Film at Lincoln Center Kids

The Film at Lincoln Center Kids program brings film into the classroom in order to bolster a future generation of filmmakers. The program promotes the making and viewing of films as well as students’ cultivation of 21st-century skills. Film at Lincoln Center Kids not only immerses young people in a technological art form, it also supports their literacy learning through visual storytelling.

Children screen classic and contemporary films, are provided opportunities for critical analysis, and learn to use a robust compendium of filmmaking techniques to create films of their own. Film at Lincoln Center Kids immerses young people in a media art form as well as supports their literacy learning through visual storytelling. Teachers are also trained in the use of filmmaking as part of their classroom curriculum.

Using the real-world challenges of making a film, discovery, inquiry, collaboration, innovation, and problem-solving become the creative tools for success.

See how FLC Kids changed one local school by reading our 2019 impact report here.

What are the options? Film at Lincoln Center offers a Filmmaking Program and an Animation Program, both of which are available after- school or during the school day.

Filmmaking – The Short Film & The Short Story – Grades 3-6
Children study contemporary and classic short films, from the works of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin to award winners like Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon, before undertaking an intensive filmmaking journey during which they experience all aspects of filmmaking. They collaborate and storyboard with their classmates, rotate roles as members of a production crew, and learn about the countless choices that go into making films of their own.

Animation – Moving Through a Story – Grades 2-6
Children study animation, from Eadweard Muybridge’s Horse in Motion and Segundo de Chomón’s The Electric Hotel to more contemporary examples, and then learn to plan and create their own animated stories. By moving through this visual-storytelling process, students gain a hands-on understanding of literacy, and produce animations of their own.

Film at Lincoln Center Kids Program Components

  • 12 sessions, with after-school or in-school options
  • Film at Lincoln Center Kids Tool Kit: We provide all the necessary equipment, including cameras and tripods, as well as instructional worksheets and carefully chosen classic and contemporary movie screenings.
  • Grade Levels: Grades 2-6
  • Culminating Film Festival: Children screen their completed films at Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater!

Film at Lincoln Center Kids History

The Film at Lincoln Center Kids program launched in 2014 in three public elementary schools on the Upper West Side of Manhattan’s Community School District 3: P.S. 191, P.S. 75, and P.S. 163, serving approximately 500 elementary-school students in year one. Over the next three years, the program will grow to serve more than 10 school communites and 1,000 public-school children citywide.

Each year, the program culminates with a festival at Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, where the children show the films they’ve created throughout the program.

Film at Lincoln Center Kids is made possible through funding from our generous supporters:

William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Gary Winick Foundation
Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation
RBC Foundation USA
New York State Council on the Arts
Department of Cultural Affairs
Tara Kelleher
Yungmei Tang
Kickstarter
The Chervenak-Nunnallé Foundation
The Marble Fund
Leo Model Foundation
Scott and Jennifer Romanoff
New York City Council, 6th District/Helen Rosenthal
Mark Schumann
Lee Wolf and Jordan Cohen
Sherrin Hersch
Betsy and Andrew Fippinger
Denise Widman
Lina and Blake Wallach
The Weissman Family Foundation