An Original and Effective Methodology
One of the partners’ toughest challenges was to create an open pedagogy, flexible enough to adapt to different contexts and audiences, such as young people, teachers and mediators – both novice and experienced. Inspired by the pedagogy used in the pioneering programme Cinéma, cent ans de jeunesse (international cinema education programme started by La Cinémathèque française), this methodology uses pooled approaches and matches the different requirements of each CinEd partner.
A shared approach for an open, sensitive and active pedagogy
The partners worked together to write a common charter that introduces all pedagogical files. This charter is a framework that establishes reference points and principles, and guides participants in cinema and image education in Europe.
- Cinema is art and a cultural object that helps conceive the world : it helps young people (from a very young age) form an identity and understand the world.
- Learn from and through cinema requires good methodology and tools, for both students and instructors. In order to teach a young audience how to watch a film, it is necessary to take the new habits of young Europeans into account (multiple screens, fragmentation of viewing, use of social media, digital tools) and to integrate the study of excerpts.
- Learning is comparing and making connections between different cinematographies, and between films and other arts.
- Understanding is absorbing a pedagogy that encourages young students to be active and creative (choosing, confronting, describing, creating) and isestablishing a strong link between analysis and practice.
Adapted Pedagogical Tools
CinEd proposes different tools to prepare for and accompany screenings and activities with young audiences:
- One pedagogical file on each film for teachers and mediators.
- Seven cross-sectional thematic videos, in order to facilitate comparative analysis of excerpts dealing with cinema issues and motifs.
- One worksheet with activities and images from the film for each student.
- One media kit containing different complementary documents: screenshots, script.
- List of web resources about the transmission of cinema or providing tools and complementary pedagogical suggestions.
These tools and resources were designed to be used both for training teachers and mediators and for direct sessions with young people, to accompany screenings and activities.
Pedagogical Booklets
These are intended mainly for teachers and mediators, but are also accessible to students who want to learn more or organize screenings themselves.
These unique files are organized around four central themes :
- Highlight the resonance of national contexts and European destinies: bring to light how filmmakers from each country capture or have captured our common European history, from World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, up to the present day; help students understand how certain cinematographic movements had truly European trajectories, as if through capillary action (for example, the New Wave started in France and then influenced Romanian, Czech and German cinema).
- Establish connections and compare films, creating dialogue between them : the films were chosen with common, recurring themes in mind (initiation, learning, generation gap, escape, etc.) which are a common thread in the files and facilitate the interpretation of each film, not individually but echoing other films. This approach gives each student or teacher an opportunity to interpret the film and instigates dialogue.
- Learn to observe and describe : an essential step in analysis. We look at the films on different scales –entire film and excerpts (screenshots, shots, sequences). We thus distinguish the specifics of each unit as related to time and to editing.
- Have a creative and interactive approach to the film by using simple exercises to be conducted independently (with cell phones, cameras, etc.). These exercises are suggested in the pedagogical pathways and soon in the activity and photo worksheets that will be provided to each student.
Thematic Pedagogical Videos: a study of excerpts
These videos were made by La Cinémathèque française and are aimed at instructors, teachers and students in order to facilitate comparison of the films. Each video contains excerpts from films in the CinEd collection that showcase similar motifs (Car Trips, At the Table, Escape, Conflict ) or issues in cinema (Gaze, Distance).
These videos support film analysis and help make connections between excerpts of films from different cinematography eras. They bring to light the director’s choices and challenges. They allow to question cultural similarities and differences, social mutations (e.g. eating behaviors and traditions at the table); repeating motives can also be analyzed in the story (e.g. car trips, meal scenes). Watching these videos inspires young students to see other films in the collection in their entirety.
These thematic pedagogical videos are available in several languages with individual presentation sheets (also translated), intended to guide teachers and mediators as they introduce students to image analysis.
Cinema Education online resources
National sites
A selection of websites for cinema education developed nationally (France, Spain…) <click on the logo>
Cinema webpage from the publisher of public pedagogical resources, financed by the French Ministry of Education. On “mag-films” (film magazines): www.reseau-canope.fr/mag-film/accueil/: pedagogical files, analyses, suggestions for sequences to accompany teachers’ lessons on cinema.
