Welcome to Film History and Literacy

Consumer technology has made it possible for filmmakers to create entire movies from the comfort of their home computer. Guide high school film buffs through the process of designing a documentary with an extensive unit published by...

As the saying goes, art often imitates life ... and literature! A series of activities designed to accompany a visit to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art encourage writers to find inspiration in various landscapes. The lesson includes a...

The seventh episode in the a film history playlist takes a close look at the rise and fall of German cinema of the post-World War I period. The narrator uses The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and its expressionistic use of mise-en-scene to...

Some jobs in film production are more obvious than others. The director directs, the cinematographer films, and the special effects people create those tricky effects. But who designs the mise-en-scene, who structures the set, and who...

Some of the boldest films in history have been documentaries or experimental films. Explore non-narrative cinema and its avant-garde techniques with a short video about a creative faction in film history. Additionally, the video...

New ventures and new technologies require new ways of referring to things. In stepped Edwin S. Porter, whose films Life of an American Fireman and The Great Train Robbery used parallel action and cross-cutting to develop his narratives....

Prepare your class for creating their own documentaries. Before they get started, they'll need to know what a documentary is and what makes a documentary compelling. As a class, watch several documentaries from the point of view of the...

Revisit the documentaries viewed in the previous lesson in this series in order to take a look at the persuasive techniques employed by the documentary creators. Small groups watch the films a second time, taking notes on two provided...

This is not just a New York Time article to read, this is a set of amazing activity ideas all related to the slide shows "Breaking Bread Everywhere" and "Where Children Sleep." Your class can view each show, read about what they mean...

Editing is a major part of making an amazing film. Young film makers examine a clip from the movie Citizen Kane. They then discuss two editing techniques and examine them in other films. They write out short scenes, film them, and then...