HOW TO REGISTER FOR MVFF EDUCATION SCREENINGS:
- Check out the list of MVFF Education film programs below, and select the in-theater and/or online film screening(s) you would like your class(es) to attend or view.
- Click on the REGISTER NOW button, and fill out the form to let us know your film selections and how many students will take part.
- You may choose more than one film, but you must fill out a separate registration form for each one.
- Once we receive your registration(s), we will contact you to confirm the details of your order, finalize any in-theater screening times, and assist with any additional details or questions.
ELEMENTAL, REDEFINING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH WILDFIRE
Director Trip Jennings | US 2022 | 79 min | Grades 5-12
Key Themes: Environment, Wildfire, Science
IN THEATER: Friday, October 14 • 12:15-2:00pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with director Trip Jennings.
This program is also part of our year-round Environmental Youth Forum
Narrated by award-winning actor David Oyelowo, Elemental is equal parts daunting in its imagery and compelling in its thesis. This engrossing documentary about the devastating impact of wildfires, and the science deployed to combat them, offers viewers a new perspective on the raging infernos that have become far too common threats to forests, homes, and entire communities. Packed with new and archival footage of the devastation wrought by fire run amok (notably, the 2018 Paradise, CA, Camp Fire), the film juxtaposes those stark and sobering images with interviews from an array of scientists, academics, and other experts who propose a potentially counterintuitive approach to bringing these blazes to heel. Most importantly, while Elemental illustrates the seriousness of the problem, it also underscores how — with forethought and care — we might achieve real solutions.
Note: Includes personal cellphone footage of fire victims escaping the Paradise fire and fearing for their lives.
ERIN’S GUIDE TO KISSING GIRLS
Director Julianna Notten | Canada 2022 | 90 min | Grades 6-12
Key Themes: LGBTQ+, Gender Identity, Coming of Age, Visual Arts
IN THEATER: Thursday, October 13 • 12:00-2:00pm | Roxie Theater, San Francisco
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with with director Julianna Notten and actor Elliot Stocking.
More than anything, Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls is a tender, insightful, and refreshingly witty ode to Gen Z. This feature debut from queer writer-director Julianna Notten follows Erin (Elliot Stocking), an earnest middle-schooler and comic-book enthusiast who wants nothing more than to experience her first kiss. When she meets Sydni (Rosali Annikie), an effortlessly cool, rebellious ex-child star, Erin is instantly smitten. What follows is a delightful and compassionate observation of a young girl exploring her identity and unapologetically asserting her place in the world. The film pokes fun at Millennials’ obsession with iced coffee and cats, offers funny takes on Comic-Con cosplay ideas, and depicts the popular kids trying (and failing) to be socially conscious. Most importantly, Erin’s Guide highlights just how sensitive and welcoming Gen Z can be.
Note: One instance of mild profanity.
HOME IS SOMEWHERE ELSE
Directors Carlos Hagerman & Jorge Villalobos | Mexico 2022 | 87 min | Grades 6-12 | In English & Spanish with English subtitles
Key Themes: Immigration, Social Justice, Human Rights, Latin American Culture
IN THEATER: Tuesday, October 11 • 12:00-2:00pm | Roxie Theater, San Francisco
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with director Carlos Hagerman.
Set against the perennial immigration debate in the United States, this animated documentary goes beyond rhetoric to give voice to those who’ve experienced the inhumane consequences of official policy. Each of three stories is presented in its own imaginative visual style: The crayon-scribbled world of a child conveys the tale of an 11-year-old US citizen whose undocumented father is detained; a painterly watercolor canvas limns the situation of two teenaged sisters living on opposite sides of the US/Mexico border; and the plight of a slam poet-activist raised in small-town Utah and deported to a country he never knew is rendered in bold colors as his words unify all three vignettes. The exquisite artistry of the differing styles serves each storyteller well, adding layers of nuance and restoring humanity to headlines. At times fanciful, as when a cut watermelon transforms into a swimming pool of pink water, this dazzling work is always heartfelt.
Note: Includes references to a dangerous border crossing and one subject’s memories of his parent’s history of domestic violence
OINK
Director Mascha Halberstad | Netherlands/Belgium 2022 | 72 mins | Grades 3-6 | In Dutch with English subtitles
Key Themes: Animation, Animal Welfare, World Cultures
IN THEATER ONLY: Tuesday, October 11 • 12:15-1:30pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
This delightfully Dutch stop-motion-animated feature is the story of Babs, a nine-year-old steadfast vegetarian who desperately wants a pet puppy. Instead, her long-lost grandfather Tuitjes arrives unexpectedly from America (sporting a hilarious cowboy-western twang of an accent) and gifts her a piglet, whom she names Oink. His porcine charms are diminished only by his frequent flatulence and fondness for the vegetables in mom’s beloved garden. Babs’ meat-free mom doesn’t trust Tuitjes, what with the town’s King Sausage Contest coming up and his checkered past as a disgraced former contestant. Much comedic mayhem ensues involving Babs’ heroic efforts to train Oink, who has a knack for pooping—spectacularly—at all the wrong moments. More Roald Dahl than Babe or Charlotte’s Web, this is at heart a sweet love story between a girl and her pet, with a clever message about animal cruelty sure to satisfy both herbivores and carnivores alike.
