The Forum witnessed the presence of festival directors, filmmakers, producers, cinema managers and children and youth.
Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFF), commenced its two-day virtual Children’s Cinema Global Forum, from January 29-30 with a discussion on ‘Children’s Cinema – Past and Future’, that offered an insight into the potential of cinema as a tool for entertainment, education and learning in the future.
Most cinemas around the world are shut, releases are held up, and the production of films is indefinitely delayed. The coronavirus pandemic has not spared the film festivals either. With this challenging time for film festivals, Children’s Cinema Global Forum delves into the minds of those who lead the world’s premier film events, to learn how each one coped with the pandemic and what their plans for the future are.
The Forum, jointly organised by SIFF and the Lahore International Children’s Film Festival, witnessed the presence of festival directors, filmmakers, producers, cinema managers and children and youth.
Professor Dragan M. Fimon, French director and academic, speaking via Zoom platform, said: “To empower children, visual medium educators must tell stories from everyday life that children can relate to and which are rooted in their respective social and cultural backgrounds. Involving children in the filmmaking process and ensuring their active participation is vital to present stories from their point of view.”
Firdoze Bulbulia of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Film Festival in South Africa added: “Despite the many challenges for those engaged in the children’s film industry, including the lack of online access to all children during the current circumstances, the future for children’s cinema remains very bright. The effort that we put in, the time we give, and the possibilities and partnerships we have with like-minded entities across the globe promoting quality children’s cinema, gives me hope.”
Meenakshi Vinay Rai, Director, Chinh India Film Festival India, commented: “The future of cinema is not what adults can create for children – they need a different kind of energy that can be realised only through their creativity; we can only provide a guiding framework to build on.”
Describing her experience of working with children who have created “bold and brutally honest cinema” that reflect their realities and are often beyond the comprehension of adults, she added: “What is required from our generation is a great level of tolerance to accept what we do not understand.”
The second session titled Festivals in 2020 and Post Covid-19 was about the challenges that were faced by organisers of the prestigious film festivals, globally, faced in the aftermath of the worst health crisis in over a century.
Recounting how the Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival was ready to go for their 2020 edition by December 2019, Bennett said: “It suddenly became apparent that it wasn’t going to go. The lockdown was immediate and drastic, and left us with no time to react.”
Eventually, Bennett and his team at the LA International Children’s Film Festival wrapped their head around the situation and pivoted to leverage all available digital bridges – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – to connect with audiences of all age groups.
Claudio Gubitosi, director of Giffoni Film Festival, said: “The pandemic struck during the year the organisers were planning the event’s 50th edition. Last March, I realised I quickly needed a Plan B. It was important to not lose touch with my community. We have millions of Giffoners around the world, and I had to find a way to reassure them that Giffoni is here, and it is here to stay.”
“I sensed a frailty in both industry and in community,” he noted that he had several apprehensions about how he would present an in-person event in a way that ensures everybody’s safety and wellbeing. Finally, they designed a hybrid event, with 3,000 children in Italy coming into the region where Giffoni takes place and attended in person, while millions of people joined the festival online from different parts of the world.
Gubitosi added: “What the Covid-19 crisis allowed me to do was to react, to innovate, to split the festival’s activities across different times of the year instead of going by its usual format of hosting it once a year.”
Speaking about the pandemic, Keith Bennie from Toronto said: “While 2020 was a challenging year, today we are more thoughtful about the way we present and share film with our audiences and our community.”
Narrating the impact of the pandemic on TIFF he added: “We had to close the building in March, which meant that the six cinemas could no longer serve the audiences. Back then we had very little digital infrastructure to reach people at home.”
The Canada-based festival was quick to embrace technology and launched their first national streaming service called ‘Stay-At-Home’ cinema, which operates like Netflix.
Sharing that the 2020 edition of TIFF was successful with its adoption of a digital and outdoor cinema approach, Keith continued: “Our biggest question was, how we create a sense of community? We hosted a DJ party in our lightbox, which our audiences could connect to their speakers at home. A children’s film was streamed, which my nephews watched from a very different part of Canada. So, the silver lining was wider audience outreach. We had the ability to reach audiences across Canada for the very first time.”
