Many of you may have heard about a movie American Teacher: A Documentary (narrated by Matt Damon) being released today in NYC and Los Angelestoday. Indeed today there was a review in the LA Times http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-american-teacher-20110930,0,7613779.story. The AFT is encouraging AFT members –and they to encourage others---to see the movie if you can for the LA premier week and at an additional screening for those in San Francisco area at the Roxie theater (October 7-13). Please forward this information to your friends and allies students and any other social media you may utilize. For more detailed information on screenings, please go to Teacher Salary Project, including locations of community screenings and ways for others to host a screening in their communities in the near future.
American Teacher: A Documentary
Narrated by Matt Damon
Los Angeles theatrical release with filmmakers and film stars on opening nights
Oscar winner Matt Damon narrates this eye-opening look at the American education system, as viewed from the perspective of four dedicated teachers and seeks to counteract popular misconceptions about the teaching profession by showing, in a style of close-up realism, what teachers actually do and what their lives are really like—and how continued neglect of the profession may be jeopardizing the nation's future.
Directed by Academy Award winner Vanessa Roth and produced by Dave Eggers and Ninive Caligari, American Teacher: A Documentary aims to address the difficult questions about the broken public school system through honest dialogue with the people who strive to give our children a proper education. The film is part of the Teacher Salary Project and is based on the book “Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers.”
The film portrays five K-12 public school educators from across the country as they navigate the daily challenges of balancing their teaching career with their personal lives. Every day, Jamie Fidler, Jonathan Dearman, Erik Benner, and Rhena Jasey each preside over a classroom full of children with unbound potential. But due to the fact that funds are in short supply and the hours can be grueling, it's a constant uphill battle. Perhaps even more troubling is the revelation that over three million American teachers will be eligible for retirement in the next decade, and that the current crop of college graduates are turning away from the profession in droves due to minuscule wages and a complete lack of prestige. Realizing that quality teachers are the key to a good education, Roth profiles four educators who have devoted their careers to the betterment of today's youth but recognize that the entire system could collapse at any moment.
The screener for the movie can be seen at www.theteachersalaryproject.org.
AMC Loews Broadway 4
1441 Third Street Promenade
Santa Monica, California 90401
September: 30: 1:00 pm and 7:15pm (with filmmakers at 7:15 showing)
October 1: 2:10 pm and 7:15 pm
October 2: 1:00 pm and 7:15 pm
October 4: 1:00 pm and 7:15 pm
October 5: 1:00 pm and 7:15 pm
October 6: 1:00 pm and 7:15 pm
An additional theatrical release will be held in San Francisco
San Francisco theatrical release October 7-13 only.
with filmmakers and film stars on opening nights
Roxie Theater
3117 16th Street
San Francisco, California 94110
October 8: 4:45 pm; 6:30 pm 8:45 pm
October 9: 3:00 pm 4:45 pm 6:30 pm 8:45 pm
October 10: 6:30 pm 8:45 pm
October 12: 8:45 pm
Reviews
The Washington Post’s Michael Chandler described the film’s timing as “At a moment when bad teachers have been targeted as the biggest problem in public education and lawmakers are scrambling to find different ways to evaluate and fire them, a new movie now being shown in previews and premiering later this year takes a less punishing view of our 3.2 million public school teachers, focusing instead on the need to support and pay them better.”
The Education Week review of The American Teacher can be found at: http://bit.ly/kHRhmc.
Also check out The New York Times opinion piece by the film’s producers Ninive Caligari and Dave Eggars at: http://nyti.ms/mnkccj .
Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post story on the movie that can be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-film-on-education-that-gets-it-right/2011/09/27/gIQA1JyH3K_blog.html#pagebreak
And, finally, here are links to three great reviews of the film from yesterday.
A film on education that gets it right by Mark Phillips, Washington Post, Answer Sheet blog
Film Review: American Teacher by Kristina Rizga, Mother Jones
Matt Damon Will School You: In Praise of Educators in American Teacher by Ernest Hardy, The Village Voice
Below is a link to AFT president Randi Weingarten and NEA president Dennis Van Roekel introducing the “American Teacher: A Documentary” at Ed Nation on MSNBC earlier this week. Then there is a panel discussion with the producers, stars, etc.
http://www.educationnation.com/index.cfm?objectid=BF4DC20D-E865-11E0-B00E000C296BA163&aka=0
The producers on Talk of the Nation yesterday on NPR. http://www.npr.org/programs/talk-of-the-nation/
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