A cinema education programme started in 2005 with two main objectives: foster independent, inquisitive and active moviegoers, and help them develop an appreciation and interest in the diverse expressions of cinema and culture; explore the educational potential of making and viewing films in schools. The main focuses of activities are workshops with groups of students aged 8 to 18, conducted by filmmakers and teachers during school hours, the Petit Cinema en curs project, which proposes screenings and practical workshops with students aged 3 to 8 and training sessions for teachers. Cinema en curs also outlines proposals and methodologies that are applicable to any educational context.
Resources focusing on collections, programmeming, and cinema education programmes implemented by La Cinémathèque française.
Through a partnership with the French Ministry of Education, the CNC implements art education packages aimed at providing students from elementary school to high school with a cinema culture. Four programmes have been set up so far: École et cinéma (School and Cinema), Collège au cinema (Cinema in Junior High Schools), Lycéens et apprentis au cinéma (Cinema for High School Students and apprentices) , as well as the mandatory cinema and audiovisual teachings for high school L (Literary) series students. Extra-curricular activities were also conducted, for example the Passeurs d’images programme (“Un été au ciné” - Summer at the Movies/Cinéville).
A place for reflection and discussion about images, children and cinema, and a pedagogical resource on cinema. The Nanouk website is the pedagogical online platform that accompanies the “École et cinema” programme.
Europa Cinemas is the first movie theater network mostly focusing on European films. Resources for young audiences are available on their website, organized by country.
A website published by the network of regional art and cinema education poles, presenting themed files, resources and past experiences.
A pedagogical platform from the Agence de court-métrage (Short Film Agency) with a selection of short films and resources organized by topic.
Resources from this French network centered on cultural action abroad/Cinema initiatives for young audiences.
A tool designed by LUX Scène nationale de Valence in collaboration with the CNC to accompany the cinema education programmes set up by the CNC: École et cinéma, Collège au cinema and Lycéens et apprentis au cinéma: worksheets, film excerpts, sequential analyses and trailers, among many other resources.
Upopi, or “Université populaire des images” (People’s University of Images), a website designed and hosted by Ciclic (agency of Centre-Val de Loire region for books, images and digital culture): film terminology, film analyses, pedagogical pathways and resources on cinema professions.
European and international websites
A selection of film education projects developed in cooperation by several countries
ABCinema’s ambition is to encourage and help the cinephiles of tomorrow discover masterpieces of classic European cinema, thanks to a series of events and workshops created by the six partners of the project in Belgium, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
International website that provides training materials, resources, tracks, exercises and filmmaking workshops, organized around issues in cinema: from the cinema education programme “Le Cinéma, cent ans de jeunesse”, implemented in Europe and around the world for more than 20 years. This programme is coordinated by La Cinémathèque française.
ECFA is an organization dedicated to anyone interested in high-quality films for children and young people: directors, producers, advertisers, distributors, exhibitors, TV programmemers, festival organizers and film educators. Resources are available in English and French.
Europa Cinemas is the first movie theater network mostly focusing on European films. Resources for young audiences are available on their website, organized by country.
Objective: create the foundations of a cinema education charter in order to develop cinema education in countries where it is underdeveloped. This project was started by the BFI (British Film Institute) and works with 18 countries. Its conclusions were presented on June 19, 2015 at La Cinémathèque française.
In 2014-15, 25 partners (educational institutions and organizations) formed an advisory board on cinema education to assess the current state of cinema education in Europe and establish a common framework for Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom (England and Scotland), Germany, Sweden, Hungary, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Cyprus.
This project focuses on applied research and provides methodologies, strategies and tools to children and young people so that they can appreciate European cinema and become active audience members. Different activity topics have been developed: film programmeming chosen by students, filmmaking workshops using cell phones and cameras, presence at festivals, dialogues with filmmakers and discovery of films through VoD platforms. The project was launched by A Bao A Qu and developed with Meno Avilys (Lithuania) and Os Filhos de Lumière (Portugal), collaborating with the Centre for the Moving Image (Scotland), La Cinémathèque française (France), the British Film Institute (United Kingdom) and Kijufi (Germany).
