Currently, World Theater Project has been deliverling films by non-theatrical means mainly in Cambodia. We were able to deliver films to the children in Republic of Zambia at the first time on Oct. 8th, 2024 !
We had a wonderful connection with NPO Cornerstone Of Hope Zambia who had delivered the film to the children.
Let us show you the screening activity in Zambia.
＜Screening Description＞
| Date：Oct. 8th 2024 Region：Lusaka, Republic of Zambia Place：Cornerstone Of Hope Zambia Number of Children：10 Children Age：10~12 years old (5th grader) Film Title：”FLY” Director：Carlos Gómez-Mira Sagrado （＋Workshop） |
The screened school is located in low income residential area, especially, within OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) Community. Even though, watching short movies by smartphone is spreading little by little, they are not familiar with watching on a screen.
～School and Community Around～
Screening
Unfamiliar white screen on the blackboard of familiar classroom.
Their hearts were pounding for the first time film watching!
“Everybody, please be quiet ! ” said the children among themselves.
Screened film “FLY” is a heartwarming story of two birds. Immediately after starting of the film, the eyes of children are glued to the screen. Even lower graders were peeking from the windows of the classroom. (It is a very familiar scene in Cambodia too ! )
Although, the children in Zambia are having hard time verbalize their feelings, with the help of the classroom teacher, they could make their feeling and opinions into words.
All of them were wonderful, please, let us show you some of their notes.
※the film spoilers are included.
- I was very shocked by the scene of one and only house tree being burnt. I felt very sorry for the birds. The birds made me realize that there’s always something we can do even in a very difficult situation that looks like we may be able to do nothing.
Also, I have learnt that the experience of an older person is very important. - I was impressed with the scene that the bigger bird teaches how to fly to the smaller bird. I thought it is nice to help friends, and the teamwork is very important. We could reach a goal by team, even if one person can not.
Message being able to receive is person by person, no right or wrong to it.
We hope that films and the messages last long inside the children’s hearts.
Workshop
Goal of the workshop :
“To be able to express your opinions and thoughts.”
Teachers considered to the goal setting of the workshop baced on the reasons below.
“Just like the so many developping countries, children in Zambia have tendency to just say “Good” when they were asked their opinions. They may not express what was good in detail or what they were thinking. In the cultural background, there is a very few classes attempting compositions and impressions unlike in Japan. In the first place, their literacy is not grown mature to the point of structuring such a sentences.”
With regard to that consideration, teachers asked these 3 questions after the film watching in this time.
| 1. What if you name these two main birds? 2. Your most favorite scene and reason. 3. In your favorite scene, what do you think they are talking to each other? Think about the dialog line ! |
In Zambia, there is no habbit to name pets and/or animals.
For example, they call a cat “Cat.” In that culture, there are lot of classmate’s names for the two main birds.
We can see the culture difference, and it’s very interesting !
A scene that the big bird teaches how to fly to the small bird is mostly listed as their favorite scene. The line would sounds like this, “please, fly!”,”Let’s fly together!”, or so on. All of them are very passionate … ! We really wanted to see the children speak those lines in person.
At first, the children were very awkward and confused, thus they were trying to peek on what their friends were writing about. After telling them several times “You can write freely,” they could start to understand the meaning of the activities.
By the third question, there were so many children voluntary raise their hand and said “I want to say !”
Finally
As the workshop develops, the children were confused at first, but they were soon energetically write and present their answers. Every teacher of Cornerstone Of Hope was very surprised. We, WTP staff, were also very delighted just by listening to them.
Teachers told us also ”It is very enjoyable and, by keep continuing like this, children’s ability to express and literacy would increase.”
Not only this once, we hope to cooperate with local organizations in order to continue delivering films to children. We are very grateful to Cornerstone Of Hope Zambia that delivered the film to children in Zambia.
We hope to report the good news to those always support WTP’s activities again. We will do our best !
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World Theater Project is seeking the Gift Cinema members who can deliver films to children in developing countries.
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