Magic of the Frame

Project: Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film!

Project number: 2021-1-HU 01-KA-220-SCH-000029686

Why we work?

We are glad to share the great news that our project Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! has received financial support by Erasmus+ Programme under contract Number: 2021-1-HU01-KA220-SCH-000029686.

The project has the ambitious objectives to help secondary school teachers to connect to and guide young people. This we hope to achieve by the making of a new method to highlight the importance of social issues, using documentary films – helped along with collecting knowledge in the field, film screenings and workshops, and collecting data through students' feedback, in order to produce effective tools to bring students closer to reality in a protected environment and thus offer a model to the teachers and other educators.

What we do?

The project's primary target group is secondary school teachers, willing to tackle social issues in class and open to using documentaries in education.

Project Countries:

Bulgaria

Hungary

Lithuania

Netherlands

Who are the partners?

Leading partner:

Palantír Film Vizuális Antropológiai Alapítvány, Hungary

Partners:

Changes & Chances, Netherlands

Civil Initiatives Association - Lovech, Bulgaria

CROMO Alapitvany, Hungary

Kürt Alapítvány, Hungary

Professional school of veterinary medicine " Prof. dr. Dimitar Dimov", Bulgaria

Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam (SKVR), Netherlands

VŠĮ Nepatogus kinas / PO Inconvenient Film, Lithuania

Youth Centre Babilonas, Lithuania

What are the results?

The project covers variety of activities closely connected to achieving the following Project Results:

• Curriculum development
• Online Database
• Tutorial Video for Field Work
• Professional Visual Project Diary
• Pedagogical Manual
• Development of short trainings
• Manual about Student Feedback
• Toolkit/exercise book (good practices from teachers)

Within the project implementation period 4 short training for teachers outside the partnership will be organized as well as 4 classic multiplier events and teacher exchanges related to the different film packages.

Within the project, a Magic of the Frame website will be created and also a Facebook page, where all activities will be shared as well as the project results.

1. Project meeting:

The first meeting of the Magic of the Frame's partnership took place in Budapest, Hungary on 21 and 22 of March 2022.

Through introducing a new mindset - use the potential of the documentaries in schools, the partnership has the ambition to develop useful methodology and tools for teachers and educators in support of their work with young people – to help them see and learn about the reality as "it is".

The project started on 1st of January 2022. During the period of three months before the kick-off in Budapest, as partners, we have organized the start of this innovative, challenging but so inspiring and promising project. Defining in details our activities and plans, clarifying our goals and discussing how to make the project more useful for the final beneficiaries - teachers in secondary schools, etc. were among the activities our project team was engaged with.

The kick-off Project Management meeting opened space for discussion of many important topics as clarification of the project management rules, contract regulations, budget flow and reports, update of the project plan and gantt chart, distribution of activities and responsibilities, discussion of the project management manual (including evaluation and monitoring methodology), risk management, monitoring and evaluation.

Another important part of the Project meeting were the discussions on the methodology update based on preliminary research, forming a common knowledge base as a starting point, how to choose the documentaries, where is the cross point of the different points of view, etc.

The all 9 partners from 4 European Union countries took part as follows: Palantír Film Vizuális Antropológiai Alapítvány, Hungary (lead partner), Changes & Chances, Netherlands, Civil Initiatives Association - Lovech, Bulgaria, CROMO Alapitvany, Hungary, Kürt Alapítvány, Hungary, Professional school of veterinary medicine " Prof. dr. Dimitar Dimov", Bulgaria, Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam (SKVR), Netherlands, VŠĮ Nepatogus kinas / PO Inconvenient Film, Lithuania, Youth Centre Babilonas, Lithuania.

