Tribeca Teaches expands to L.A.

The Tribeca Film Institute is expanding its Tribeca Teaches program to Los Angeles with an after-school digital storytelling program at Lennox Middle School. The program, announced Monday, is presented in partnership with Southern California Crossroads. It is TFI's first pilot outside of NY City and will focus on the medium of video games to guide a bilingual, storytelling curriculum to students. The six-year-old Tribeca Teaches youth programs in NY are expected to serve more than 15,000 students in 2012. Tribeca Teaches Los Angeles will launch an 18-week program to help students script their own stories using videogame narratives, partnered with filmmakers, teachers, community activists and parents. One of the current Tribeca Teaches NY programs involves a partnership between the Bronx Preparatory Charter School and a Brazilian school to create a student film. Students in Brazil will read Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin, and conduct viewings of "Menace II Society," while students in the Bronx will watch "City of God" and read Chico Mendes' Fight for the Forest. "Over the past six years we have built a strong foundation for young storytellers in NY City, helping students to see themselves as storytellers, and providing teachers with the tools they need to use film and media in the classroom," said Beth Janson, exec director of the Tribeca Film Institute. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com