The independent feature film “Comic Book Literacy” won the “Best Documentary” award at the Phoenix Comicon Film Festival over Memorial Day weekend. The film features interviews with comic book creators, educators and scholars and delves into the topic of using comic books to promote literacy and education.
The film screened early in the festival, which was a part of the tenth annual Phoenix Comicon, and helped to set the stage for one of the convention's primary themes. The convention partnered with “Kids Need to Read,” a non-profit organization that works to create a culture of reading for children by providing inspiring books to under-funded schools, libraries, and literacy programs across the United States. Together the two groups produced multiple events throughout the convention to raise funds for the charity.
“We're very pleased to have been honored by the festival with the ‘Best Documentary’ award,” said Todd Kent, the film’s director, “But we’re even more excited to have been a part of an event like this that promotes literacy and the idea that comics can play a big part in getting kids excited about reading.”
In addition to the Phoenix Comicon, the film premiered earlier this year at Chicago's C2E2, was an official selection of the Karibukai Animation Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico and there are plans to screen throughout 2010 & 2011 at film festivals, comic book conventions and other events. Kent said, “We’re continuing to work towards our goal of having comic books accepted in schools, libraries and lesson plans across the country and events like these are a big part of raising awareness about the positive aspects of the medium.”
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