At the Action Coalition for Media Education summit, one of the sessions I attended was Jay Craven’s Local Film Voices – The State of Independent Regional Cultural Media. As I listened to him speak about showing films at schools, libraries, and churches across Vermont, it struck me that part of fighting for independent media should include establishing a network of Community Film Centers.

Fifteen years ago, the Community Technology Center Network was established. CTCNet is “a national membership network of community technology centers (CTCs) and other non-profits, united in their commitment to provide technology access and education to underserved communities.”

Jay was encouraging people to build communities of people interested in watching independent films. We talked about what it costs to rent films, working out deals with public libraries, mailing lists, etc. I suggested that we need a good ‘how to start a community film center’ document, and hopefully Jay and others can help put something like this together. Likewise, it would be great to have a mailing list of community film center organizers, where they could share tips and where independent film makers could promote their films.

Already, there are the seeds for such communities. Iraq for Sale is being shown across the country. Brave New Films has their list of screenings. DFA has its list. MoveOn organizes film screenings, as is CodePink.

Yet Jay was concerned about more than just the current set of popular documentaries. The communities gathering around such films can and should watch other films, films with regional perspectives, films that explore our cultural heritage and perhaps define ourselves as more than the Hollywood depiction of what it means to be an American.

For me, this ties back Lisa Goldman’s talk about how gifted girls are portrayed in films today. We need to build communities where films with positive messages, and not only documentaries, can be shown and discussed.

So, who’s in for helping build a Community Film Center Network?