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Movie Night

Can we still movie nights at the school? I can't seem to find any information on that.

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Permalink Reply by Sara on October 14, 2009 at 11:33pm
Yes, you can still have Movie Night at school with a special Movie License. Sometimes the school already have one site, you can ask the principle.
Permalink Reply by PTA Administrator on October 20, 2009 at 2:13pm
Glad to see your interest in Movie Night Live. PTA doesn't have plans to offer another Movie Night Live package but units can still produce similar events on their own.
Permalink Reply by Amanda Miller on December 9, 2009 at 2:28pm
Does anyone know the best company to secure a movie license from? Movie Licensing USA is what I'm looking at right now.
Permalink Reply by Jenean Witherspoon on December 9, 2009 at 2:36pm
I believe Movie Licensing USA is the only company to secure a license from. I haven't heard of any others.
Permalink Reply by Amanda Miller on December 9, 2009 at 2:48pm
Ok- Thanks, I just wanted to make sure.
Permalink Reply by M Wright on December 15, 2009 at 11:12pm
I'm looking for information on the legality of doing a movie night. Where do we find the information on how to do an event like this right? Does the PTA provide a link to information on the copyright laws that apply to this situation?
Permalink Reply by Amanda Miller on December 16, 2009 at 12:40pm
If you show any movie, legally your building should be licensed to do so. There is an Educational Exemption, though. This is copied from Movie Licensing USA's website. www.movlic.com
The Educational Exemption, also called the "face-to-face teaching exemption," is a precise activity which allows the legal use of movies in certain types of teaching. In order for a movie to be considered an "Educational Exemption," all criteria must be met:

■A teacher or instructor is present.
■The showing takes place in a classroom setting with only the enrolled students attending.
■The movie is used as an essential part of the core, current curriculum being taught. (The instructor should be able to show how the use of the motion picture contributes to the overall required course study and syllabus.)
■The movie being used is a legitimate copy, not taped from a legitimate copy or taped from TV.
If you are uncertain about your responsibilities under copyright law, consult your school's legal copyright representative.
Permalink Reply by Bob Moore on March 8, 2010 at 1:53am
Wow this is nice program for both parent and teachers. It is something we can call bonding moment for the two parties. I should join the event whenever this movie time becomes available again. I also wanted to write custom essays for this event to my blog so I could share this to other parent in different schools.
Permalink Reply by Chandra on April 20, 2010 at 11:17pm
Swank Motion Pictures is who we get our movie licence from. You can also purchase a special license to do an outdoor movie. We run a once a month film series in the auditorium during the year. Just a couple of weeks ago we did an outdoor screening of E.T. It was great!
Permalink Reply by Peter Rukavina on January 31, 2012 at 8:38am

Here in Prince Edward Island, Canada, our Department of Education has a "public performance site location license agreement" with a company called Audio Ciné Films that covers all schools in the province. This allows our home and schools (PTAs) to have "movie nights" in a legal fashion as long as the following conditions are met:

  1. You cannot charge admission (although itʼs okay to sell popcorn, etc.)
  2. Movie must be shown primarily for the students (not for the general public).
  3. You cannot advertise outside of the school (school newsletter okay, ad in the local newspaper not okay).
  4. You must report the showing of the movie to the schoolʼs teacher-librarian; this ensures that the studio owning the film gets paid properly.
  5. The movie must be from a studio represented by Audio Ciné.

In practice our school has found this has worked well, the only sticky bit is ensuring that the movie we select for "movie night" is from one of the studios represented.  The nice thing about this license is that when it comes to getting the movie itself, we're allowed to just rent it from a local video rental shop.

Our provincial Home and School Federation has a fact sheet for local associations that might be useful as a guide for others.

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