BOOSTers! Are you ready for BOOST Conference 2025? TEAMBOOST wants to help you get ready by spotlighting this year’s Film Festival movie screenings. Read on to learn more.
The BOOST Film Festival features relevant media by dedicated and talented filmmakers that is sure to inspire, educate, and transform youth development professionals. Further, moderators engage attendees in post-screening discussions that unpack the content, challenge the mind, and create opportunities for future curriculum development. In partnership with GOOD DOCS, BOOST Conference is proud to feature films ‘that do good in the world‘. All registered attendees are welcome to attend and participate in the BOOST Film Festival.
Interested in attending the Film Festival? Visit https://www.boostconference.org/film-fest for more information!
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30
10:30AM-12:15PM
#KIDSONTECH
Moderator: Ryan McCarthy, Executive Director, Global Kindness Initiative, San Francisco, CA
Parents and teachers around the world struggle with their kids’ dependence on devices. #KIDSONTECH looks at the impact this is having on children’s developing bodies and brains. Voices from around the world, including parents and teens, a Google designer, a German brain scientist, and New York Times journalist, Matt Richtel ask: “Who is responsible?” and, “How can we help our children cope with the challenges posed by tech today?”
Watch the trailer: https://vimeo.com/933411302
2:45PM-4:45PM
PURPLE DREAMS
Moderator: TBD
African American youth challenge stereotype and barriers in this inspirational documentary shadowing six talented high-school students on an emotionally powerful, three-year journey of transformation in a racially biased city. With access to arts and academic mentors, and especially under the leadership of theater teacher and director Corey Mitchell, they are chosen to be the first high school permitted to perform The Color Purple—the Broadway musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. Arts education and the student’s own perseverance become pathways out of poverty, homelessness, and gang-related violence. PURPLE DREAMS bears witness to the need for equitable and culturally relevant arts education, especially in underserved communities.
Watch the trailer: https://vimeo.com/889242550
THURSDAY, MAY 1
10:00AM-12:00PM
THE TRUTH ABOUT READING
Moderator: TBD
From Emmy-Award® winning director Nick Nanton comes a new eye-opening documentary, THE TRUTH ABOUT READING. Literacy experts from across America, including Emily Hanford of Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong and Lacey Robinson of UnboundEd, emphasize the gravity of the illiteracy crisis and share how the implementation of science and evidence-based practices can transform lives and ensure that every child learns how to read. The documentary highlights the stories of David Chalk and John Corcoran, two men who didn’t learn how to read and write until they were adults. Following their stories gives a glimpse into the hard truth of how illiteracy and sub-literacy impede a person’s ability to truly thrive. While the film illustrates the painful reality of life for individuals impacted by illiteracy, it also reminds viewers that the issue is not one that affects just a few struggling readers, but one that affects countless children and adults and weakens the very fabric of our society. Filled with powerful emotion, a deep sense of urgency, and an overarching spirit of hope, THE TRUTH ABOUT READING brings light to a hidden crisis and compels audiences to take action to end illiteracy once and for all.
Watch the trailer: https://vimeo.com/903814731
1:15PM-2:30PM
Inventing Tomorrow
Moderator: Jamecca Marshall, MA, Deputy Executive Director, Los Angeles STEM Collaborative, Los Angeles, CA
INVENTING TOMORROW follows young scientists from Indonesia, Hawaii, India, and Mexico as they tackle some of the most complex environmental issues facing humanity today – right in their own backyards. Each student is preparing original scientific research that he or she will defend at ISEF, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Framed against the backdrop of the severe environmental threats we now face, we immerse the audience in a global view of the planetary crisis, through the eyes of the generation that will be affected by it most.
Considered the Olympics of high school science fairs, ISEF is the largest gathering of high school scientists in the world, attracting approximately 1,800 finalists from over 75 countries, regions, and territories. All the finalists want to do a good job, but the heart of the story isn’t about whether they go home with an award. As they take water samples from contaminated lakes, dig up the dirt in public parks, board illegal pirate mining ships, and test their experiments in a lab, we see each student display a tenacious curiosity, and a determination to build a better future. Motivated by the desire to protect their homes, these young people are asking questions about the issues they observe in their communities and proposing innovative solutions to fix them.
Watch the trailer: https://vimeo.com/286103008
3:45PM-5:15PM
REBOUND
Moderator: TBD
REBOUND follows two women from starkly different circumstances as they rebound from incarceration and seek refuge and opportunity in academia. Struggling to recognize their worth and still reeling from years of trauma, these aspiring scholars navigate personal and financial insecurity, motherhood, and their own healing. As each leaps into the pursuit of higher education and self-transformation, they each find acceptance, sisterhood, and hope for a new life.
Watch the trailer: https://vimeo.com/728245275
FRIDAY, MAY 2
9:15AM-11:15AM
ZERO GRAVITY
Moderator: Mara Wold, Program Coordinator II, Region 5, Expanded Learning, Monterey County Office of Education, Salinas, CA
ZERO GRAVITY follows a diverse group of middle school students from San Jose, CA, who compete in a nationwide tournament to code satellites aboard the International Space Station. Their mission: compete with teams across the country to write the most strategic code for surveying satellites, known as SPHERES. These satellites will help map out a GPS system to successfully orbit Mars in the future, opening the door to infinite opportunities and exploration on the Red Planet. Each coder-in-the-making brings their own strengths, unique perspectives, and boundless curiosity to their team, together embarking on an out-of-this-world STEM quest that celebrates space, teamwork, and the triumph of the human spirit. Featuring astronauts Steve Smith, Cady Coleman, and International Space Station resident Jack Fischer, who performs the students’ incredible achievements in orbit 250 miles above the Earth‘s surface, this inspiring documentary highlights the importance of empowering the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators who will fearlessly lead us into the future and the unknown.
Watch the trailer: https://vimeo.com/756899043
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Get ready for this one-of-a-kind professional development experience, where local, national, and global leaders gather to grow together, build community, and co-create a great world for kids. Together we INSPIRE YOUTH, INSPIRE LEARNING, and INSPIRE CHANGE.
Still need to register for BOOST 2025? Visit boostconference.org/registration for more information.
BOOSTers, we can’t wait to learn with you April 29 – May 2, 2025, in sunny Palm Springs!
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