While the passing of FACETS’ Founder Milos Stehlik is still fresh within the community, we can still share his vision through the Film Literacy Manifesto. Through his written word, Milos continues to teach film consumers how to actively engage in film and use it as a vehicle to expand ones point of view and explore a range of cultures far and wide.

A year ago, on July 6, 2019, FACETS’ Founder Milos Stehlik passed away after a six-month battle with lung cancer. We celebrate his legacy by sharing Milos’s Film Literacy Manifesto, originally presented at the University of Chicago’s International Educators Conference. 

Film literacy was at the core of Milos’s philosophy. As a film programmer, educator, and critic, he consistently reminded us that film is not simply entertainment, it is a tool that can bridge cultural divides, promote media literacy, and expand perspectives. 

In February 2019, Milos had the honor of giving the keynote address at the University of Chicago’s 11^th Annual International Educators Conference. The speech, titled “Teaching in a Brave New World,” explored how educators can utilize film to bring international content into their classrooms.  

Halfway through his speech, Milos gives what could be called his Film Literacy Manifesto, a point by point list outlining how film can revolutionize society on both the individual and societal level.   

Instead of taking a passive approach to the films and other media we watch, Milos encourages us to take an active role, using film to, in his words, “open minds and souls, giving every individual the opportunity to see themselves as they are, and as they can be, embracing their potential to save our planet and ourselves.” 

This message of hope is important not only for educators, but for everyone, and has gained urgency over the past year and a half as political and cultural tensions rise in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd.  

Our hope is that Milos’s Media Literacy Manifesto can provide a road map to help us navigate our current moment, which is simultaneously the most media saturated and politically divisive moment in American history. By better understanding the complexities of how film and media impact us and our communities, we can better understand how to create positive lasting change. 

The Manifesto 

The text has been edited for clarity.  

What We Can Do in the Future  

(1) We need to make basic film education a part of every teacher training curriculum. This education needs to combine history, theory, and practice.  

(2) There is no real pedagogy for teaching film at the high school, middle school, or elementary school level. We need to gather the brightest minds and models and create one. 

(3) Every student needs to have basic digital communication as a requirement for graduation. This should be neither an elective nor relegated to an after-school or out-of-school program but made the center of students’ education.  

(4) We need to re-think when media education starts. There are models suggesting that basic media education at even a pre-school level can be instrumental in intellectual development in such fields as math, science, and technology.  

(5) The visceral connection between film and other fields, both intellectual and social-emotional, needs to be expanded. Media education can lead as the process through which students approach other subjects. Film informs not only history, science or political science, but relationships like those between animation and math, film production and systemic organization or entrepreneurship.  

What We Can Do Now  

(1) Stop watching s***. Just because it’s on Netflix or easily accessible with the next click doesn’t make a good use of your time.  

(2) If you need a reason, here are two: bad films are bad for your health, and your life is too short to be spent watching bad movies.  

(3) Become a part of the solution. Stop being afraid of subtitles. Take a film course or ten. Create a list of films you need to see to have a basic film foundation. Read about them, and even better, write about them. Learn to understand the films within their historical, cultural, political, and aesthetic context.  

(4) Make films, even if it’s on your phone. Not of the food on your plate or your friends camping about for the camera, but films which have a narrative arc, a point of view, a visual concept. 

(5) Don’t rely on stereotypes, clichés or even genres. Remember, in really great films, there are no good guys or bad guys. Every character is both. 

(6) Experiment with films that emphasize diversity of language, culture, geography, and artistic form. Don’t assume that a film is bad because it’s too slow. The fault might lie with you: you’re too anxious. Don’t give up if you don’t understand it at first. Go and read about the film. Find an interview with the filmmaker. Then go back and watch again. 

(7) See films everywhere, preferably in a movie theater, wherever and whenever you can. 

(8) Emphasize critical viewing. Own the grammar and syntax of cinema and use it as an analytical tool to help separate fact from fiction, reality from construction. And always try to understand who is telling the story, whose story is it, and why it is being told. 

(9) Learn by doing. Use film as an audiovisual laboratory to take you outside of your comfort zone and to document and investigate the issues that impact your life and community.  

(10) Work collaboratively and create filmmaking communities with friends, family members, and colleagues to explore the uniting power of film. You can program your own mini film festivals, discuss and present films to each other, and share films and videos you’ve made. 

(11) Lay the foundations for a new cinema-literate generation where we encourage creativity, compassion, open communication, and civil engagement. 

You can watch the full “Teaching in a Brave New World” speech on the UChicago Educator Outreach YouTube channel, here. 

Milos Stehlik Legacy Fund

Support for the Milos Stehlik Legacy Fund allows FACETS to continue its groundbreaking work in film education, exhibition, and distribution. Donate today.