Note: One instance of a profanity used to refer to poop. No animated pet pigs were harmed in the making of the film.
PATH OF THE PANTHER
Director Eric Bendick | US 2022 | 88 min | Grades 5-12
Key Themes: Environment, Animal Welfare, Climate Change, Indigenous Culture, Photography, Visual Arts
IN THEATER: Friday, October 14 • 10:00am-12:00pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with director Eric Bendick.
This program is also part of our year-round Environmental Youth Forum
In the southern Everglades, a wildlife photographer, veterinarians, ranchers, conservationists, and indigenous people join forces to track and protect the endangered Florida panther. In this moving documentary, stunning images of the big cats spur the movement to restore a majestic keystone species as well as dwindling wilderness. While National Geographic photographer Carlton Ward, Jr. employs camera traps to capture thrilling video and still portraits of panthers and other marshland creatures, biologists track the elusive wild felines, vets rehabilitate them after car strikes, and ranchers preserve working land and prevent overdevelopment. Creating wildlife corridors through ranch lands and nature preserves is the long-term plan. Through Ward’s art, the Florida panther and the swampland itself speak eloquently of their right to continue. A gripping tale of survival, Path of the Panther offers hope that we can follow our love of beauty and nature toward better stewardship of the Earth.
SHORTS: ANIMATION FOR ALL
Total program 70 min | Grades 1-5 | Nonverbal and in English
Key Themes: Animation, World Cultures, Social & Emotional Learning
IN THEATER: Thursday, October 13 • 10:00-11:45am | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael ** SOLD OUT **
IN THEATER: Thursday, October 13 • 12:00-1:30pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
IN THEATER: Thursday, October 13 • 12:15-2:00pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael ** SOLD OUT **
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with director James Wheless and producer Jean Schulz (Andy “A Dog’s Tale”).
Puppies, babies, and bears, oh my! We’ve once again scoured the globe for the best collection of animated short films for audiences of every age to enjoy. Funny characters and curious kids mingle with gentle lessons about kindness to animals, why not to be afraid of being afraid, how dandelions are born, and so much more!
SHORTS: BLACK GIRLS FILM CAMP
Total program 90 min | Grades 5-12
Key Themes: Filmmaking, Media Studies, Black Culture, Women’s Studies
ONLINE ONLY: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
Black Girls Film Camp is a nonprofit organization that provides a free, annual, virtual 12-week filmmaking experience for high school-age Black girls across the country. For the 2022 camp, over 200 applicants pitched a story idea, and ten finalists were selected to direct and develop their own short films. This virtual screening of their work will be followed by a pre-recorded panel discussion with camp founder Jimmeka Anderson, who will talk about how this program became so successful, why it is so essential, and how it is changing the industry landscape by centering the experiences and voices of Black girls.
SHORTS: ENVIRONMENTAL HACKS & HEROES
Total program 74 min | Grades 5-12
Key Themes: Environment, Science, Activism, Indigenous Culture, Latin American Culture
IN THEATER: Wednesday, October 12 • 10:30am-12:15pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with director Will Parrinello and writer Sarah Kass (The New Environmentalists), and director Nancy Kelly and film subject Trina Cunningham (I’m a Burner); and director Ben Derico (Hasta la última gota).
This program is also part of our year-round Environmental Youth Forum
In this collection of five short documentaries, environmental activists from around the world—and the Bay Area—demonstrate the heroic measures, best practices, and unusual “hacks” they undertake to safeguard our precious natural resources. The program highlights the work of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize winners, along with direct actions by local Indigenous leaders and tribes around wildfire and land management, creative problem-solving by a conservation biologist and engineer trying to protect an endangered desert tortoise, and a movement in Chile to rewrite a constitutional charter that has left over half the drought-ridden country in a dire water emergency.
SHORTS: FREE TO BE ME
Total program 80 min | Grades 4-8 | In English, French, Italian, Mongolian, and Portuguese with English subtitles
Key Themes: Animation, Documentary, Gender Identity, Disability Rights, World Cultures, Latin American Culture, Black Culture, Social & Emotional Learning
IN THEATER: Monday, October 10 • 12:15-2:00pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Zoom Q&A with director Sally Rubin and animation director Max Strebel (Mama Has a Mustache).
