screening Room programmed the Kids Film Fest for families as an alternative to Hollywood blockbusters.
1998:
The Arizona International Film Festival invites three area high schools to participate in the 1998 festival. One hundred students attend screenings of independent films participating in the festival. Filmmaker Marianne Dissard shares her knowledge about the making of Low y Cool, a documentary about the Camaradas Low Rider Bike Club.
1999:
Festival-in-the-Schools expands as 940 students from six Tucson schools participate. To complement the them of ‘Cine Chicano’, actors Pepe Serna and Evelina Fernandez and indie Chicano filmmakers Trina Lopez and Pepe Urquijo are invited to attend the festival to engage students in a variety of topics. Edward James Olmos, the recipient of the 1999 Arizona Independent Film Award, pays a visit to Las Artes in South Tucson en route to a community screening of American Me at the Grand Cinemas.
2000:
Festival-in-the-Schools continues to grow. Fourteen filmmakers including local producers, Chicano media artists, and an Irish filmmaker interact with 2,250 students at nine Tucson schools as well as a trip down south to Nogales. New student audiences are introduced to Festival-in-the-Schools. Jeff Spitz, director of Return of Navajo Boy, meets with Native American students and Chicano filmmakers, Pablo Toledo and Pepe Urquijo, and travel south to interact with students in Nogales.
2001:
With support from Pima County Board of Supervisors, eighteen filmmakers including African-American filmmakers, Chicana media artists, local producers and an Irish filmmaker presented their work to 1,863 students at 12 Tucson schools and Nogales High School. One hundred students from Sunnyside High School and Tucson Academy for Leadership & Arts made a special trip to The Screening Room to interact with “El Vez” and screen the documentary El Rey De Rock-n-Roll.
2002:
Fourteen visiting filmmakers and screen writers presented their work and ideas to 1,212 Arizona students of all ages. The festival theme of “Bridging Cultures” was evident in many of the F.I.T.S. presentations including Maria Elena Chavez talking to kids about being a Chicana filmmaker at the Ceasar Chavez Middle School, a school named after her uncle and an Aborigine playwright and screenwriter, meeting with Native American school kids at Baboquivari High School in Sells, AZ.
For more information, please contact the FITS rep to find out more about Festival-in-the-Schools.
