UniFrance Films' deputy director Xavier Lardoux has presented a report aimed at developing film education for young audiences in the European Union to Frédérique Bredin (president of the CNC) and France's Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti.
At a time when increasing numbers of movie theaters are dominated by the American majors, this report entitled "In Support of a European Policy for Film Education," which draws on interviews with over 100 people from 22 European countries, highlights "a political and economic necessity" and "advocates film education programs" for all school children aged between 3 and 18. For Xavier Lardoux, "School must serve as a child's first training ground for film education [...] without any financial or cultural barriers."
The long term focus of the report is on educating "European spectators of tomorrow and thereby helping to build a stronger European movie industry and reinforcing the principle of cultural exception."
Providing an account of the "deficiencies" in current educational tools, resources, and teaching programs, as well as the "inadequacy" of funding, this document proposes ten recommendations, including the following points of action:
• Creating a European Foundation for Film Education in order to generate additional resources via sponsorship on a pan-European scale.
• Wide-scale development of the use of films in language teaching, by combining artistic and linguistic approaches.
• Creating a catalogue and a VOD website offering 20 European films, both past and recent, in order to "allow these films to circulate across Europe as part of school programs" to be viewed in theaters or in schools.
• Developing film education training for teachers, theater operators, and event organizers, notably through the creation of a Europe-wide educational website providing access to educational material and film extracts.
Other suggestions included in the report are the creation of a Children's Online European Film Festival and a European Film Prize for high school students.
Click here to view the complete report on the CNC website.
