Lewes Junior Film Club

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FILM SOCIETY OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2014
BEST FILM EDUCATION PROGRAMME
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Lewes! Junior
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2013-14 Programme:
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Peter Pan US 1924
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Dumbo
US 1941
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Thunderbirds
Are Go! UK 1966
! Railway Children UK 1970
The
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Willy
Wonka & The Chocolate Factory US 1971
! or The Little Book of Insects NL 2004
Erik
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“
The LJFC screens great films to interest both adults and children and at
the same time there are activities and fun things to do to enrich the
understanding not only of the films but the subject matter around each
film. There simply is nowhere like it thanks to Carmen and her team.
Vivien
The Halas and Batchelor Collection
I would wholeheartedly recommend Lewes Junior Film Club to friends
and family. They are the only film club providing films for children in
Lewes. They stimulate children's appreciation of film, deliver fun events
around the focus of films, they consult with children and parents as to
what films to schedule and they keep prices manageable. I wish I had
had this film club when I was a child.
Lorna Stagg - Parent of 7 year old.
Like 'Secret Cinema', Lewes Junior Film Club creates an immersive
community experience around film that often includes dressing up,
special activities and sets, live performance etc. This, together with the
unusual and eclectic choice of films makes it a unique educational and
fun local resource for children.
Julien Lesage
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LEWES JUNIOR FILM CLUB (LJFC) THE PROGRAMME The 2013-­‐14 season was curated in a similar fashion to previous years, creating a programme of classic films, including at least one world cinema film; with each screening to be preceded by a unique live event. We gave ourselves the challenge to raise our audience numbers in order to redress the amount of (voluntary) work put into each pre-­‐screening event; it was felt that this deserved a larger audience. However, we did not want to jeopardise the original aims of the club, ‘to broaden the experience and opportunities for families to watch non-­‐Hollywood children’s films in a supportive environment’. We decided on a mix of ‘popular classics’ and more ‘specialist’ programme and on the following films and themes: • Peter Pan Childhood -­‐ Gender -­‐ Pirates • Willy Wonka 7 Deadly Sins -­‐ Sweets • Dumbo Circus -­‐ Pink Elephants song -­‐ Shadow Play / Ears • Thunderbirds Science Fiction -­‐ Puppetry -­‐ The making of puppet animation • Railway Children History of local station -­‐ Railway from Sussex to Yorkshire -­‐ Traveling • Eric Insects -­‐ Local Nature Reserve We are pleased to be able to report that we were successful in raising our audience figures, please see details in appendix 2-­‐a. For clarification regarding our programming parameters see appendix 2-­‐b. The themes were culturally significant in terms of film history and our locality: Film History Throughout the season we worked to give young people (and their parents) a broader understanding of cinema, creating links with films that are produced today. Many genres have developed enormously over the years and our audience is made aware of this during our events: • Peter Pan Film development from silent to talkies; acting in silent film; the importance of the music score; special effects. • Willy Wonka Looked at this interpretation of Roald Dahl’s novel. • Dumbo Highlighted and compared the very radical and anarchic execution of the Pink Elephant sequence with the rest of the film that was executed in the traditional 2D animation style. • Thunderbirds The use of puppets in animation; the making of this film and how its special effects were created – the older children in the audience found it, almost unbearably, clunky compared to sci-­‐fi films they normally watch! • Railway Children A historic, Victorian drama that fits well within the school curriculum. This type of story telling has not changed much over the years and is still very recognisable to a new audience today. Sociologically it is particularly interesting to see the freedom children used to have. Being in Sussex is was good to hear a Yorkshire accent. • Eric A foreign film, introducing children to subtitles and another European culture, with its differences and similarities. Locality We like to find links between our films and our town as we think that ‘classic films’ survive because they still have a resonance today. This is generally found in the themes but often also in settings. Even when films are set in a foreign country can we find links within our town and we regularly go to other sites to emphasize this. This year we organised three site-­‐specific events: • A disused warehouse with a iron gate representing the entrance to the chocolate factory in Willy Wonka • Lewes train station, our link to the train stations in Railway Children • Our Railway Land nature reserve and insects with regards to Eric Extended Programme For the third year running, we programmed a selection of films for the Elderflower Fields Festival in Sussex. We programmed and screened three films: Project Wild Thing, The Croods and Moon Man. THE 2013-­‐14 ACTIVITIES The various topics from the individual films are dealt with in many different ways but the intention is always the same: to draw the audience deeper into the story and/or themes of the film. Most of the activities are interactive and aimed at both the children as well as the parent(s)/carer(s). For 2013-­‐14 we created: Interactive Games • Charades (Peter Pan), e.g. o for dad: Pretend to be a girl skipping o for boy: Pretend to be a mum going shopping’ o for mum: ‘Pretend to be a boy playing a computer game’ o for girl: ‘Pretend to be a dad watching football on TV’ • Giant board game: ‘Travel from Lewes to Oakworth’ (Railway Children) • Matching game – ‘match ears to people’ (Dumbo) Site-­‐Specific Events We brought stories closer to home by taking the audience to a similar local settings as portrayed in the film • A warehouse representing the factory in ‘Willy Wonka’ • Lewes station for ‘Railway Children’ where a local tour guide dressed up as a station master, explained about the start of the railway in Lewes • The local nature reserve for an immersive experience of Eric’s world Music We taught our audience the song ‘Pink Elephants on Parade’ by Oliver Wallace (who received on Oscar for his Dumbo score) and Ned Washington (lyrics). Professional musicians and a 15-­‐year-­‐old student accompanied our song with live music on guitar, trombone and flute. Interactive Props We created individual control boards for eighty audience members for the Thunderbirds event to encourage everyone to act along in the pre-­‐event play. We later learned that children kept using