It was announced today that the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and its programming arm, See Jane, will partner with SFF in conducting educational programs for Sarasota students, focusing on the representation of gender in media. See Jane and SFF will incorporate media training workshops and filmmaking challenges into the program, which will be available for middle and high school-aged students, and will aim to reduce gender stereotyping of both males and females. The curriculum will center around these stereotypes and the importance of presenting content consciously through film. The students in the program will embark on a month-long short filmmaking project run by SFF’s Outreach and Education Director Allison Koehler and Production Manager George Denison, both of whom I have had the pleasure of spending time with this past week during my coverage of YouthFEST. Geena Davis and Madeline DiNonno, the Institute’s Executive Director, will act as guiding mentors through the filmmaking process. The Sarasota-based student filmmaking workshop and production lab will turn out student films that will world premiere at the 2012 Sarasota Film Festival. The program will work solely with one school each year; Booker Middle School will be the first school to participate for the 2011-2012 year.

This is the first ever programming partnership between See Jane and a Film Festival.