18,000 High Schools to Use Academy Teaching Guides

February 20, 2006, Beverly Hills, CA — Making the world of film more accessible to students throughout the United States, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has partnered, for the seventh consecutive year, with Young Minds Inspired (YMI) to provide 18,000 high schools with an instructional guide about making films – documentaries this year.

Narrated by Academy Award® nominee Morgan Spurlock (“Super Size Me”), the instructional guide – Documentaries: Searching for Truth – is geared toward students in secondary English, language arts, visual arts and communications classes, and is designed to encourage critical thinking, expand knowledge of filmmaking and increase overall interest in films.

“Working with YMI is great,” said Academy President Sid Ganis. “We are doing another study guide that provides students with an innovative educational resource combining the excitement of filmmaking with the fun of learning.”

Each teaching kit includes a teachers’ guide, lesson starters, resource lists, take-home activities, website resources, an Academy Awards® commemorative poster as well as an 85-minute DVD on documentaries. The DVD was produced by the Academy and Acme Filmworks.

For additional information about the program and to learn more about previous years’ teaching guides (screenwriting, cinematography, film editing, art direction, animation and sound and music), visit the Academy’s website at http://www.oscars.org/teachersguide/documentaries/.

Contact Information

Teni Melidonian

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Contact via E-mail