Even before I could unmute them, I could see their smiling faces and applauding hands after each film. If only that were their response to my every lesson!
—Teacher, Shearer Elementary School, Napa

The best responses were jaw drops, uncontrolled laughter, jumps away from the screen when something surprised them. This is the joy of interacting with film.
—Teacher, Miller Creek Middle School, San Rafael

This was an amazing experience and one that has generated great discussions with my students. It also was such a treat for kids to do something different and break up the monotony of distance learning!
—Teacher, Tamiscal High School, Larkspur

Thank you to all of the teachers and students who participated in CFI Education programs at the 43^rdMill Valley Film Festival. For decades, we have welcomed thousands of Bay Area K-12 students to MVFF to view new festival films and meet filmmakers from around the world. With our theaters closed and school field trips prohibited, we had to do things a little differently this year and shifted all of our MVFF Education programs online. But for the first time ever, were able to make the Festival available to schools anywhere in the country—enabling us to reach over 8,000 students from 72 different schools.

Our curated selection of free online screenings featured 20 different film programs and panel discussions from the complete MVFF program, and every screening included a pre-recorded Q&A with filmmakers from around the world, with guests Zooming in from Norway, Colombia, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, Puerto Rico, England, India, Hong Kong, France, Germany—and even a very artistic pig named Colette from Mexico.

We also launched a comprehensive collection of curriculum resourcesto supplement each film program including new narrative and documentary film analysis toolkits, as well as a series of discussion guides developed by our great community partner, Children for Change.

For a more interactive festival experience, we continued our Filmmakers Go to Schoolprogram online, connecting Festival filmmakers with students in real time via Zoom to discuss and answer questions about their films and the art and craft of filmmaking. More than a dozen filmmaker guests from around the world took part in these Virtual Visits with hundreds of students from schools across the country.

Distance Learning has been rough and your visit and film were a breath of fresh air. Truly, the MVFF Filmmakers Go School program was just so fantastic and really touched upon so many things we are learning about the craft of filmmaking and also the film festival circuit. Thanks again for your care and generosity.
—Teacher, Culver City High School