Film Literacy Now And In The Future

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1 Film Literacy Now And In The Future Showing films and other audiovisual content in European schools obstacles and best practices Like literature, film must be included in the school curricula, and students who live in a world dominated by images have to learn the grammar of the moving image just as they are taught the grammar of the written word. José Manuel Barroso Funded by

2 Film Literacy in European Schools A Study carried out for the European Commission The FilmEd consortium is composed of partners with a diverse set of expertise to respond competently to the requirements of the study. The key partners represent - Film industry stakeholders and experts, European school networks, and Academic research in Media literacy and Intellectual property rights. Objectives To identify and analyse the current situation concerning the use of audio-visual content in primary and secondary schools in Europe. This will apply to compulsory curriculum as well as extra-curriculum activities. To identify obstacles and good practices for the use of film and other audio-visual content in schools. To provide the European Commission with recommendations on how to strengthen its work within this field in the context of film and media literacy policy. Further information: General project coordinator: Cumediae, Brussels [email protected] Research coordination: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona UAB [email protected]

3 What we need from you Film education in schools is of interest to us all. We need a generation of young people adept in understanding, interpreting and analysing an ever increasing amount of image-born information a generation that is our potential audience tomorrow. The European Commission has identified a number of issues and obstacles that stand in the way of providing a diversified and competent film literacy education. A summary of obstacles includes: Sources of audiovisual content used in schools; The kind of content that is shown; Context film/media studies or part of another subject; Education of teachers; Role of the audiovisual industry; Licensing systems for the use of films in education. This last part comes down to access to films and other audiovisual content often hampered by cumbersome licensing agreements that differ among the European countries. The Consortium call upon all rights owners producers, distributors, film institutes, film archives etc. to contribute to identify joint solutions that will provide access to new as well as heritage film from all over Europe.

4 Film in the service of education or education in film language Film has for long played an important role in the teaching of subjects such as Geography, History, Biology etc., much of this and more is now provided by National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery Science, Planet Earth and so on and easily available, while films in their own right often fail to reach their young audiences in schools. There is much to be gained from seriously treating the audiovisual domain in parallel with the written word. The objectives of analysis in film education can broadly be divided in three groups: (1) film analysis objectives; (2) literary analysis objectives; and (3) thematic analysis objectives. The first aims to develop visual literacy skills; to teach how meaning is expressed in film; To foster appreciation of the film as an artistic medium; To teach the vocabulary of film, such as framing, closeups, montage etc.; The literary analysis objectives are: To teach the literary elements of the film, such as plot structure, character and theme; To compare the handling of print and visual media in terms of plot structure, character development, setting and style. The thematic analysis objectives are: To broaden and sharpen the students vision of man and provide students with insights into their own experience; To train students to discern the attitudes and values revealed in the film; To examine the assumptions about real life that are presented on the screen.

5 A last call There are good examples in Europe as in America that demonstrate how to deal seriously with film language and film literacy. They stress the importance of the European Commission s initiative to promote change in current school curricula at a large scale. The new media programme Creative Europe clearly demonstrates the high priority attached to the reinforcement of a strong and innovative audiovisual sector in Europe. But change comes with people with the right skills. Film literacy not only contributes to the empowerment of the general public, but may also clear the way to potential new actors in the sector, with new skills and a better capacity to react and adapt to and ultimately lead the current challenges. The Study The Consortium will carry out the study over the next 10 months ending October The study will cover the 28 EU-member states, the EEA member states and Switzerland. Schools, teachers, ministries, providers of teaching materials, film organisations, producers, distributors, right holders and other stakeholders will be asked to contribute to the study through questionnaires and interviews. Existing studies and examples of good practices will greatly benefit the quality of the study.

6 Consortium partners With contributions from The FilmEd Consortium is funded by the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the Consortium, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained therein.