We live in a deeply audio-visual age. Everything happens online, we are bombarded with images, graphics, videos and other forms of content being photographed or filmed. We become customers of brands because they won us their campaign and we like how they presented themselves to us in the Facebook feed, Insta or TikTok.
In this context, the need to update school programs, including film education and media education, is becoming imperative. It takes a boost and this comes from TIFF for years, which dedicates sections of the festival to children and, at the same time, prepares programs for students.
This year, the festival takes an additional step, through the pilot program implemented at the “Gheorghe Șincai” National College, which will test for the first time the optionals of film education during the 2022-2023 school year and will take place regularly within a training class (10th grade, Led by Professor Ioana Hanchevich).
We discussed with Claudia Droc and Maria Dobre, who coordinated the project, in order to learn more about how this initiative materialized.
What was the work process to finalize the project, both for the events within TIFF and for the pilot program at Gheorghe Şincai national College?
Maria Dobre: The preparation of the pilot program itself took almost a year. We started brainstorming immediately after the conference held last year at TIFF, where it was considered appropriate to introduce a film education optional in schools. The most difficult part was to think about how to integrate it so that it would not load the school curriculum, but also be considered useful for teachers, students and parents.
We were lucky to find very quickly a special teacher who was very involved in non-formal education, who gave us almost instantly her class as a teacher during a school year. The next step was to form a working group that would engage in a difficult and time-bound mission, curate short films and write related pedagogical sheets that would include personal development themes, but also theoretical information on cinematic literacy. The group consists of specialists in film and education, some of them are part of the TIFF team – Crăița Nanu (Scouter and TIFF selector), Iulia Voicu (UNATC lecturer, Department of Journalism and Philmology), Octavian Dăncilă (TIFF Scouter and Cinemateca TIFF coordinator), Ioana Hanchevici (Romanian language teacher, Gheorghe Șincai National College) Claudia Droc (Coordinator of International relations, TIFF) and Maria Dobre (coordinator of educational programs, TIFF).
We are currently still in the process of completing the manual and the catalog of short films. By September, we aim to expand the catalog of films and create a manual that includes pedagogical sheets and film history sheets. All materials will be made available on a free VoD platform for teachers and students.
Why do you think it is so difficult to impose on the national level a field of audio-visual education that is very necessary for today's times? Where do things get stuck?
Claudia Droc: Setting up such a project at national level is a very long road, which requires real involvement and support from several institutions, and the process must be carried out over several years, accepting that it may not necessarily be something desired or accepted by schools in the end.
On the one hand, there is a real need for media and film education, but on the other hand, the reality is that students have an extremely busy school program, in which it is difficult to intervene with another option. Being aware of these shortcomings, and working together with Ioana Hanchevici, we have structured a subject designed to broaden the cultural, social and civic horizons of the students through film, while also being part of the program of teaching, on the skills and topics addressed by it (e.g. developing self-confidence, tolerance, respect for the environment, etc.).
We don’t want to impose a matter – it wouldn’t be constructive in that sense. We want to support the efforts of the teachers, by providing them with a multifunctional material, which on the one hand will allow them to address socio-emotional themes within the program of leadership, adapted to the age of the students of the class in which they teach, and on the other hand, to educate the students’ taste toward the most varied media content. Thus, with this program approached through the angle of the socio-emotional themes of the Master’s program – themes easily found in the diversity of contemporary films – we achieve many goals for all parties involved, and help build the audience of tomorrow, to whom we hope to open the taste for the film and provide reading tools for this content.
I know that on Monday, June 20, there is also a presentation of the optional and the training for interested teachers. What will the participants learn?
Maria Dobre: At TIFF we will present some of these materials to a group of 25 teachers from Cluj County, from whom we expect to give an objective feedback, which will help us to improve the way we work and the materials. They will see exclusively a history sheet of cinema and three pedagogical sheets related to short films that will enter the final catalog of films.
Moreover, they will take part in the demonstration of an education class through film, as would lead a teacher who will implement the optional. We will also give some of the discussions and extra-curricular activities that include film and are within the reach of teachers.