For older students, meticulously-researched documentaries and insightful dramas can help introduce the complicated issues that face countries now, and have shaped them in the past. Catch A Fire, for example, is a fictionalised account of the struggle for equality in South Africa, and this vivid depiction of apartheid has been shown in many of the after-school film clubs that FILMCLUB helps to establish in schools. It has had a profound impact on many of the students who have watched it, including this young member who wrote a review of it on the FILMCLUB website: “I thought this film was really interesting as it raised issues from other countries. The storyline was very realistic as it brought up current problems in South Africa.”
The documentary Burma VJ has similarly raised the profile of a far-flung country among students across the UK; giving them the chance to better understand its culture and politics. “I knew nothing about Burma… I could not have found it on a map,” admitted one 6th form student after watching the film. “[now I am] aware of the suffering of its people, and their bravery and unity.”
Importantly, film can also show that the countries we regularly see in the headlines because of conflict should not be defined solely by their troubles. Afghan Star, for example, follows four young people from Aghanistan as they aim to become their nation’s “Pop Idol”, while Offside is the fictional story of Iranian women who are prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to watch a football match that they would normally be banned from attending.
Another celebrated film about life in Iran, Persepolis, helped one club member explain her family’s culture to her classmates. Kimiya wrote in her review: “I am from Iran and there are some in the school who know me, but do not know my history or my background, and don’t think that my country is a normal one. This [film] is a very good starting point to explain my history. I love this film and think it’s fab. Mum always explained what she went through, and this made it clear.”
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A massive 96% of teachers who have signed their school up to the FILMCLUB scheme say that exposing children to different world cultures has a positive effect, and 88% say that their club specifically helps them do that. Taking these weekly trips together can be the first steps towards a more informal relationship between pupil and teacher, an open and stimulating environment where everyone has a voice, and the development of an understanding of lives very different from our own.
The journeys that cinema can take you on are varied and manifold, then – not just physical, but emotional and intellectual journeys; from a bad mood to a better one; and ultimately, towards better self-expression and understanding actually within the classroom.
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