watchwords winter 2013/2014 - prix jeunesse · the macedonian story 12 ... grew up on disney tunes...

Watchwords Winter 2013/ 2014

WATCHwords Winter 2013/2014


WATCHwords Winter 2013/2014 – Content

INTRO 3

Meet the PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2014 Nominators 4

Strong Stories for Strong Children 10

The Macedonian story 12

COMKIDS 2013 – The 6th edition of Festival PRIX JEUNESSE IBEROAMERICANO 14

Youth Media Alliance Hosts PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase in Toronto 16

“Have Book Will Travel” - PJ Suitcase tours US Libraries 17

Tel Aviv? Television? Tel-A-Vision! 20

Syrian Refugee Kids Enjoy PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase 21


INTRO

The Call for Entries for PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2014 went out around the globe, and the world of children’s TV responded! We can announce record entries to the coming festival: almost 400 programmes entered from more than 60 countries.

Before the actual festival takes place in Munich (30 May to 4 June 2014), we must take the important first step of pre-selection, as we can accommodate only around 80 finalists. Later in January, 12 international children’s TV experts will come together to screen, discuss and select the finalists, from the avalanche of entries. We are expecting intense days, with screenings from early morning until late at night. You can meet our team of Nominators in this issue of WATCHwords.

Even as preparations for the coming festival began in the middle of last year, the PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase never stopped touring. Reports from around the world can be found in this issue.

We hope we can welcome many of you for our anniversary festival 2014 – we will be celebrating impressive 50 years of PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL! Beside our regular prizes there will be special prizes for the best children’s programmes of the last 50 years. Don’t miss this opportunity to become part of children’s TV history!

Best wishes The PRIX JEUNESSE Team


Christoph Biemann

Director/Producer, DeltaTV, Germany

Christoph Biemann studied at the “Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen” in Munich, Germany, spe-cializing in children’s progammes. During his studies he spent some time in Rome, being an assistant to the correspondent Franca Magnani and at the Norsk Rikskrinkasting children’s and youth department. In 1972 he joined WDR children’s department as a free-lance director. From 1978 to 1988 he worked as a director with Armin Maiwalds „Flash-Film“, conceiving, writing, directing films for „Die Sendung mit der Maus“. Since 1989 he does the same in his own production company DeltaTV. Since 1990 Christoph also is an actor and presenter of „Die Sendung mit der Maus“. He has received many prizes and awards, and proudly participated in the EBU-exchange of items for small children since 1984.

Sevilay Bozdemir

Manager, TRT Cocuk, Turkey

Sevilay studied in the Istanbul University “Faculty of Communication.” She started working for TRT in 1992, became a producer in the children’s & youth department in 2001, and became head of the department in 2004. She has developed local and international projects, and run them as executive producer. Sevilay was a part of the core group of people in charge of setting up a new dedicated children channel in Turkey. TRT COCUK started in 2008. Currently Sevilay is in charge of the ‘23rd April TRT International Children and Media Conference’ in Turkey, international affairs, co-productions, and some major local productions in the channel; she works as commissioning editor as well.

Here is the team of Nominators – TV experts from different parts of the world – that will select the PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2014 finalists. Over five long days, they will watch all the festival entries, engage in passionate discussions, and in the end determine which ones will compete in the festival’s final round.

MEET THE PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2014 NOMINATORS


Liane CHENG Wai Fong

Head of Educational Television,

Radio Television Hong Kong

Liane’s film and television career spans more than 30 years. She currently works for Radio Television Hong Kong as Head of Education Television. She oversees all aspects of production, ranging from programme supervision to budget control and sponsorship solicitation. She first joined RTHK in 1981, shortly after graduating with a Diploma in Mass Communication. From Production Assistant, she worked her way up to Director, then Executive Producer and now Head of Educational Television. Her productions have earned more than 80 inter-national awards, among them the Gold Plaques at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Jan Willem Bult

Creator and Producer, Netherlands

Since 1997, Jan Willem was Creative Head of KRO Youth, creating and co-creating over 125 programs and films for Netherlands Public Broadcasting. In 2007, he founded his JWBfoundation to support children’s media & sports for development & peace, working in more than 20 countries worldwide. Bult has received numerous awards such as PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL, JAPAN PRIZE, Dutch Academy Award, Dutch Golden Calf, Cinekid Kinderkast and Prix Danube. He has been a guest lecturer at Universities in Rome, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Buenos Aires.Bult’s work is driven by his ‘Children in the Centre’ philosophy that he established in 1999, based on a strong belief in the autonomy of children.


