CHENNAI: The school education department recently launched a year-long film festival for students in classes 6-9 to expose them to the world of cinema. Each of the 13,210 government schools across TN will screen one children’s film every month for a year during the arts period.
Post screening, students would be asked questions to assess their understanding of the film and those who perform well would be sent to film festivals abroad to explore more about world cinema.“Cinema is one of the powerful tools to understand the world around us. This film festival aims to lay a path for children to know more about diverse cultures, stimulate their thought process, and improve their observational skills,” said an official from the school education department.
Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, while screening the first film (a Charlie Chaplin movie) of the festival at a school early this month, said it would help improve children’s emotional well-being. “The initiative will help them gain new perspectives which would, in turn, strengthen their emotions. It’s important to approach education in a holistic way,” he said.
Best films from Indian and world cinema, cutting across language, region, and country, will be selected for the film festival. The department would also train 120 mentor teachers for the purpose. These teachers would support the nodal teacher, identified in each of the 13,210 schools.
After screening every film, the teacher would share its summary with the students, following which there would be a feedback-and-quiz session called Spotlight. It would encourage children to be more observant and attentive while watching the film. Exposure to such discussions at a young age would help the children respect different perspectives, said the officials.
A mobile application called the ‘Silver Screen App’ was also being developed to capture the observations of the children and document the impact of these films on students, officials said.Some of the best pieces of student feedback would be selected and their writers would be invited to a state-level workshop, which would provide them with deeper insights into the nuances of cinema.
Finally, a group of students from this workshop would be identified for a visit abroad, added the officials. The schools would also be encouraged to invite resource persons or movie personalities to interact with children and share their experiences with them.