If your tween-aged child has a hankering to be the next Roger Ebert, there’s a camp for that. KIDS FIRST!, which evaluates, rates and endorses children’s films, DVDs, CDs, TV shows and games using volunteer, community-based juries of adults and children from diverse backgrounds, also runs one of the world’s largest children’s film festivals.

KIDS FIRST! Junior Film Critics Boot Camp is a project of the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media, a national, 18-year-old, nonprofit organization that is a voluntary collaboration between the media industry, educators and child advocacy organizations. The mission of the Coalition is to teach children to become critical media users and to increase the visibility and availability of quality children’s media. The camps will take place in New York, Santa Fe and Los Angeles this June and July. Classes are limited to 25 children and cost $425. Some scholarships are available.

According to founder/president Ranny Levy, creating this first Junior Film Critics Boot Camp was a natural next step, in training young people to be able to judge and critic media. Kids ages 11 to 14 will get a chance to meeting real film critics, learn interview techniques, improve on-camera skills and be coached by seasoned professionals. The goal is for tweens to build self confidence,  learn more about the behind-the-scenes aspects of the film industry as they critique the latest films, learn how to write reviews, learn interview techniques, visit a production studio and take the advice of professionals for improving on-camera skills.

Those seasoned professionals include 1st assistant director Janet Davidson; arts educator/filmmaker Brooke Kalick; arts educator/KIDS FIRST! parent volunteer Nancy Kenney; and film journalist/arts educator Judy Sandra. (Their full bios are on the site here.)

More class information:

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

June 21 – July 2 (2 p.m. -  5:30 p.m.)
Warehouse 21 (Railyard District)
1614 Paseo De Peralta
Santa Fe, NM

LOS ANGELES, CA

July 19 – July 23 (9 a.m. – 4 p.m.)
The Georgian Hotel
1415 Ocean Avenue
Santa Monica, CA

NEW YORK, NY

July 26 – July 30 (9 a.m. – 4 p.m.)
WNET.ORG
450 West 33rd Street
New York, NY 10001-2605