We can all feel a little awkward or insecure sometimes, but the young people featured in this international selection of shorts offer some admirable lessons in self-confidence and how to believe in yourself—regardless of what others might think or say. It’s an eclectic mix of animation, live-action, and documentary (sometimes all in one film!) that reminds us all to respect one another’s differences.
SHORTS: TRUTHS (AND SPOOFS) FROM THE YOUTHS
Total program 91 min | Grades 6-12 | In English, Chinese, and Korean with English subtitles
Key Themes: Filmmaking, Media Studies, Animation, Documentary
IN THEATER: Tuesday, October 11 • 10:00am-12:00pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with youth filmmakers to be announced.
This year’s collection of peer-reviewed, youth-produced short films showcases an international cohort of storytellers who span genres from animation to documentary, comedy, horror, and drama. It’s an inspiring display of emerging young talent from as close to home as Mill Valley and San Rafael and as far afield as Indonesia, China, Germany, and Korea.
TOWN DESTROYER
Directors Alan Snitow & Deborah Kaufman | US 2022 | 55 mins | Grades 6-12
Key Themes: History, Education, Art, Social Justice, Indigenous Culture, Civics, Debate, Media Literacy
IN THEATER: Wednesday, October 12 • 10:00-11:30am | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with directors Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow and other guests to be announced.
Is art’s role to provoke or placate? What happens when it no longer reflects current societal views? These questions and many more were the subject of hot debate when Victor Arnautoff’s thirteen-panel mural “The Life of Washington” became an object of local controversy, then a media firestorm. On display since San Francisco’s George Washington High School opened in 1936, it offers a view of the Founding Father both celebratory and critical, referencing his involvements in slavery and Native American genocide. (The Iroquois dubbed him “Town Destroyer.”) But some present-day students, parents, and observers found those depictions racially offensive, calling for the work to be removed or destroyed. Would doing so be a “redaction of history,” “identity politics gone off the rails”—or a justified blow to a lingering American “colonized mentality” as well as ongoing “traumatization” of young minds? Longtime Bay Area documentarians Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman interview historians, artists, activists, and GWHS students to probe a fascinating microcosm of today’s culture wars.
WE DREAM OF ROBOTS
Director Pablo Casacuberta | Uruguay 2021 | 85 mins | Grades 5-12 | In Spanish with English subtitles
Key Themes: Technology, Robotics, Agriculture, Science, Latin American Culture
IN THEATER: Monday, October 10 • 10:00am-12:00pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with director Pablo Casacuberta.
A determined group of teenagers from the Uruguayan countryside tackles math, science, and the physics of friendship as they conquer the world of robotics. We Dream of Robots showcases the hopes and dreams of young people whose rural daily lives inspire them to embrace the challenge of building a better future for all. Imagine having no cell phone but learning to assemble and program a robot. Imagine walking or biking three hours to school, then staying an additional three hours to brainstorm robotic solutions to local flooding. The film documents the journeys of two teams from such humble origins that vie for glory against 70 other squads in the first robotics competition ever held in Latin America. The collaboration, commitment, national pride, and creative spark these kids share will lift your heart—and may just send you scurrying for a robot-building kit of your own.
THE YOUNG VOTE
Director Diane Robinson | US 2022 | 67 mins | Grades 6-12
Key Themes: Politics, Civics, Government, Activism, Social Justice
IN THEATER: Friday, October 7 • 10:30am-12:15pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael ** SOLD OUT **
IN THEATER: Friday, October 7 • 12:30am-2:00pm | Rafael Film Center, San Rafael
ONLINE: October 6-16 | Available to schools anywhere in the U.S.
The in-theater screening will include a live Q&A with director Diane Robinson and other guests to be announced.
As the United States teeters toward theocracy, it is painfully clear that the stakes in the upcoming midterm elections are nothing short of the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness promised to all of the nation’s peoples. The hope of preserving democracy largely depends on turnout at the ballot box. So, why don’t more Americans vote? First-time filmmaker Diane Robinson’s documentary profiles four youth-led initiatives that address this conundrum among the nation’s most reluctant voting bloc: 18- to 29-year-olds, who exercise their franchise far less than any other age group. The head of the youth voting drive for Women’s March Action, a Black Lives Matter activist, a Dreamer registering voters in the Latinx community, and underage Floridians trying to revamp their state’s party primaries share theories and strategies for motivating Gen Z and Millennial citizens with the power to change outcomes – if they show up on election day.