About | Journeys in Film

About Journeys in Film

WHAT WE DO

Journeys in Film is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that amplifies the storytelling power of film to educate the most visually literate generation in history. WE BELIEVE THAT teaching with film has the power to help educate our next generation with a richer understanding of the diverse and complex world in which we live.

We transform entertainment media into educational media by designing and publishing cost-free, educational resources for teachers to accompany carefully chosen feature films and documentaries while meeting mandated standards in all core subjects. Selected films are used as springboards for lesson plans in subjects like math, science, language arts, social studies and more.

In addition to general subject areas, Journeys in Film’s programs engage students in meaningful examinations of human rights, poverty and hunger, stereotyping and racism, environmental issues, global health, immigration, and gender roles. Our teaching methods are successful in broadening perspectives, teaching for global competency, encouraging empathy and building new paradigms for best practices in education.

We also develop discussion guides for films that don’t necessarily lend themselves to academic standards, but cover topics and themes that are valuable for classroom discussions and in other settings, such as after school clubs, community screenings, and College classes.

HOW WE DO IT

At Journeys in Film, we:

Select age-appropriate, feature-length films, documentaries, games, and other media to engage students in active learning about a broad range of subjects.

Bring together leading content scholars, curriculum writers, and cultural specialists to develop multidisciplinary lesson plans tied directly to the film in all core subject areas

The greatest challenge to integrated, interdisciplinary teaching is the lack of planning time for teachers of several disciplines to work together.

Journeys in Film resolves this issue by providing implementation-ready lessons and materials for interdisciplinary studies of a core topic.

The lessons delineate clear goals for teachers, identify standards being addressed, anticipate and solve difficulties in implementation, and provide both solutions and means for authentic assessments.

Ready to start teaching with film? Visit our free teaching resource library now.

OUR VISION AND GOALS

Our hope is that this generation of youth will contribute to the betterment of humankind through kindness and understanding, together with scientific knowledge to help solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.

Our goal is to create relevant and engaging curricula and programming around media that encourages cross-cultural understanding, empathy, and knowledge of the people and environments around the world. We aim to prepare today’s youth to live and work as globally informed, media-literate, and competent citizens.

We seek to inspire educators, school administrators, community members and home-schooling parents to use our innovative curriculum to capture the imagination and curiosity of their students.

HELPING STUDENTS

Teaching Journeys in Film’s programs will help students:

Develop critical thinking skills
Gain a deeper knowledge of global issues and current challenges
Mitigate existing attitudes of cultural bias and racism
Cultivate human empathy and compassion
Develop a deeper knowledge of historical and contemporary global issues and challenges.
Become critical consumers through exposure to different perspectives that challenge personal or popular generalizations

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We are so happy to be able to share our story with you and hope it will spark many conversations around the themes presented in the film through this curriculum. We hope that watching “He Named Me Malala” and using this curriculum will encourage you to raise your voice for girls’ education. We all have a role to play — whether we are parents, teachers, or students.

Malala Yousafzai

Pakistani activist

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Journeys in Film has developed lesson plans and discussion guides for a number of National Geographic Channel programs. We chose their team because of the highly academic nature of their work and their expertise in so many subjects and themes. Director of Education Eileen Mattingly knows exactly how to turn our unique content into impactful and relevant classroom resources. Positive feedback and testimonials from educators tells us that these guides were easy to use, highly engaging, and aligned with standards. The Journeys in Film team was always professional, responsive to last-minute changes, and a great partner for the highest-quality educational materials.

Tracy Smith

Director, Impact and Education Campaigns, National Geographic Communications

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Journeys in Film offers a unique opportunity for our students to immerse themselves in another culture with a meaningful context supplied by the supporting curriculum. Currently implemented in a number of our schools, Journeys in Film teaches about both culture and the interpretation of culture. The students are guided to approach the films as an academic challenge. They take notes and tackle the symbolism, characterization and the narrative. At the same time, the students are introduced to film as a literary medium and begin to explore the role of the film producer and the choices he or she makes.

Arne Duncan

FORMER United States Secretary of Education

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When we knew we wanted to develop standards-aligned educational materials for The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Journey’s in Film was our first choice. The team’s breadth of experience and deep passion for using film for education translated at every step of the way – they are a truly collaborative thought partner!

Amanda Chen

Participant Media

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Working with Journeys In Film on our BIG SONIA educational toolkit was a dream come true! Journeys In Film understands every nuance, theme, and creative choice in our film and they were able to convey and synthesize our film in ways that we never imagined possible. Our curriculum materials make us proud to be filmmakers and they are essential to our educational goals and impact campaign for the film. We’ve received hundreds of compliments on our education materials from educators and filmmakers, and we owe it all to Journeys In Film. We can’t wait to collaborate on future projects!

Leah Warshawski & Todd Soliday

Co-Directors Big Sonia

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Working with the team at Journeys in Film to create the curriculum for “Walden, a game” was a fantastic experience. They really went above and beyond to create a full set of lessons across the spectrum of what the game has to offer to teachers. We now have thousands of educators using the game and the curriculum to introduce Thoreau and his writings to students from middle and high school to university level. And the curriculum was created in such a way as to be valuable to teachers at all of these levels of instruction. I highly recommend working with Journeys in Film, and would do so again in a heartbeat!

Tracy Fullerton

Director, USC Games Professor, School of Cinematic Arts