Education
In addition to being a wonderful entertainment, the cinema is an art form, a mode of communication, and a historical document offering insights about the culture and era that produced it. BMFI’s film curriculum includes over forty different Film Studies classes each year, a third-grade visual literacy and arts education program, See Hear Feel Film, and the annual Summer Filmmaking Workshop for high school students. In addition, BMFI educates over 5,000 students of all ages each year through campus and classroom visits, during field trips to BMFI, and at a range of institutions on the Main Line and in the Greater Philadelphia region. Whether you are young or old, novice or aficionado, moviegoer or filmmaker, BMFI offers numerous ways for you to learn about—and through—the cinema.
Current Film Studies Offerings
BMFI’s robust Film Studies program serves over 1,600 students each year. These classes allow people of all ages and levels of experience to get more enjoyment and enlightenment from the diverse world of the cinema. Classes on film analysis join a wide range of courses on significant filmmakers, distinct regional/national cinemas, historical eras, film genres and movements, and noteworthy classic films. In addition, there are interdisciplinary courses, screenwriting workshops, and classes that study programs found on smaller screens. These offerings vary in duration and include one-night seminars, four-week classes, and ten-week discussion series. View class listings.
Remote Classroom
You can attend Bryn Mawr Film Institute’s Film Studies offerings anywhere, at any time, in our Remote Classroom. Rent and stream seminars and courses on your favorite films—from your favorite instructors—in the comfort of your own home.
Film Studies Online
Engage virtually with the film education experiences you love through video introductions to movies, live film discussions, “Ask Andrew” mini lessons, and more.
See · Hear · Feel · Film
In 2005, BMFI launched the Barrie M. Ford Children’s Visual Literacy Program, which presents the See Hear Feel Film curriculum developed at the Jacob Burns Film Center, to third-grade students in the Delaware Valley. This visual literacy and arts education program develops students’ essential critical viewing skills while sparking their imaginations and multiple modes of creative expression. They will learn to write and tell stories with greater confidence, clarity, and joy while being introduced to the techniques of cinematic storytelling and being exposed to world cultures, all while fulfilling PA Core Standards for English Language Arts. Learn more about this program that BMFI provides free of charge to public schools, and urge your child’s teacher to participate.
Summer Filmmaking Workshop
The Summer Filmmaking Workshop brings together 12 high school fimmakers for six weeks to spend one memorable summer learning about, creating through, and collaborating on the entire filmmaking process.
Course Archive
Since BMFI’s first Film Studies classes in the fall of 2005, more than 200 distinct courses, seminars, and discussion series have been offered. This archive allows our students, patrons, and other supporters to get a sense of the education program’s breadth, and is a resource so current and future students may request a class they may have missed out on previously. And, if you notice a cinema topic that hasn’t been covered but you think should be, please let us know.
BMFI Faculty
The Faculty page introduces the group of skilled instructors who help make BMFI’s education programs so engaging. For those of you already familiar with our faculty, these bios and links offer a bit more background—and perhaps some surprises—about the instructors you’ve gotten to know as you’ve learned about film at BMFI.
The George Rehrauer Film Book Collection
This film-themed library of more than 1,000 books was compiled over decades by author George Rehrauer and bequeathed to his alma mater, The Haverford School, which in turn offered it to BMFI. Works from the collection are able to be borrowed by any BMFI member through a simple online search and request.
Film Links
These Film links are by no means exhaustive, but they do provide some solid resources for beginning to learn more about the cinema or a particular film. Some may be familiar, but others, hopefully, will help you expand your circle of cinema knowledgeL
