On Thursday, June 7, 2018, elementary schools from the Toronto and York school boards gathered together for Planet in Focus’s fifth annual Student Film Festival.
Always one of our favourite events, the Student Film Festival encourages students from kindergarten to grade eight to submit films they have developed centered around themes of environmental awareness. The films are the result of Planet in Focus’s Eco-Film Labs: a free program offered to teachers in Toronto and York school boards as a way to use media literacy skills as a teaching tool and introduce them in the classroom. The program aims to use film and media as a means to spark conversations about important environmental issues that affect us all.
We viewed a wide variety of film genres, ranging from news reports, to music videos, to superhero dramas. They covered topics such as deforestation, plastic pollution, and many other important topics.