‘That might sound boring, but I think the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most.’ Up
How do you feel after you’ve watched a movie? Does your mood change according to the mood and ambience of the film you’ve just seen? Do you want to live the experiences that have taken place in the lives of the actors, whatever these may have been? These experiences are not necessarily negative, it maybe that watching a documentary inspires you to act on something that you have thought about but never had the courage to do.
Is this what happens to young people when watching movies?
Some young children may not yet be able to distinguish between fiction and real life. How they react depends a great deal on the type of movies and television and the amount the child watches. Images that children see every day e.g., music videos can have a significant effect on young people who may want to emulate the things that their favourite singer or band are seen doing. They might even imagine that they are going to become their favourite wizard and attend Hogwarts instead of the local school.
As a parent do you allow your child to have a TV or computer in their bedroom without anyone monitoring what they are watching. Younger children may not be able to distinguish between make-belief and reality and will therefore feel that they can become the character in the film, this could be a role that is one to the reality of the child’s own life, but can also stimulate their imagination and creativity. It’s therefore up to us, the adults to guide and challenge each child’s thinking by giving them the opportunities to talk about what they have seen and to challenge them in ways that without adult input might not happen.
Films are often a means of escaping the reality of life, living in a fantasy world for an hour or two. A way to experience what the world might be like in a hundred, two hundred or a thousand years from now. Will future generations live in the stars? A way to experience life in a jungle full of wonderful animals or even dinosaurs! But also, a way to find out how our neighbours view the world. Talking about what they see and how they feel will help children of all ages to explore, process and understand what they have seen. It will support their thoughts and guide them along paths that they may not have explored on their own. Every child will see something unique and it’s this individuality that will make life interesting for the family and classroom. Growing can sometime be difficult, so, let’s talk about what we watch, what we experience and always try to learn something positive the film and from each other!
Good cinema is what we can believe and bad cinema is what we can't believe. What you see and believe in is very much what I'm interested in.
-- Abbas Kiarostami
Photo credits:
Movie posters
Screenshot - ' Wall.E
The Water Man - www.alamy.com
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