Swank K-12 Motion Pictures Streaming Service
- Rob Caldwell
Swank Motion Pictures’ film streaming platform, Swank K-12 Streaming, offers exclusive access to the largest single library of feature films, documentaries and foreign films available to K-12 schools for instructional support. Teachers can choose to request films from a library of over 40,000 titles and can easily assign films to students outside the classroom by sharing links to assigned films in Canvas.
For most films, Swank provides high quality HD streams with closed-captioning and audio tracks in multiple languages.
NCSSM’s license also allows us to legally show movies anywhere inside either campus for entertainment purposes and special events. The movie licensing includes:
24/7 coverage of our buildings for screenings
Copyright coverage for any movie obtained from a legal source (rental, personal collections, etc.)
We encourage you to use Swank films to plan a campus film screening for a club, J-term, or other activity. If you would like to create posters to promote a film screening, Swank provides an online Promo Builder you can use to create printable posters.
Logging In
To login to the Swank service, faculty and staff should visit swank.ncssm.edu.
(URLs to individual films must be shared with students; Students will receive an error message if they go directly to this URL.)
a. NCSSM faculty and students must sign in using the NCSSM Google Account option when using Swank K-12 streaming media. They will then be logged in through Google authentication.
If you use profiles in your browser, ensure you are using the profile that is logged in to your NCSSM account and not a personal Google account, or you will get an error message when you try to log in.
b. NCSSM Connect students, or students who do not have an NCSSM Google account must choose the option to Sign in another way. They will then use the login credentials for NCSSM Connect Students (this link only works if logged in to NCSSM’s Canvas account - teachers, feel free to post this link in your NCSSM Connect courses if you have shared a Swank film with your Connect students).
The Swank streaming platform does not currently support playback of films via screen sharing platforms such as Zoom Meetings. The security of the platform is designed to prevent functional playback in this manner as Swank is unable to ensure that the audience of a film being shown via screen share is one covered by copyright agreements and rights.
For virtual classrooms and events, we recommend that teachers provide each viewer with a link to the film and use Zoom simultaneously to discuss what every student is watching on their own device.
Identify the Movie You Wish to Assign
After logging in, you will see several collections of films, including:
a. Licensed Content - these are films that can currently be used by any NCSSM teacher.
b. Swank Catalog - these are films that can be licensed by NCSSM upon request.
Searching the Collection
Use the search bar to search for film titles.
You can use the “filter” option to search specific topics, languages, or release years.
When selecting a movie, if you see “Watch” and “Share” buttons, the film is available.
If you see a “request” option instead, this means the film is not currently licensed to NCSSM.
After requesting a film, complete the request form and wait until an NCSSM admin approves your title request.
It can take a few days for requested titles to be made available, so please make certain you plan ahead when requesting films to use in the classroom.
NCSSM can add up to 150 requested films to our licensed film library each school year, so please only request a title if you plan to use it in the classroom. Do not use the service for personal use.
At the beginning of each school year, the custom film library of requested titles resets, so if you plan to use the same films, you will need to request them again.
You will receive a notification email once your requested films have been approved or rejected. You can also check the status of any film requests you have made, by clicking the “Title Request” link.
If Swank does not have the title you wish to utilize, use the “Can’t find what you are looking for?” link near the search bar to request titles be added to the collection. There is no guarantee that Swank will be able to add every requested film to their collection. Adding unavailable films to the collection can also take months.
Assigning a film to students
Click the Share: Copy Link button on the movie page to copy the URL to the film you wish to share.
Paste the link into whatever platform you intend to share with students.
Students will be required to login to Swank after clicking the link and will then be able to view the film.
Tip: Browse the Licensed Collection
If you would like to browse all films currently licensed to NCSSM, use the “See All” link next to “Licensed Content.” We recommend this, as you may find a previously unknown film perfectly suited to a lesson.
Additional Help
K12 Streaming Resources and Guides
Explore Movies by Discipline (opens a PDF)