deadCenter Film’s Statewide Education Tour recently brought a film education and workforce development opportunity to students from around the state. Students learned about filmmaking fundamentals and film festival culture and explored Oklahoma’s growing film industry as a career pathway. 

Our free year-round education programming focuses on rural and underserved students throughout the state. Since January 2023, we have brought the Tour to more than 18,500 students! Our appearances in Anadarko, Sand Springs, Guthrie, Tulsa, Midwest City, and Shawnee were supported in part by an Arts in Alternative Education grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council, which enabled visiting filmmakers such as Kyle Kauwika Harris, Charles Elmore, Kaitlyn Shelby, Adam Hampton, Madeline Markcum, Kenny Pitts, and Jason Alexander to join me. We also had Los Angeles-based filmmaker Anna Baumgarten visit Tulsa and Norman alternative schools. We enjoyed sharing our filmmaking background with students, and the visit was especially meaningful to those filmmakers, who had roots in the area.