KDocs Community Outreach Program
KDocs, Kwantlen Polytechnic University's official film festival, launched its Community Outreach Program in the fall of 2015. The goal of this initiative is to connect with students in the communities KPU serves--Richmond, Surrey, and Langley--by bringing a documentary and facilitated discussion to their high school classroom. The first outreach workshop took the KDocs team of Janice Morris, Chris Traynor, and myself to Christa Barberis' Social Justice 12 class at Langley Secondary School, where we screened Andrew Rossi's Ivory Tower (2014) and led a discussion about the state of higher education. As a take-home assignment, the students made social media posts (via Facebook and Twitter) and short reaction videos to the day's social justice issue. We are looking forward to visiting more schools in 2016. Please contact me at greg.chan@kpu.ca for more information on the KDocs Outreach Program.
Film Matters Guest Editorship for KPU
The Editorial Board of Film Matters (7.2 2016): Rachael Ransom, Mathew Fabick, Greg Chan (Editor-in-Chief), Melissa Houghton, Neil Bassan, Fraser Readman, Irene Halliday, and Ann Soo-Yeon Kim
With a cohort of my senior English students, I am pleased to be guest-editing a special issue of Film Matters, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal devoted to undergraduate research in film studies. Originally, I came across this publication while teaching English 4350: Topics in Film Studies. My students' scholarship was of such a high calibre that I wanted to find a place to get their papers published. Film Matters, with its dedication to "future film scholars," was the perfect fit. Once I made contact with editor Liza Palmer, we agreed that Issue 7.2 would be guest-edited by myself and a KPU editorial board of English majors: Neil Bassan, Mathew Fabick, Melissa Houghton, Irene Halliday, Ann Soo-Yeon Kim, Rachael Ransom, and Fraser Readman. Our KPU-sponsored issue focuses on theoretical approaches to film adaptation.
The board members are doing double-duty by serving on the board as reviewers, while simultaneously authoring featurettes that will include film, DVD, Blu-ray, and film festival reviews.
In both hard copy and online formats, Issue 7.2 is set for a Spring 2016 release.
Film Matters is co-edited by Liza Palmer and Tim Palmer from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and published by Intellect Books.