South Africa is struggling to build a film audience for local film and one of the best place to start must be with school children. In the UK this is exactly the route that has been taken.
Chancellor, Gordon Brown, Thandie Newton and film directors Kevin Macdonald (Last King of Scotland) and Beeban Kidron (Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason) joined forces on Thursday 15 February to launch an exciting new initiative which aims to bring the world of film into 10,000 primary and secondary schools across the country.
Founded by film director Beeban Kidron and educationalist Lindsay Mackie, FILM CLUB is funded and supported by the UK Film Council, the BFI, LOVEFiLM, Film Education, All Industry Marketing (AIM), Film Bank / PVSL and Film Distributors Association.
The heart of FILM CLUB’s belief is to offer young people across the country the chance to enter the limitless world of film – which provides an engaging and exciting insight into worlds that enrich, challenge, inspire, unite and amaze.
Teachers and pupils will be able to browse www.filmclub.org and access hundreds of recommended titles which include mainstream blockbusters such as Pirates of the Caribbean and specialised and foreign language films such as Cinema Paradiso. All of the films are grouped into specially devised seasons and engaging themes to help guide the teachers through the vast array of titles.
The website enables teachers and pupils to not only to order films, but also write reviews and rate movies, as well as access information about what’s on at their local cinema. Nick Hornby has put together a season of his top 5 comedy films and will be answering questions online and in schools. Comedy writer, Lee Hall (Billy Elliott) is running a competition for children for their best ‘film season’. Renee Zellweger has written exclusively for the website about a film that meant a lot to her as a young girl growing up.
Already FILMCLUB has a host of VIP supporters working in the film industry, Rosamund Pike, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Frears, Daniel Craig, Alan Parker, Simon Pegg, John Hurt, Nick Park, Joseph Fiennes, Daniel Radcliffe, Jo Wright, Jason Isaacs and Sienna Miller have all agreed to visit schools during the pilot phase and participating schools can request a visit via the website.
Currently in the pilot phase, FILM CLUB runs until the end of the spring term in 25 schools across Yorkshire, London, Kent, Surrey and Northern Ireland. The selected schools will run weekly after school film clubs for children of all ages, from 5 to 18. If the pilot proves popular and funding is secured the intention is to roll out FILM CLUB to a further 10,000 schools nationwide.
