"We have to teach our students to be critical viewers," Scorsese said during a press conference announcing the new film curriculum.

Martin Scorsese and his nonprofit organization The Film Foundation have announced their brand-new film curriculum, “Portraits of America: Democracy on Film.” The curriculum is the latest addition to the group’s ongoing film course “The Story of Movies,” which aims to teach students how to read the language of film and place motion pictures in the context of history, art, and society. Both “Democracy on Film” and the course are completely free for schools and universities.

“Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” is broken down into eight different sections, all of which include in-depth looks at some of the most important American films ever made, from Chaplin to Ford, Coppola, Spielberg, and ultimately Scorsese himself. The program is presented in partnership with AFSCME. Scorsese announced the curriculum at a March 27 press conference in New York City.

“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing,” Scorsese explained. “For young people born into this world now, it’s absolutely crucial that they get guided. They have to learn how to sort the differences between art and pure commerce, between cinema and content, between the secrets of images that are individually crafted and the secrets of images that are mass-produced. We want to teach our students to try and be critical thinkers, and now we have to teach them to be critical viewers as well.”

Per Scorsese, the “Portraits of America” course features eight modules, and within each are four to five chapters focusing on specific films for in-depth study. “The American Woman” module, for instance, suggests Ridley Scott’s “Alien” for conversation, while “The Immigrant Experience” includes” The Godfather.”

An outline of the latest curriculum is below. Visit “The Story of Movies” official website for more information.

Module 1: The Immigrant Experience

Introductory Lesson: From Penny Claptrap to Movie Palaces—the First Three Decades

Chapter 1: “The Immigrant” (1917, d. Charlie Chaplin)

Chapter 2: “The Godfather, Part II” (1974, d. Francis Ford Coppola)

Chapter 3: “America, America” (1963, d. Elia Kazan)

Chapter 4: “El Norte” (1983, d. Gregory Nava)

Chapter 5: “The Namesake” (2006, d. Mira Nair)

Module 2: The American Laborer

Introductory Lesson: The Common Good

Chapter 1: “Black Fury” (1935, d. Michael Curtiz)

Chapter 2: “Harlan County U.S.A.” (1976, d. Barbara Kopple)

Chapter 3: “At the River I Stand” (1993, d. David Appleby, Allison Graham and Steven Ross)

Chapter 4: “Salt of the Earth” (1954, d. Herbert J. Biberman)

Chapter 5: “Norma Rae” (1979, d. Martin Ritt)

Module 3: Civil Rights

Introductory Lesson: The Camera as Witness

Chapter 1: King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis (1970, conceived & created by

Ely Landau; guest appearances filmed by Sidney Lumet and Joseph L.

Mankiewicz)

Chapter 2: “Intruder in the Dust” (1949, d. Clarence Brown)

Chapter 3: “The Times of Harvey Milk” (1984, d. Robert Epstein)

Chapter 4: “Smoke Signals” (1998, d. Chris Eyre)

Module 4: The American Woman

Introductory Lesson: Waysof Seeing Women

Chapter 1: Through a Woman’s Lens: Directors Lois Weber (focusing on “Suspense,” 1913 and

“Where Are My Children,” 1916) and Dorothy Arzner (“Dance, Girl, Dance,” 1940)

Chapter 2: “Imitation of Life” (1934, d. John M. Stahl)

Chapter 3: “Woman of the Year” (1942, d. George Stevens)

Chapter 4: “Alien” (1979, d. Ridley Scott)

Chapter 5: “The Age of Innocence” (1993, d. Martin Scorsese)

Module 5: Politicians and Demagogues

Introductory Lesson: Checks and Balances

Chapter 1: “Gabriel Over the White House” (1933, d. Gregory La Cava)

Chapter 2: “A Lion is in the Streets” (1953, d. Raoul Walsh)

Chapter 3: “Advise and Consent” (1962, d. Otto Preminger)

Chapter 4: “A Face in the Crowd” (1957, d. Elia Kazan)

Module 6: Soldiers and Patriots

Introductory Lesson: Movies and Homefront Morale

Chapter 1: “Sergeant York (1941, d. Howard Hawks)

Chapter 2: Private Snafu’s Private War—three Snafu Shorts from WWII

Chapter 3: “Three Came Home” (1950, d. Jean Negulesco)

Chapter 4: “Glory” (1989, Edward Zwick)

Chapter 5: “Saving Private Ryan” (1998, d. Steven Spielberg)

Module 7: The Press

Introductory Lesson: Degrees of Truth

Chapter 1: “Meet John Doe” (1941, d. Frank Capra)

Chapter 2: “All the President’s Men” (1976, d. Alan J. Pakula)

Chapter 3: “Good Night, and Good Luck” (2005, d. George Clooney)

Chapter 4: “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006, d. Davis Guggenheim)

Chapter 5: “Ace in the Hole” (1951, d. Billy Wilder)

Module 8: The Auteurs

Introductory Lesson: Film as an Art Form

Chapter 1: “Modern Times” (1936, Charlie Chaplin)

Chapter 2: “The Grapes of Wrath”(1940, d. John Ford)

Chapter 3: “Citizen Kane” (1941, d. Orson Welles)

Chapter 4: “An American in Paris” (1951, d. Vincente Minnelli)

Chapter 5: “The Aviator” (2004, d. Martin Scorsese)

Additional reporting by Eric Kohn.

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