Just Think Selected As Strategic Educational Partner
by San Francisco Film Society

Collaboration includes year-round Screenings with Meaning and Youth Media Initiatives, including new programming during the 50th S.F. International Film Festival in April 2007 and the launch in Summer 2007 of the San Francisco International Youth Media Festival

San Francisco, April 17, 2006—The Just Think Foundation, the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that ignites young minds through media education, was selected as the principal partner to support the expansion of the San Francisco Film Society’s existing Schools at the Festival and to help launch new year-round educational programs, beginning in May 2006.

In 2006, the San Francisco Film Society and Just Think will create and roll out a new series of school and community screenings and events titled Screenings with Meaning. In addition, the partnership will offer a full slate of Youth Media Initiatives, including film camps and peer-training intensive workshops in media education and production for Bay Area youth.

This partnership will intensify in early 2007 as the SFFS celebrates its golden anniversary and offers new educational programming at the 50th S.F. International Film Festival. Following SFIFF 50, the partnership will launch the first annual San Francisco International Youth Media Festival in Summer 2007. The San Francisco International Youth Media Festival will showcase the finest works from youths ages 8–18 from across the country and around the world, with many young filmmakers and representatives from youth media organizations in attendance.

“We are thrilled with the San Francisco Film Society’s insight and vision in launching a suite of youth oriented programming. The International Youth Media Festival in 2007 will be the first centralized festival for work by young people worldwide and provide an ideal environment for thoughtful exchange and real-world advice. It is an honor for Just Think to be a vital collaborator, ensuring that spectacular youth-produced films will be presented, and that young filmmakers will be inspired through panels, presentations and hands-on media workshops,” said Elana Yonah Rosen, Just Think’s cofounder and executive director.

“Young people today grow up in a world where they must not only understand at a glance myriad different visual languages and forms, but also, increasingly, actively participate in their creation,” said Graham Leggat, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society. “By delivering programs that teach essential media literacy concepts and media arts skills, Just Think and the SFFS will help young people conceptualize, convene, converse, and construct moving-image work that helps them understand today’s world and shape tomorrow’s.

“Even in a region with an extraordinary mix of innovative media arts organizations and progressive social and community values, Just Think Foundation stands out for its exemplary programs and commitment to youth media,” Leggat added. “We are thrilled to be working with Just Think on expanded year-round programming and the inaugural SF International Youth Media Festival.”

Leggat named Just Think as a partner when first announcing the SF International Youth Media Festival at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2006. This new announcement expands the partnership between the two organizations, which are both based in the Presidio of San Francisco.

About Just Think
The Just Think Foundation was created as a concerned response to the ever-increasing deluge of messages youths receive from television, radio, film, print media, electronic games and the internet. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization teaches young people media literacy skills for the 21st century by creating and delivering in-school, after school and online media arts and technology education locally, nationally and internationally.  Just Think, which celebrated its ten year anniversary in 2005, envisions a world where kids influence media more then media influences them, a world where being literate means being media literate.

About San Francisco Film Society
SFFS is the presenter of the San Francisco International Film Festival, the longest-running film festival in the Americas. The festival, which is held annually in late April, annually features some 200 films, with more than 100 filmmakers in attendance. The First to Fifty, SFIFF will celebrate its golden anniversary in April 2007.

Prior to launching the San Francisco International Youth Media Festival, SFFS debuts the San Francisco International Animation Festival, Market, and Digital Media Conference in October 2006. This spring SFFS also launched SF360.org, an online magazine devoted to daily news and features from the Bay Area film and media scene, and the citywide SF360 Movie Night, as part of a slate of new initiatives devoted to the exploration of new platforms, new work and new audiences.

Contact
Elana Yonah Rosen 415-561-2900; elana@justthink.org or www.justthink.org
Hilary Hart 415-561-5022; publicity@sffs.org