2. Project meeting:

The second project management meeting of Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! Project took place in Lovech, Bulgaria between 9 and 11.11.2022. During the 3 days meeting the 9 partners - Palantír Film Vizuális Antropológiai Alapítvány, Hungary (lead parthner), Changes & Chances, Netherlands, Civil Initiatives Association - Lovech, Bulgaria, CROMO Alapitvany, Hungary, Kürt Alapítvány, Hungary, Professional school of veterinary medicine " Prof. dr. Dimitar Dimov", Bulgaria, Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam (SKVR), Netherlands, VŠĮ Nepatogus kinas / PO Inconvenient Film, Lithuania, Youth Centre Babilonas, Lithuania - from 4 countries mapped the results and discussed the 4 lesson plans prepared in the previous project phase. Partners from each project country presented their selected documentary films as well as the lesson plans related to the selected topics/movies.

Dívák/Divas is the Hungarian team's choice of documentary - https://vimeo.com/531191141 - "Belvárosi Tanoda" is a school where a last chance is given to misfit teenagers, banned from all other schools, to finish their studies and graduate. This is where he meets three strikingly different girls: Szani, Tina, and Emese, the Divas.

The Netherlands team presented the documentary film A Brothers Journey - https://vimeo.com/740914394/56e902d2ee - two brothers, fled together from Syria lose track of each other in the Dutch asylum system.

The Lithuanian team lesson plan is based on the documentary Seahorse - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsSmxiPsbiQ where "The seahorse in the title refers not only to the creature that remains upright in the water, but also to the area of our brain, the hippocampus, where our memories are stored. This balanced documentary shows how water can take on a new meaning over time, and how swimming has become Hanan's way of coping with trauma."*

As final result of several discussions among the partners, the Bulgarian team has selected Bayer and the Bees documentary - https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bees+documentaries&view=detail&mid=E091447B747C876BE82EE091447B747C876BE82E&FORM=VIRE - insecticides are sometimes necessary in farming however some substances, like neonicotinoids, kill not only pests but bees as well. Scientists around the world have found that neonicotinoids are the main cause of mass bee deaths. One of the main manufacturers of these pesticides - the Bayer Group is coming under pressure.

During the three days in Bulgaria, 4 developed lesson plans have been presented and by the 9 partners of Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! As a final result all of the plans received suggestions and ideas for improvement before the pilot beginning. The partners agreed on the schedule the lesson plans would start their pilot phase.

Particular attention was paid to the 8 teachers who took part in the meeting and their opinion and recommendations.

The project management meeting finished with some particular project management discussions regarding the next steps, narrative and financial reporting.

Core phase: Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! - the Magic Becomes Real

The nine partners in four countries, teachers and trainers in 4 schools in 10 classes with Film Activity Packages (FAPs) have continued to create in Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! project.

The practical phase of the project within the schools has started. The partners completed many activities related to teachers and their students.

Data about participants' activities and opinions was collected and teachers' insights into new methods, with country specifics were developed.

The core of the FAPs were the four selected films:

• Hungary: Dívák/Divas (2021, 80'), dir.: Máté Kőrösi
• Netherlands: The Circle, (2020,15:34'), dir.: Lanre Malaolu
• Lithuania: Seahorse (2020, 16') dir.: Nele Dehnenkamp
• Bulgaria: Bayer and the Bees (2020, 28') produced by DW Documentary

Nevertheless of the different social topics of the documentaries selected for the 4 countries, the activities in each one class followed same the methodological structure:

• Introducing the topic
• projection of the film selected for the country
• discussions about the film with the students
• an "on-site" visit of the students to place and meet people who are related to or affected by the social issue covered in the documentary
• collection of feedback from the students (interviews, photos, written thoughts etc.)
• further discussions about the personal experience and students' activities

This phase was the central element of the Magic project, as the information gathered here forms the main part of the other outputs of the project: Curriculum development, Tutorial Video for Field Work, Professional Visual Project Diary, Pedagogical Manual, and Manual about Student Feedback.

Teachers' meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, October 21-22, 2023

The teacher's meeting of Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! In Lithuania, it was as useful as interesting and inspiring for the participants.

During this 2 days' meeting teachers from the 4 project countries had the great chance to be involved in the magic of the local documentary festival - https://nepatoguskinas.lt/2023/en/.

