Keynote talk at Bradford International Film Education Symposium 25th Mach 2019

1. Film literacy in a contemporary
landscape
IMAGINATION, CREATIVITY, AND THE
MOVING IMAGE
Mark Reid, BFI Education
Bradford Film Education Symposium 25th March 2019

2. PRINT VS FILM
• Symbolic (nothing like
the things it represents)
• Pick it up and put it
down
• Time
• Sound
• Images
• Speech, music, gesture
• Indexical (looks like the
thing it represents)

3. To be literate is to participate fully in a culture
To participate fully in 21C culture, we have to be literate in
the moving image
It is vital and obvious that understanding, manipulating,
and appreciating the film sentence should be an accepted
part of the education system
Anthony Minghella
FILM, MEDIA, OR LITERACY?
Film and media are part of literacy

4. Choose and access
Understand and analyse
Create and express
Challenge
PARTICIPATE
About Literacy…

7. LEV MANOVICH
SOFTWARE
TAKES
COMMAND

9. MEDIA, OR MODE?
MEDIA

10. MEDIA, OR MODE?
MODE

12. ‘the moving image is the richest,
most complex artform and
medium of expression human
beings have ever invented, and
it’s the first one that we learn on
our own.’
Cary Bazalgette

13. UK CONTEXT
ENGLAND SCOTLAND NORTHERN IRELAND
• Post-14 film and media
(8% of cohort)
• No moving image in
mandatory curriculum
since 2013
• Some film in language
teaching
WALES…
• Revising its curriculum for
2021
• Moving image in
definition of literacy
• "... the set of skills which
allows an individual to
engage fully in society and
in learning, through the
different forms of language,
and the range of texts,
which society values and
finds useful."
• Moving image embedded
in ICT, literacy, History
• Dedicated creative Moving
Image Arts qual for 14-19
• Extensive support
structures – Creative
Learning Centres, websites
• Inspected formally by govt
inspection agency
• Investment in cultural
education post ‘Troubles’.

14. NI CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK

17. LITERACY IN SCOTLAND
"… the set of skills which allow an
individual to engage fully in society and in
learning, through the different forms of
language, and the range of texts, which
society values and finds useful."
CURRICULUM FOR EXCELLENCE

18. LITERACY IN ENGLAND
The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to
promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping
pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word,
and to develop their love of literature through widespread
reading for enjoyment.
Dept for Education Programmes of Study for English KS2 (7-11)

19. LITERACY IN ENGLAND
The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to
promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping
pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word,
and to develop their love of literature through widespread
reading for enjoyment.
Dept for Education Programmes of Study for English KS2 (7-11)

20. THE STORY SO FAR..

21. WHAT DO THE WORLD’S EMPLOYERS WANT?

22. Elliot Eisner
Arts and the Creation of
Mind, 2002

23. Rationales for Art Education
• Discipline-based: making skills, connoisseurship, and art historical knowledge;
• Wider visual culture, to counter bias and ideology;
• Creative problem-solving, (Bauhaus model);
• Creative self-expression;
• Preparation for work in arts and arts-related spheres;
• Promoting wider academic performance;
• Cross-curricula practice, supporting and enhancing non-arts subjects;
• To develop cognition, to “foster flexibility, promote a tolerance for ambiguity,
encourage risk taking, [and develop] the exercise of judgement outside the sphere of
rules.”
after Eisner, 2002

24. FILM, ART AND COGNITION
The arts enable specific, unique types of thinking:
Flexible purposing
Judgement without rules
Using material as medium
Seeing world aesthetically
Exercising the imagination
Visualising concepts

25. Eisner’s cognitive skills
• Flexible purposing
• Judgement without rules
• Aesthetic seeing
• Exercising imagination
• Transforming material
into medium
• Visualising concepts
WEF skills for 21C
• Complex problem solving
• Critical thinking
• Creativity
• Making Judgements
• Cognitive flexibility
AND
• Emotional intelligence
• Co-ordinating with others

26. Film a situation between two or more characters linked to an
emotion - a romantic encounter / envy / jealousy /shame.
Repeat the exact same situation, but change the space where
this encounter takes place, and change the manner in which
you film it.
Maximum 2 mins per situation - 4 mins in total.

27. from le Cinema cent ans de Jeunesse
https://markreid1895.wordpress.com/2019/03/20/mid-term-meeting-in-london/

28. FILM, ART AND COGNITION
The arts enable specific, unique types of thinking:
Flexible purposing
Judgement without rules
Using material as medium
Seeing world aesthetically
Exercising the imagination
Visualising concepts

30. Consider the implications of the relationship between forms of
representation for the selection of content in the school curriculum.
Learning to use particular forms of representation is also learning to
think and represent meaning in particular ways. How broad is the
current distribution? What forms of representation are emphasized? In
what forms are students expected to become “literate”? What modes
of cognition are stimulated, practiced, and refined by the forms that
are made available?
Elliot Eisner, Arts and the Creation of Mind, 2002

31. Consider the implications of the relationship between forms of
representation for the selection of content in the school curriculum.
Learning to use particular forms of representation is also learning to
think and represent meaning in particular ways. How broad is the
current distribution? What forms of representation are emphasized? In
what forms are students expected to become “literate”? What modes
of cognition are stimulated, practiced, and refined by the forms that
are made available?
Elliot Eisner, Arts and the Creation of Mind, 2002

32. What if we were to use different forms of
representation, different modes and
media, in the classroom, enabling children
to access different types of intelligence?

33. A NEW FILM-RICH CURRICULUM
Creativity and imagination
Cultural breadth
Critical thinking
Collaboration
Problem solving
Emotional intelligence
Tolerance

35. Grazie
谢谢
고맙습니다
Dziękuję
go raibh maith agat
Gracias
Благодаря ти
ありがとう
obrigado
Thank you!