Liz Schulze is the Education Manager of Vancouver’s Pacific Cinémathèque, a non-profit film society dedicated to the understanding of film and moving images, whose Education Department offers film and media education programs and resources for youth, teachers, filmmakers, and community groups. She is also a film and video artist, and a graduate of the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program at Simon Fraser University. She has facilitated video production programs, film education seminars, media literacy workshops, and Professional Development events across Canada, focusing on developing media production and critical media literacy skills in teachers and students alike.
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My name is Liz Schulze, and I’m pleased to introduce myself as the Manager of Pacific Cinémathèque’s Education Department. People always ask me what that means; what they really mean is, what do you (and the “Education Department”) actually do?
Well, to put it simply, we do outreach for Western Canada’s leading film society. We help young people, professionals, artists, and community organizations to create high-quality, creative, and thoughtful video productions. We run media literacy workshops for teachers and their students, helping them to discuss and uncover patterns, meanings, and their own ideas about our media-saturated world. We run screening series like Cinema Sunday and Silver Screen, where visitors have the opportunity to talk about the movies they watched with fellow film-enthusiasts. We give professional development workshops to teachers (and teachers in training) to build their understanding of how film can be taught, and how its integration into our classrooms is crucial to today’s youth. And we run our Telus Summer Visions Film Institute, where over 150 youth gather each summer to make award-winning short films, 80% of those on well-deserved bursaries.
Of course, if you’re a regular Cinémathèque patron, attending one of our 500 annual screenings, you may not even know we (or I) exist. That’s because we’re so often out…reaching the community! But hopefully, this introduction tells you a little bit about our department, and about me too.
Personally, my background is in film production – I was at SFU’s Film Program back when we were in portables up on Burnaby Mountain, and fell in love with all kinds of films – but especially documentaries – while I was in school. After graduating, I tried out the film industry, but found that I really missed kids, and teaching, and all that I had been involved with before I got involved with “the Industry.” I quickly found my way into arts education, working with Learning Through the Arts in BC, until the fateful day in 2008 when I discovered Pacific Cinémathèque’s Education Department. I applied, got the job, and the rest is history!
I’m still making films on my own (I’m working on two documentaries right now) and I’m back up at SFU’s School of Communication pursuing my Master’s Degree. All of this keeps me connected to the thrills and challenges of making and talking about films, which I get to do every day for my job. It’s a win-win!
I get to meet great people through my work all the time; hopefully I’ll get to meet some of you some day soon!
