A Unique Programme to bring Films into Schools!
The Schools Film Education Programme is a pioneering initiative aimed at bringing film culture into schools. On an international level, there are few initiatives of its magnitude in this increasingly important (and popular) area of audio-visual literacy.
Over the period 2005 to 2007, the programme established cinema clubs in 46 schools in the Occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and in six Palestinian schools inside Israel. These clubs were equipped with a first-class video projector and screen, VHS/DVD players and a good quality sound system.
In addition, each club was provided with more than 47 DVD copies of masterpieces of Arab and international cinema, as well as films dealing specifically with Palestinian issues. These included seven classics not available with Arabic subtitles that were licensed and subtitled for the programme.
Each club has a volunteer teacher (and sometimes two) working to provide technical and educational support. Each teacher has followed at least three two to three-day workshops in film history and appreciation, and has been introduced to ways of using films for educational purposes in the classroom. A number of online resources (in Arabic) have also been made available to teachers.
The clubs are also used during the holidays and can benefit local communities. In Summer 2006, screenings were organised in a number of schools over the holidays. A full-fledged summer festival was also implemented during August 2008 in more than 34 locations around the country.
More classic films with Arabic subtitles have been recently made available through a subsidiary programme entitled Classics of European Cinema in Translation that saw 15 new titles licensed, subtitled and distributed to schools during 2008, including works by Fassbinder, Wajda, Ophuls, Godard, Carné, Bresson and others.
The Programme’s long-term aim is to introduce audio-visual literacy and film culture into the official Palestinian curriculum and to ensure that all schools in the country become equipped with high quality projection equipment and have access to outstanding works of cinema.
Some of the resources deployed for the Programme were also made available to Shabaka, an informal network of Cinéclubs in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Shabaka now also has its own website at http://www.cineshabaka.net.