Chicago School Closings; Film Screening, Research Presentation, and Panel Discussion

The second installment in The School Project film series, Chicago’s Public Schools: Closed will explore the major event in 2013 that sparked the filmmaker team to begin this project: the closing of 49 Chicago Public Schools, and the ongoing debate over that decision’s impact.

The event will begin with a screening of the resulting 10-minute film, a presentation of new research on the 2013 school closings from the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research on how the closings affected students, and a panel discussion with education experts and voices chosen through public feedback (panelists To Be Arranged).

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
Performance Hall
University of Chicago
915 E 60th Street, Chicago, 60637
Event is free and open to the public.

If you missed the first film in the series, no need to worry. Scroll down and see…

The School Project series creators are five different Chicago-based production companies: Free Spirit Media, Kartemquin Films, Kindling Group, Media Process Group, Siskel/Jacobs Productions, and freelance producers Rachel Dickson and Melissa Sterne. Outreach partners include WTTW/Channel 11, CAN TV (27), Storycorps, the Chicago Sun-Times, Catalyst Chicago, the Chicago History Museum, Ebony.com. We released a statement via Filmmaker Magazine on how we made the collaboration work, through “interdependence rather than hyperindividualism, reciprocity rather than dominance, and cooperation rather than hierarchy.”

Chicago School Reform: Then & Now” will feature a panel moderated by veteran news journalist Carol Marin following the premiere of the documentary’s first segment, “Chicago Schools: The Worst In The Nation?”, produced by Siskel/Jacobs Productions. The moderated panel will engage in a conversation about the city of Chicago’s reform efforts from the mid-1980s through today.

The interactive website, www.schoolprojectfilm.com, will allow visitors to watch the documentary and see how it maps to the Chicago Public Schools system. Users can explore news media and content related to individual schools, data trends and demographics, and share their stories and opinions about public school education.

Follow the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, using the hashtag #TheSchoolProject.