Into Film Clubs
Find out everything you need to know about starting an Into Film Club.
Our Into Film Club of the Month for April 2018 is from Castleton Primary in Glasgow. Castleton Primary's Into Film Club is aimed at Primary 3 children (aged 7-8) as part of Glasgow's Improvement Challenge, and with the aim of helping raise literacy and film literacy attainment. Kirsty Wilkie has been running the Into Film Club for a year and a half, during lunchtimes or after school. We spoke to her to find out more.
What do you enjoy about running an Into Film Club?
We have a group of 16 children who turn up religiously on a Thursday after their lunch and have the chance to sit together as a group and watch a movie and then talk and discuss and review. The children really enjoy chatting and discussing what is happening with the latest films in the cinema and how applicable they are to their lives. From my perspective, I enjoy seeing the children and their enthusiasm for Film Literacy and reading the hidden messages within the moving picture. Castleton Into Film Club is all about community and giving our children opportunity.
Can you tell us about your role as an ambassador for Into Film in Scotland?
My job involves spreading the word about Into Film around our school and passing on teaching information to colleagues especially about Film Literacy. Someone described me as the person who flies the flag for film culture!
Your club members recently entered the Determined to Animate competition? What did they gain from this experience?
The 'Determined to Make Movies' award ceremony is held at the Glasgow Film Theatre, and our entry was based around the theme of AMBITION and tied in with the Glasgow 2018 European Championships sporting event, which is coming up in the Summer.
The children chose to depict a boy who couldn't ride a bike and through determination and ambition finally was able to succeed. We had lots of help and support from Edict [a teacher training organisation] in how to use stop-motion animation and the rest is history. They gained a lot of experience and are ready to be part of the roll out programme for iPads in Glasgow's Digital Plan.
What advice would you give to new Into Film Club leaders?
My advice would be keep it small, to say maybe 15 or 16 club members at the most, especially with young primary children. Always have the Into Film posters up around the school to show the club members what is happening every week, which encourage them to have conversations with their friends about how they love their film club.
What are the top 5 films you've screened at your film club that you would you recommend to other leaders?
Children at our school generally love anything ANIMATED and fairly recent. We have watched Trolls, The Boss Baby, Paddington, Shaun the Sheep and Song of the Sea to name but a few, with a wide and varied subject matter.
