Movies At Your Program
Want to bring a movie on Campus?
How to book a place to show your movie
- Fill out a facilities request
- Fill out at least TWO weeks before your program.
- Your room is not confirmed until your listed contact person is emailed a confirmation.
- Please attach a proof of license or exemption of the Copyright Law to your Facilities Request. (Please see below)
Copyright Law States:
"Motion pictures and other audiovisual works" are copyright subject matter within the protective scope of the U.S. Copyright Act. One of the exclusive rights of the copyright holder is to "perform the copyrighted work publicly". A performance is ‘public’ if it takes place "at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered." Additionally, "[p]erformances in ‘semipublic’ places such as clubs, lodges, factories, summer camps, and schools are ‘public performances’ subject to copyright control." Thus, in the absence of an exemption, districts need permission from the copyright holder to show movies at school. The Copyright Act contains a statutory exemption from the performance right for instructional activities in the classroom. The classroom exemption is only available to "non-profit educational institutions" and is subject to the following requirements: (a) performances must be shown "in the course of . . . teaching activities" which involve "systematic instruction [and] whatever their cultural value or intellectual appeal", do not involve performances "given for the recreation or entertainment of any part of the audience", (b) performances must involve "face-to-face teaching activities" meaning that eitheran instructor must be present in the room or "in the same building or general area" and (c) performances must take place "in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction" such as "a studio, a workshop, a gymnasium, a training field, a library, the stage of an auditorium itself, if it is actually used as a classroom for systematic instructional activities."
When am I exempt from paying a licensing fee?
When there is ALL of the above:
- Face-to-face teaching
- The movie happens during designated class time
- The movie is shown only to the students registered for that specific class
Check out the full details HERE
How to get the license to show a film
We need to make sure we get the license to show the film, and our college can utilize SWANK, Dan is our representative.
Swank's representative will ask you:
- How many people are you planning on showing the film to?
- In what kind of place will you be showing the film? A classroom? A theater? The Quad?
- What dates would you like to show the film?
You can look up the movie title of your choice in SWANK's database, and call the number on their website, 1-800-876-5577 and they will give you a quote for how much the license to show the film will cost. They will also provide a copy of the movie for your program, our representative is Bianca.
Showing Free Films on Kanopy
- The school district pays for a Public Performance Site License, which means clubs and classes not charging admission and showing a film on campus for an event can show any Kanopy Film without purchasing the licensing.