The Inconvenient Films festival is an annual human rights documentary film festival that one of the project partners - PO Inconvenient Film- organised for the 17th time. The teachers involved in the project and some project members had access to a unique documentary film selection from all over the world.

The program of the LTT meeting offered a lot of different activities among which reconnecting activities, discussions, exchange of experience, feedback and reflections. Teachers presented their work and demonstrated lessons. They had a lot of questions and reactions to each other's shared experiences.

On the first meeting day, the project team watched the documentary Grasshoper republic while on the second day, all participants got involved in the real adventure of the virtual reality movie - Missing 10 Hours. After the movie, the participants reflected on the film - what feelings did they experience during the film?

The Teacher's meeting aims to pilot how to handle the reactions of the students and how to get feedback from them after watching a social issue-driven documentary.

The main questions were to be discussed among them. How do they feel after watching the film? What was the most shocking? Is the topic of the film relevant nowadays? If yes, how, where, when? How can we educate young people to be more aware of the topic? What they, as teachers, could do? How can they use this experience in their class? Later an educator shared her experience as a human rights educator working with documentaries as tools.

Teachers discussed the Visual diary which will tell us the progress of how teachers and all project partners took part in our common journey.

3rd project management meeting in the Netherlands

The cozy building De Nieuwe Schuur, situated in the magnificent area of Herpt, welcomed the project management team of Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! for its third meeting on 12 and 13 November 2023.

During the 2 days meeting the 9 partners - Palantír Film Vizuális Antropológiai Alapítvány, Hungary (lead partner), Changes & Chances, Netherlands, Civil Initiatives Association - Lovech, Bulgaria, CROMO Alapitvany, Hungary, Kürt Alapítvány, Hungary, Professional school of veterinary medicine " Prof. dr. Dimitar Dimov", Bulgaria, Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam (SKVR), Netherlands, VŠĮ Nepatogus kinas / PO Inconvenient Film, Lithuania, Youth Centre Babilonas, Lithuania - from 4 countries presented how they adapted the previously planned film activity method in their classes in the project using Pecha Kucha presentation form.

All 9 project results have been thoroughly discussed - Curriculum development, Online Database, Tutorial Video for Field Work, Professional Visual Project Diary, Pedagogical Manual, Development of short training, Manual about Student Feedback, Toolkit/exercise book (good practices from teachers). The 9 partners paid attention to all PRs implementation. Most of them are already in their finalization phase however the Online database, the Manual about Student Feedback and the Toolkit/exercise book (good practices from teachers) will be in the partners' focus in the next project period.

On the second day, the project partners discussed project management issues and talked about the next LTT Teacher exchanges.

Teachers' meeting in Rotterdam, Netherlands, November 14-15, 2023

The teacher's meeting of Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! in the Netherlands was focused on many practical activities which encouraged the exchange of teachers' experience related to the project. A theatre workshop based on the HUGO Magic program (lesson 6) was hosted by Dutch teachers. The LTT program continued with discussion. Very interesting points of view and different perspectives have been shared: '' … The documentary of the Circle created beautiful conversations and moments of recognition and experiences among the students. Brotherhood, relationships, poverty, racism, and role models were all discussed. It was a beautiful thing for me to see how students with completely different backgrounds started talking to each other about the lack of good role models or the importance of recognition of a father figure in the family. Unfortunately, when I was growing up, these conversations were still taboo. I am happy that this is a project that creates a safe space for the younger generation to discuss their issues.'' (one of the Dutch teachers).

This emotional workshop was followed by creating a space where the project teachers can learn how to turn their efforts into an imaginative teaching method.

In the afternoon the participants went to 100% contemporary tour + workshop to face Rotterdam's vibrant urban culture as a basis for activities, informing engagement with social topics and developments.

On the second day, the involvement in imaginative teaching methods continued. Ed Santman presented the short film educating musical theory to a child, scholar, student, professional and genius.

The project LTT meeting finished with a discussion regarding the next steps and teachers networking.

Project budget: 356 488 EUR

If you are interested in this project, please, contact Borbála Hadrévy: hadrevy.borbala@cromo.hu