the panels throughout the film. The children were given the boards to take home. Participation • Every season children are asked once to bring something from home (e.g. a poem, a joke), which becomes part of the introductory event. This year we asked children to bring a soft toy that was subsequently wrapped in a soft towel and delivered back to them by our stork (Dumbo). • Pick a film for next season – At the end of our season we asked people to choose their favourite from 5 Disney films. We had a very big response (30+) and interesting feedback (“Jungle Book because it is based on story by Rudyard Kipling who was local to Sussex”, “AristoCats as a friend did the voice over and could be asked to take part in your event”). Choosing a film apparently also created heated discussions within families. Dressing Up For each event we ask the audience to dress up according to the theme of the film and found that, once we started offering free popcorn in return, the public responded well. It adds to the general atmosphere of each event and helps creating a fun environment. It also encourages people to speak and admire each other. It goes without saying that all volunteers dress up and that the venue is decorated elaborately. WORKING WITH LOCAL EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATIONS We like working with external organisations because they bring something different and fresh to our events. We feel that these are enriching experiences for both parties. For the fifth consecutive year we collaborated for one event with Priory School, the local secondary school. A meeting was held with the Head of Art department to explore ways in which pupils could be involved. The school chose a film from the programme, which they were in no doubt had to be Willy Wonka. Further meetings were held with the subject teachers, and the art department organised an after-­‐school club to facilitate students interested in creating over-­‐sized sweets and pop-­‐art style advertisements. This was carried out twice a week for three weeks running. One of the drama teachers committed her year-­‐8 class (12 and 13 year olds) to the project. These students were encouraged to think about the seven deadly sins and worked out sketches exploring each theme. They committed half a term to this, culminating in performances at the event. Working with the school brought many new people to the club and this event was particularly successful with 180 people attending. The feedback from the students was that they had enjoyed being part of ‘something real’. For Dumbo, we collaborated with the local club Circus Pearls who run trapeze classes for young people. After various meetings with the leader it was decided that students would dress up as circus animals and march in a parade; that one of the teenage performers would act as the circus director and that each young person would do a short routine on the trapeze or silks. We wanted to show that what looks easy on screen (i.e. trapeze work) takes a lot of practice and is a challenge on many levels (muscle strength, movement memory, dealing with height). The many performers enjoyed showing their skills to a wider audience; in turn the audience was impressed with the skills displayed and many of our parents expressed to have been unaware of this facility. The trapeze club acquired some new students due to our collaboration. The Sussex Wildlife Trust supported our Eric event about a young boy who, in preparation for his school presentation, crawls into a painting of a meadow to learn about insects. Our event was held in a nearby nature reserve where the trust regularly leads educational tours. The leader was amazed at the large turn out of participants, especially as the weather was damp with outbursts of rain. As the trust is well versed in running these kinds of tours, the Junior Film Club only met the manager twice to discuss practicalities and the general idea behind the event. Particularly popular was the rain dance to tease the worms from the soil, the snail race and hitting trees to catch bugs falling onto a large sheet. EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS* Programme Each Sept-­‐May season is publicised in a leaflet that gives a clear overview of the programme. We have a house-­‐style that is now recognised by the local residents, and that we keep consistent throughout our publicity. Pamphlets At each event, the audience is given a free pamphlet, outlining details of the film (year, director, duration, actors), a synopsis, as well as some fun facts. These hand-­‐outs are carefully designed (and expensive to produce!) but we are pleased that they are really appreciated and that they have become collector’s items. Slide Presentations Each film event finishes with a short presentation giving some additional interesting information about the film. We also run through some features of the club for first-­‐time people, mainly explaining the free DVD library, the audience reaction slips, how to recommend a film and point to the big paper sheet for further drawn or wordy responses to the film. See appendix 2-­‐2 Other Audience is encouraged to tear a reaction slip and to draw or write comments on a large piece of paper before they leave. This gives everybody an opportunity to stop and think about what they thought and felt about the film event. For us it is a good way to learn what people like (or not) about the club. We ask our audience to give recommendations for films for following seasons. This encourages people to think about what they liked about films they have seen and why they would like to share this with others. We run a free DVD library of around 60 U and PG films. These are films we have been shown in past seasons; films we watched to research programmes; and DVDs we pick up from charity shops. This is very popular, with some people having borrowed more than 10 films. People are allowed to keep DVDs until the next event. For the club this has meant quite a lot of, unexpected, extra work but we are committed to it, as we like to encourage people to watch films again and to try out something new. Charging fees or fines could prove a barrier. For the last three years, we have supported a young reporter who writes reviews of our events for the Sussex Express, the local paper. Most of her pieces have been published (unless there was lack of space). The LJFC instigated this venture and was pleased when a teenager who had never watched classic films, responded. Our club has been an eye-­‐opener for her and she now seeks out specialist films for her own pleasure. Emma started college last September but asked to stay on. Her writing has improved and developed greatly over the past years. Emma’s pieces are proofread by the club before they are sent of to the paper, recently only minor changes have been made, if any at all. Each event we attach a big clothe timeline to the front of the stage, beneath the screen. It is updated every screening (30 so far) and put in the appropriate category (1920s, 1930s, etc.) so everyone can see where a film fits historically. * See supporting documents sent by post