the 2023 SERIES
CORONADO PUBLIC LIBRARY THE WINN ROOM
SUNDAY AFTERNOON 1:00-3:30 ALL STUDENTS ARE WELCOME
Parents and grandparents are welcome to attend with the student.
Please note that adults without a student will not be permitted to attend to ensure the integrity and mission of the program.
This program is FREE to attend but we ask that reservations are made in advance.
The funds to launch this program were granted through a 2021 Coronado Community Grant
APRIL
April Fools? – Two directors explore secrets and lies in two different genres. A romantic/comedic drama and a true-to-life dramatic film tell stories of the destructive power of innuendo, lies and gossip.
APRIL 16
PEOPLE WILL TALK
(1953 Joseph Mankiewicz) Adapted from a Curt Goetz play first filmed in 1950 in Germany, as Doctor Praetorius. Mankiewicz’s screenplay adaptation was nominated as Best Written American Comedy. A comedic drama that explores the conflict between what modern medicine has become with the idea that the calling of medicine is ‘to make sick people well.’ Cary Grant turns in a subtly comic leading man performance as Dr. Praetorius. The film features a memorably stoic performance by Finlay Currie as, Mr. Shunderson, Dr. Praetorius’ mysterious, constant companion; Shunderson’s climatic retelling of his life story ushers in one of the sweetest surprise endings in Hollywood history.
APRIL 30th
JOHNNY BELINDA
(Jean Negulesco 1948)
A film based on an incident that took place on
Canada’s Prince Edward Island, dramatized in a 1940
Broadway play by Elmer Blaney Harris; it is historically
noteworthy as the first film made by a Hollywood studio to
confront rape, a subject shunned due to the Hollywood
Production Code. Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, Jane
Wyman won the Best Actress Oscar for her gripping
performance as a deaf-mute rape victim who confronts evil to
protect her out-of-wedlock infant son and demand her right as
a mother to raise her child as her own and on her own.
MAY
“The Four Loves” How do different kinds of love help people to meet life’s many challenges?
MAY 14th
SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS
(Preston Sturges 1941) Sturges’ hysterical send-up of Hollywood elites’ hypocrisy in longing to
make socially relevant films portraying and decrying the plight of the
poor, about which they know nothing. Follow the comic misadventures
of Hollywood comedy director John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) and his
chance companion (played delightfully by 1940’s “it-girl”, Veronica
Lake) as they attempt to open hit the road as hobos to experience, firsthand, the plight of humanity. At journey’s end Sullivan discovers this
very important truth: “There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh.”
MAY 28th
They Were Expendable
(John Ford 1945)
John Ford’s homage to Navy heroism during the fall of the Philippines just after Pearl Harbor. Ford examines the human and emotional costs of war and the difficult choices warfare demands of those who wear the cloth of our nation. Starring Robert Montgomery, John Wayne and Donna Reed, it is a history lesson that is both necessary and appropriate for all ages; to honor the Memorial Day Holiday
CIFF’s Coronado Classic Film Study Program is open to any upper middle and high school students attending public schools, charter or parochial schools, and homeschoolers. We welcome all students to attend and join post-screening moderated discussion. This launch of the program was made possible with seed funding from the City of Coronado Community grant.
Two purposes will guide the program:
1) To develop in young people the discernment necessary to understand dramatic film narratives. Because movies employ so many senses, classic films are among the most powerful genres of visual storytelling. The program will introduce young people classic movies, made by recognized masters of the film medium.
2) to challenge young people to analyze dramatic film narratives and hone critical thinking skills. Every dramatic narrative is, in its essence, a story of redemption. Great stories incorporate an introduction, a protagonist, an antagonist, and some form of conflict. Great stories conclude when these conflicts are resolved. This general narrative model is followed, in various forms, in nearly every classic film made during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
EDUCATIONAL GUIDES/EXPANDED STUDY
A special program will be made available for Homeschoolers or independent study to document program completion as a drama and/or film appreciation elective.
The discussion guides are drawn from Dr. Onalee McGraw, founder of the Educational Guidance Institute (EGI) and a former educator. She has been featured on Turner Classic Movies, and her Classic Film study guides have been used successfully with audiences of young people around the nation from widely diverse demographic backgrounds and cultural experiences. If you would like more information on bringing a group or class and utilize the guided curriculum please contact Jon Mosier for more information: Classicstudy@coronadofilm.com .
ABOUT JON MOSIER Director of the Classic Student Program.
Jon is a long-time devotee of Classic Hollywood films. He developed the Student Classic Film Program as a fellowship Capstone Project in collaboration with Dr. Onalee McGraw at the Educational Guidance Institute. As Jon puts it, “The Student Classic Film Program is purposefully designed to engage the hearts and minds of young people, enrich their cultural literacy and strengthen their understanding of film as art, “