8 Day 2: Understanding Bias in Film and Media 1.Screening: Share the “Shirley Card” short video (4 min) with students. This video discusses racial bias in film and TV technology. Ask students, “Were you surprised by anything you saw or heard in this video? Why or why not?” 2.Researching: Share the accompanying article and ask students to read it independently. 3.Discussing: After students have had a chance to read the article, ask them to discuss the following in small groups (3-4 people per group): i.What is one thing you learned by watching this video and reading this article? ii.Look at the images in the article; why do you think the advertisers and magazines lightened the skin of these famous Black women? 4.Researching: In the same small groups (3-4 people), ask students to find examples of bias in film, TV, advertisements, and social media. Examples might include gender bias, racial bias, or cultural bias. 5.Reflection: After the small group work, ask each group to share their findings with the larger group. This presentation can serve as a formative assessment. Day 3: What is “representation” in film and media? 1.Sharing (print out or project on screen): The American Film Institute's (AFI’s) Catalog of Feature Films is renowned as the world’s most academic and comprehensive chronicle of the first century of cinema history, which documents every American feature film and co-production released from 1893 to 1993. In 2022, AFI was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for a project titled “Behind the Veil,” named after the lost 1914 short film directed by Lois Weber. 2.Historical bias occurs when a source is one-sided, unbalanced, and/or prejudiced, using positive or negative language and/or omitting facts. AFI is trying to engage audiences in discovering more about the past and encouraging new conversations about the art of filmmaking. AFI is also spotlighting storytellers from many different backgrounds who have traditionally been omitted from the historical narrative through this project (see next page for examples). Behind the Veil (https://aficatalog.afi.com/behind-the-veil/) involves researching short films released in the silent and early sound eras for documentation in the AFI Catalog. AFI is on a mission to establish the foundation of a new canon that represents filmmakers, actors, and audiences that have been historically overlooked and to offer a look “behind the veil” of that historical bias to reveal the true breadth of America’s legacy in film.
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