When I asked my class on the first day of school if anyone had ever made a film, only one student raised her hand. My goal is for this class to host our school's first film festival by the end of the year, and we need video cameras, tripods, a microphone and memory cards to make this possible!
My students travel up to an hour to come to our school in the East Bay.
They are curious, thoughtful and highly creative. They're searching for new ways of connecting their own lived experiences to the classroom, and have all found their way to my feminism class to do this together.
My Project
In my feminism class, my students study the dominant voices in the women's movement through text and videos. Unfortunately, many stories are often missing from this narrative: Women of color, poor women and women who do not speak English have stories that resonate with my students' experiences, and yet are not elevated.
Inspired by the 2013 MAKERS documentary and accompanying video project about women's stories (as well as a collaboration with Amy Richards), my students will interview the women in their lives who are MAKERS: influencers, activists, mothers, teachers and more. These interviews will be filmed, edited and screened at a student-organized feminist film festival that will celebrate the stories of the women in our communities.
This film festival will be a transformative experience for my students and our entire school community.
Not only will this project allow them to create films for the first time, it will allow them to document, appreciate and celebrate stories from the most important women in their lives. Thank you for helping to make this happen!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Jenkins and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.