Films for children: Some viewpoints
A
SEMINAR for the creation of local films for children was held recently
in Colombo. This columnist had the chance to be an observer. These are
some of the views held by the participants.
"I cannot understand why the veteran film makers are more and more
interested in making films for adults and films with a tag 'more
suitable for adults only' and undermine the fact that there are children
who are interested in seeing themselves portrayed from various points of
view like their adventures, investigations, aspirations and
innovations," is the view held by a certain primary school teacher of a
rural school, who came all the way to Colombo to participate in the
seminar organised to discuss matters relating to the making of good
children's films.
She added 'Please don't misunderstand me as we have been given the
chance to take some of our school children to see some local films which
are labelled as suitable for children, but to be honest some of us
teachers were put to shame by what we saw on the screen when we
accompanied them to cinema halls.
"Undoubtedly, there were children acting in most of these films, but
they were not in reality films meant for children."
This viewpoint gave way to many more diverse ideas pertaining to the
making of films for children. First of all many participants wanted a
clear cut definition as to what a children's film means.
A veteran filmmaker aired his views saying "there is no such clear
cut definition of what a children's film is, but I am sure there are
certain guidelines laid down in terms of visuals.
"A film may consist of adult actors and adult experiences but
ultimately it should centre round an ideology suited for a child,
enabling the child to know his surroundings imaginatively and
sensitively.
But the care has to be taken to make the visuals look more suitable
for children and not strictly to the adults.
"This is indeed a difficult task and could overcome with the study of
examples like 'some birds can't fly' where there were two central
characters where one is a child and the other is an adult, a grandfather
and the story setting is the very nature with animals and birds which
the child loves."
This point of view gave way to many more resourceful discussions like
the creative communication forms for children where factors like
parental love, family patterns, the affection towards animals and
inculcating aspects of loving kindness, and changing aspects of life.
Quite a number of examples were cited from the books written for
children over the years.
The educationists of the world have given way for children's books as
an important classification as a clear demarcation from the works meant
for adults. But this classification is subject to change in keeping with
other changes in the social order.
The well known writers who have written books for adults also have
contributed in many ways to the moulding of a children's literature.
Names of such writers as Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoi, Maxim Gorky,
Oscar Wilde, Rabindranath Tagore and Rudyard Kipling were cited as
examples.
Down the centuries the patterns of writing for children have changed
and the appearance of works by Blyton's (famous five and secret Seven)
and Rawlings (of Harry Potter fame) have dominated the scene.
Numbers of genres have appeared in the form of fantasies and romances
with superhuman elements fused giving way to mere make belief planes
resulting in Supermen and Incredible Hulks.
The writers cited above created their works not for a particular
cultural milieu of the Orient and the Occident but transcended the
barriers by elevating the creative thinking from parochial limits of
culture. Most films made for children have been based over the years on
the works of some of these writers.
It was also observed that the literature that is deemed as suitable
for children, like the age old fairy tales and adventure stories, had
not been rediscovered by filmmakers as suitable cinematic creative
source material for contemporary children living in many parts of the
world.
This was due to the grave misunderstanding on the part of the
filmmakers who believe that literature is one thing and the film making
is yet another.
Some participants disagreed commenting that quite a number of
children's films have been made on such tales like Sleeping Beauty,
Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood.
The consensus of opinion was that these fairytales have not been
proved as good visual material, instead as good storylines which may
have kindled a certain degree of interest in a make believe world.
This difference of opinion was a healthy starting point of discussion
as to the direction of the creative process of the modern day children's
film. True enough, they are two media forms where one is inspired and
influenced by the other.
A writer of a good screen play though changes his creative thinking
from that of a mere story teller is still seen as a creator of another
genre in terms of visuals, which is nothing but a literary work that
goes as the basis for a good film 'Walt Disney tried his best to
overcome this barrier through his works both in the literary form
writing stories and retelling old stories and transforming them into the
cinematic forms, like animation and realism', said another film maker
who also analysed further that 'The local film maker of children's films
could gain resourceful inspiration from creative literary writers and
film makers like Disney and perhaps go beyond Disney with the new
creative communication means and the technology tapping our own folklore
sources'.
At this point several examples of children's films made in such
countries as Japan, China, Russia and Czechoslovakia were given in order
to show that each country has its own creative identity in children's
films.
A sociologist pointed out that the films meant for children branded
as 'children' s films' should not be mere fantasies and a world of
illusion as they are popularly perceived, for that will hinder the child
from growing up and thinking of certain contemporary global issues like
poverty, exploitation, cross cultural understandings, human rights and
modern technology etc.
'We need creative screen writers for children's films , where we
could support financially', commented the representative from the State
Film Corporation.
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