Film Education

Film Education

Presenting cinema as an arena that enables young people to experience imagination, dreams and different lifestyles brought to life on screen has been a key mission of the Dortmund | Cologne IWFF for over twenty years. Films have a considerable impact on how we view society and also our own role within it. Younger people in particular draw heavily on what they derive from films and other modern media, and this shapes their social and aesthetic inclinations as well as their view of the world. Good awareness of different media and a high level of film literacy ensure the ability to form and strengthen their own opinions. For precisely this reason, a responsibility lies with schools, the political world and the film business to cultivate and nurture knowledge of film in an educational context. The Dortmund | Cologne IWFF programme sees itself as a platform and resource helping young people to cultivate their media expertise, particularly in addressing the content of films, forms of cinematic language, different genres and the factors involved in film production.

Following each film screening, students are able to ask questions about the films they have seen, they can discuss the background to the films with the directors, ask what the directors’ intentions were and discover ways of approaching films that may not have been apparent at the outset. The moderators also look at the visual arrangement of the films, and at how to link any themes to subsequent courses at their school. Throughout the Festival we therefore invite you to swap the classroom for the cinema auditorium. We look forward to welcoming inquisitive young audiences from all over the world for interesting discussions about the ins and outs of film.

_Christine Bernau & Maria Goinda