Berkeley, CA, November 14, 2006 - The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) today announced that it has received a generous $300,000 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to connect high school and college students to CineFiles, BAM/PFA's powerful online database with thousands of historical documents related to film.

"The funding from IMLS gives us the tremendous opportunity to introduce students to BAM/PFA's rich collection of documents related to world cinema," says Lucinda Barnes, deputy director of programs and collections at BAM/PFA. "The grant will allow us to create tools for teachers to integrate film into their classrooms - ultimately enhancing the educational experience of their students."

With the IMLS funding, BAM/PFA will begin an exciting three-year project to expand access to CineFiles beyond the community it already serves - primarily film scholars, journalists, and programmers - to focus on secondary and postsecondary educators in the humanities and social sciences. The funds will be used to add 15,000 items to CineFiles that are of particular relevance to these educators and their students, to enhance the usability of the CineFiles interface, and to develop tutorials and workshops for teachers who want to use film and related materials in their classrooms but have no formal training in film history.

Previously, teachers have often relied on word-of-mouth, their own knowledge, or popular websites to teach film in their classrooms, not knowing that a more comprehensive online film studies resource exists. When this portion of the CineFiles project is complete, humanities and social science educators will have ready access to new tools and resources for incorporating film into their curricula.

CineFiles, a project of the Pacific Film Archive Library and Film Study Center at BAM/PFA, already holds more than 40,000 historical documents related to world film, including newspaper reviews and articles, publicity materials, film festival programs, and manuscripts culled from hundreds of international sources. The largest online film resource of its kind, CineFiles provides far richer source materials than a general Web search could yield, with free access to many copyright-protected documents and in-depth, scholarly indexing. For more information, visit CineFiles online at http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/cinefiles/index.html.

The PFA Library and Film Study Center is one of the major film reference services in the country, and houses the largest film studies collection in Northern California, with 175,000 books, periodicals, photographic stills, posters, documentation, and other materials. For more information, visit http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa_library/.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 122,000 libraries and 15,000 museums. Its mission is to grow and sustain a "Nation of Learners" because life-long learning is essential to a democratic society and individual success. Through its grant making, convenings, research, and publications, the IMLS empowers museums and libraries nationwide to provide leadership and services to enhance learning in families and communities, sustain cultural heritage, build twenty-first-century skills, and increase civic participation.

About BAM/PFA
The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) aims to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through contemporary and historical art and film, engaging audiences from the campus, Bay Area community, and beyond. BAM/PFA is one of the largest university art museums in the United States in both size and attendance, presenting fifteen art exhibitions and five hundred film programs each year. The museum's collection of more than 15,000 works includes exceptional examples of mid-twentieth-century painting, including important works by Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, Eva Hesse, and Mark Rothko, as well as historical and contemporary Asian art, early American painting, Conceptual and contemporary international art, and California and Bay Area art. The PFA film and video collection now includes the largest group of Japanese films outside of Japan, as well as impressive holdings of Soviet silents, West Coast avant-garde cinema, seminal video art, rare animation, Central Asian productions, Eastern European cinema, and international classics.