Bijou Film

Tuesday, April 3

6:30 pm

A film by Vanessa Roth
81 min

Sponsored by Bijou Cinema and West Wind Education Policy, Inc.

Stay for a panel discussion after the film!

Weaving interviews of policy experts and startling facts with the lives and careers of four teachers, AMERICAN TEACHER tells the collective story by and about those closest to the issues in our educational system – the 3.2 million teachers who spend every day in classrooms across our country.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzvD9v7CbEE

The film was produced by Dave Eggers, the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. He wrote the latter with Ninive Clement Calegari, who founded the Teacher Salary Project and also produced the documentary with Eggers. AMERICAN TEACHER is narrated by Matt Damon and includes interviews with several students, teachers, administrators and education leaders. The film has been screened in New York, Los Angeles and other venues and the creators are happy to bring it to Iowa City for discussion as well.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion including teachers-in-training at the UI College of Education, associate professor Renita R. Schmidt from the UI College of Education, Coy Marquardt from the Iowa State Education Association, and Valerie Nyberg, an education policy analyst from West Wind who is also a doctoral candidate at the UI College of Education.