Educational Outreach

Educational Outreach Program

Our pioneering educational outreach program presents films and symposiums during the Festival and during the school year in order to ignite a new and lasting sense of social, intercultural and technical imagination in the next generation. The CFS reaches thousands of students every year.

BIFF Call2Action Program

Filmgoers worldwide are inspired by the energy and passion that cinema evokes. The Call2Action Program provides a concrete, public platform for those who are moved by the power of film to get moving! The team at BIFF recognizes that film can educate us and raise our awareness around the most pressing local and global issues of our time. We have witnessed the ability of particularly evocative films to tug at the heartstrings. These films compel us to take immediate action and right the wrongs in our world.

The Call2Action Program creates deeper exchanges between the filmmaker, the audience, and an organization partnering with BIFF. These partners market and publicize the film to their networks and provide 5 action items that the community can take to make a difference. After the screenings at Boulder Theater, audience members can convene in our large TalkBack tent at 14th St & Pearl St for extended post-film discussions. Here, the public is able to further engage with the visiting filmmakers and organizations to learn concrete ways to translate energy into action on important issues. For films at Boulder High and First Presbyterian Church, the TalkBacks are held within those venues.

To get involved in the Call2Action Program, please email staff@biff1.com.

BIFF Youth Pavilion

Located at the Boulder Public Library, the Pavilion offers films and workshops, free of charge, to students ages 6-18 and their teachers during the Festival. Many visiting filmmakers and other discussion leaders are available for Q & A’s after screenings. The Youth Advisory Council helps plan, program, promote and implement the Pavilion along with an advisory committee of Boulder students, teachers, and the BIFF Educational Outreach Director.

Youth Advisory Council

The Youth Advisory Council consists of students from diverse backgrounds aged 13-18 that assist in the selection of youth programs, develop a curriculum for outreach within the student community, organize and plan the BIFF Youth Pavilion, produce and direct their own films, and volunteer with mentors during BIFF.

World Cinema Days

This innovated program brings Festival films and discussions directly to classrooms during and after the Festival to keep students meaningfully engaged throughout the year. World Cinema Days features student appropriate documentaries, shorts and feature films and group discussion for students in grades 4 through 12.

For more information, please contact BIFF Educational Outreach Director at staff@biff1.com.