Cinema is a literacy
your students deserve.
One curated film a week. A trained volunteer. A complete discussion guide. Almost no cost to you. From primary classrooms to undergraduate, postgraduate, and MBA cohorts — here is what The Talkies does, and why it works.
★ The case for cinema in schools & colleges
Hours of screen time daily
The average urban Indian child. None of it is taught. Almost none is discussed. The Talkies changes what children do with that attention — and what they keep.
Of CBSE / ICSE curriculum
Film gets no space in any mainstream Indian school curriculum. We are not proposing to replace anything. We add one hour a week that is purely additive.
Films across six tiers
Junior (8–10), Middle (11–13), Senior (14–17), Undergraduate, Postgraduate, and Professional (MBA). Every film selected for what it opens up in discussion, not for what it avoids. World cinema. Indian regional. Documentary.
Cost to partner institutions
The Talkies is volunteer-led. The institution provides the room and the audience. We provide the volunteer, the curriculum, and the films (through legitimate streaming platforms your campus already pays for).
Among all the things children consume, film does something none of the others quite do. It asks for two unbroken hours of full attention. It puts a child inside another life. — The Talkies manifesto
How the programme works
The Talkies runs as a weekly co-curricular session — typically 90 minutes on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. One session a week, one film per term (screened across two sessions where needed). A trained Talkies volunteer runs every session.
- Your institution hosts. We recruit and train the volunteer.
- We provide the complete session guide: synopsis, discussion questions, activities, content notes, sourcing instructions.
- The session begins with the screening and ends with a structured discussion. No test. No grade. Just the conversation the film creates.
- We track nothing about individual students. Your institution keeps all student data.
- We ask for one thing in return: a brief feedback form from the volunteer after each session, so we can improve the guides.
What your institution gets
As a partner institution, you receive:
- A dedicated Talkies volunteer, recruited and trained by us, background-checked through your institution's standard process.
- Access to the full library: 123 films across six audience tiers, with complete discussion guides added over time.
- A curated programme for your specific tier — school age band, undergraduate, postgraduate, or MBA — sequenced for the term.
- Pre-session parent communication templates — we know parents ask.
- A Talkies certificate for students who complete a full term, if your institution wants one.
- Our full email and WhatsApp support for your institution coordinator throughout the term.
The film library
The Talkies library has been built over three years by a team of educators, film critics, and school counsellors. Every film is selected against the same criteria:
- Age-appropriate without being condescending. Films that treat children as intelligent.
- Emotionally resonant enough to spark conversation. Not just "educational" in a narrow sense.
- Diverse by country, language, and gender. Students should see the world on screen, not just one version of it.
- Legally sourceable — available on a streaming platform accessible to Indian institutions, or as a licensed DVD.
- Accompanied by a complete, teacher-tested discussion guide.
Three guides are currently available in full: My Neighbour Totoro (Junior), Taare Zameen Par (Middle), and Stanley Ka Dabba (Middle). More are added each term.
Questions we hear most often
Does this require any technology investment by the school?
No. You need a projector (or a large TV) and a room. If you have Netflix, Amazon Prime, or ZEE5, most of the library is accessible. Where a film is only available on DVD, we can help arrange a licensed copy.
How do you find and train volunteers?
We recruit through our partner networks — primarily university film societies, young professionals, and retired educators. Every volunteer goes through a background check process aligned with your school's safeguarding policy and a two-day training programme run by us before they enter a classroom.
What is the time commitment for the school coordinator?
About 30 minutes per week: confirming the room, circulating the session note to parents if needed, and giving us 5-minute feedback after each session. We deliberately designed this to be low-overhead for the school.
Can the school choose which films to screen?
Yes — within the age-band curriculum for your school. We provide a recommended sequence but the final selection is always yours. If a film is sensitive for a specific class context, we'll find an alternative with equivalent themes and a complete guide.
What if our students aren't used to reading subtitles?
This is the most common concern — and it usually dissolves after the first ten minutes of Totoro. We recommend starting every Junior programme with Totoro for exactly this reason. Our guides include specific notes on how to help students adjust to subtitled film.
★ Ready to start?
Bring The Talkies
to your campus.
Fill in the partner registration form. We will reply within 48 hours to arrange a call and answer any questions your principal, dean, or coordinator has.