Film Education in pre-school

Looking at ways of addressing film education in the curriculum, illustrated by a project which involves pre-school children. However, the methodology and conceptual background are applicable across age ranges.

Film Education in pre-school
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Film Education in action

The starting point is the Danish Film Institute’s practice based on 15 years of experience in the field. They are continually exploring and developing new ideas and methodology. Their vision is “All children shall Experience, Understand and Create film”.

Over the years, the Danish Film Institute has involved users, researchers and regional partners as well as key stakeholders from the film industry in the development of their resources and national outreach infrastructure. Their programmes include a regional cinema programme, streaming sites to schools, kindergartens and libraries with access to films and tools, a film studio at the film institute and financial support to other stakeholders in the field throughout the country.

Film and media can be used in everyday life. Even very young children can explore and share through watching films together. In a few kindergartens in Denmark, the educators have also begun to experiment with the use of simple digital tools at an iPad to play with images and sound. Often adults introduce the tools and then they become natural elements in the children’s play. This is still at an initial stage, due to limited access to digital devices and low capacity in the field.

The short trailer below though presents the potential of engaging very young children in film education: watching & talking & creating. The app that is used in the trailer is called FILMCENTRALEN/FOR DE YNGSTE. It is targeting pre-school institutions and developed by Danish Film Institute.

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Film Education feedback

In a survey, a pre-school researcher describes why film education from an early age makes sense:

Steen Søndergaard

Children show great ownership towards their own creativity while making a film. They are trained in cooperation and in paying attention to each other… they have fun and they share a community… this kind of practice moves film-and media use in daycare institutions from being passive to actively engage in film-and media literacy… it also has an inclusive potential… We have seen a kind of concentration that media often claim has disappeared from childhood today…
(Freely translated from FILM-AND MEDIALITERACY IN THE KINDERGARDEN, by Steen Søndergaard, University College Copenhagen, Denmark 2017)

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Arguments and challenges