Teached

Teached is a short documentary film series directed and produced by Kelly Amis and her production company Loudspeaker Films. The films address the causes and consequences of the achievement gap in the U.S. public education system. TEACHED Vol. I, which includes the first three short films in the series, premiered at the Napa Valley Film Festival in late 2011.[1]

Teached
Directed byKelly Amis
Produced byKelly Amis
Music byAsparagus Studios
Michael Harris
Edited byKate Stilley Steiner
Sergei Krasikov
Kelly Amis
Production
company
Loudspeaker Films
Release date
  • 2011 (2011)
Running time
41 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Synopsis

More than half a century after Brown v. Board of Education promised that all students would receive an equal education, many schools are still failing record numbers of African American and Hispanic students, showing little change in the race-based achievement gap. TEACHED Volume I relies on nearly twenty years of teaching, research, and experience working in and for urban schools as it addresses some of today's most challenging education issues, from the under-education and over-incarceration of minority youth to the fight over teacher tenure.[2][3]

TEACHED Volume I

TEACHED Volume I features the first three films of the series: The Path to Prison, The Blame Game: Teachers Speak Out and Unchartered Territory. Each addresses topical issues around the American education system, especially those affecting urban youth.

Episodes
# Title Duration
1"The Path to Prison"8 minutes
The United States now bears the ominous title as the planet's most prolific jailer: with only 5% of the population, it represents a quarter of the world's incarcerated. The vast majority of American inmates are illiterate, and an inordinate number are people of color. One young man's story helps explain how so many capable and intelligent youth, especially African-American males, end up behind bars in "the land of the free."
2"The Blame Game: Teachers Speak Out"17 minutes
The discourse around education reform – especially on issues involving teachers – lacks nuance, thoughtfulness, and often, commonsense. Simplistic "pro-" and "anti-" teacher rhetoric distracts from the efforts to improve teacher quality, especially in schools serving urban, minority children. What do teachers themselves say about the profession and whether it is serving students' needs... not to mention their own?
3"Unchartered Territory"16 minutes
Charter school founders are pioneers of education reform, staking their claim by opening new schools in many historically underserved communities. But twenty years after the first charter school opened its doors, many Americans are still confused about what these independently operated, publicly funded schools are, and why not all of them are performing well. Was the charter formula wrong? What can the best charter school leaders teach the rest?

Cast and crew
  • Kelly Amis - Producer, Director
  • Ashley Johnson - Outreach Coordinator
  • Sergei Krasikov - Director of Photography, Editor
  • Art Meyerhoff - Cinematographer
  • Kate Stilley Steiner - Editor
  • Sean Kimber - Graphics
  • Asparagus Studios - Music
  • Michael Harris - Music
  • Phillip Ebeid - Cinematographer
  • Christina Voros - Cinematographer
  • Ana-Lena Isaksson - Cinematographer
  • Justin Ammon - Cinematographer
  • Andrew Blum - Cinematographer
  • Cyrus Dowlatshahi - Cinematographer
  • Ri Crawford - Title Sequence

Production

TEACHED was originally conceived as a feature-length documentary but evolved into a short film series during production. It was sponsored by the International Documentary Association and was funded by charitable contributions. In 2013, Amis won the Teach for America Social Innovation Award, which provided an additional $50,000 to the project.[4]

Awards and screenings

References
  1. "Putting Your voice on the Loudspeaker". Loudspeaker Films. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  2. "Plot Summary". IMdB. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  3. Petersen, Julie (20 April 2010). "Guest post: Time to get TEACHED". New Schools. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  4. "TEACHED films bolstered by $50,000 grant from TFA". Core Education LLC. 19 May 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
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