On Friday some of the First Book staff attended a private screening of the not yet released movie Flicka. The movie is based on the 1941 children’s novel by Mary O’Hara titled My Friend Flicka, which was also made into a movie in 1943 and was a TV series in the 1950′s. This new version was beautifully filmed in Wyoming and the main character is a teen-age girl instead of the young boy in the earlier versions. Although there was some criticism about the acting ability of Tim McGraw, who plays the father, all agreed it was a heartwarming story and more than a few tears were shed.

We were invited to the screening by a nonprofit organization in our building called the National Collaboration for Youth (NCY) which is part of the National Assembly of Health and Human Organizations. F.I.L.M. is a partnership between NCY and the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Pictures. F.I.L.M. strives to create programs around positive movies that are based on quality literature. They produce youth development activity guides related to the themes and messages of movies. The guides are free and can be downloaded at YouthFilmProject.org.

Other F.I.L.M. movies such as Dreamer and Because of Winn Dixie are being offered for free this summer at the AMC Summer MovieCamp. The screenings are at 10:30am on Wednesday mornings. You can’t beat a free movie based on a good book!