Adelaide Joshua-Hill

Executive producer and content producer, Urban Brew/YOTV, South Africa

Adelaide Joshua-Hill is executive producer and content producer on YOTV, South Africa’s longest running children’s television brand. YOTV is produced by Urban Brew Studios, one of the largest production studios in Africa. Adelaide is a writer, (scripts, poems, songs, stories, voiceover scripts), singer and creative director. She has been working in the television industry for 5 years. She studied Speech and Drama and became a teacher of those skills, then later a nursery school teacher. While teaching, she kept alive her dream of entertaining by involving herself in theatre and constantly writing. When the opportunity arose to work in children’s television, it was the perfect fit as children and entertainment have been very close to her heart from a very early age,. She grew up on Disney tunes and the belief that there was a rainbow with her name on it. She thrives on our industry’s pressure and is constantly looking for new and exciting ways of entertaining and enlightening youth.

Martin Hofmann

Managing Director, Askania Media, Germany

Martin Hofmann started his career in media in 1978 as Trainee at FSM, Bavaria Atelier. From 1979 – 1980 he was Production Supervisor at Elan Film, Multimedia, Pentagramma, Bavaria Atelier. From 1981 to 1988 he was Production Manager for BR, Tellux – Film, NDF, Infa Film and Bavaria Film. From 1989 – 1994 he acted as Deputy Head of Physical Production at BAVARIA FILM. His responsi-bilities included implementing and overseeing the long-running TV-drama series like „Marienhof“ or numerous episodes of „Tatort“. He was the founder and managing director of SAXONIA MEDIA, producing the 5-time Adolf-Grimme-Prize winning crime-procedural „Sardsch“. Since 1997 Martin is Managing Director of the production company ASKANIA MEDIA, responsible for Germany’s first long-running children’s drama series „Schloss Einstein“ (480 episodes). For the ARD he produced episodes for the Fairytale Movie Series. He won many awards, among them a PRIX JEUNESSE for „Alone Against Time“.


Mariana Loterszpil

Production Manager, Pakapaka Channel, Argentina

Mariana Loterszpil is the Production Manager of Pakapaka Channel, the first Public channel for children in Latin America. She played a key role in setting up and developing the project, and launching the channel in 2010. During her man-agement, Pakapaka has received national and international awards such as PRIX JEUNESSE Iberoamericano (Brasil), Japan Prize (Japan), PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL (Germany), Divercine (Uruguay), Cinecita (Colombia) and Kolibrí (Bolivia).She has been a jury member at the Cinekid Festival, PRIX JEUNESSE Iberoamericano, and to review proposals to the Colombian Ministry of Culture for children’s TV shows. As a consultant, she has been working with the MIGROPOLIS animated documentary and also developed branding for private and public channel children’s slots in Colombia and Ecuador. Mariana is As-sociate Professor of the Film and TV Production for Childhood Cathedra at Buenos Aires University (UBA).

David Kleeman

Senior Vice President, Insights Programs and PlayVangelist for PlayCollective, USA

Strategist, analyst, author and speaker — for a quarter-century, David Kleeman has led the children’s media industry in developing sus-tainable, kid-friendly solutions. In May 2013, he broadened his focus, and is now developing a unique new global kids & family “think tank” as Senior Vice President of Insights Programs and PlayVangelist for PlayCollective. From 1988-2013, Kleeman was President of the American Center for Children and Media, promoting the exchange of ideas, expertise and information as a means for building quality. He remains advisory board chair of PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL and a Governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; he was a 2013 Senior Fellow of the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media. Kleeman travels worldwide seeking best practices in children’s and family media, technology and products; he has given presentations on six continents. He writes extensively for trade and general press, including two book chapters and commentaries for the Huffington Post and Kidscreen.


Martina Peštaj

Producer and Media Psychologist, RTV Slovenija

Martina Peštaj works in Children’s and Youth Programme for RTV Slovenija, as an author, screenwriter and producer of programmes for children. Her expertise is media psychology, her research field is the impact of children’s TV programmes on children’s development. Martina manages the channel’s laboratory for research on programme content. She collaborates with the children’s magazines Ciciban and Cicido, with the International Animated Film Festival Animateka in Ljubljana, and with Animafest - The World Festival of Animated Film in Croatia. She publishes spe-cialized publications, collaborates in research, and gives lectures on TV and film education, and the meaning of TV and film for children.

Kez Margrie

Executive Producer, CBBC, UK

Kez Margrie joined the BBC in 1995 and began making films for children in 1996 – for 10 years on the longest running children’s programme in the world, Blue Peter, starting as a trainee and leaving after spending two years as the Series Producer. Kez is on the indie commissioning team for factual and fact/entertainment formats for CBBC. Her portfolio includes the two BAFTA winning series - ‘Operation Ouch!’ & documentary strand ‘MY LIFE’. The latter is a series of one-off documentaries about ordinary children living extraordinary lives. Kez is particularly interested in ideas that work on all platforms, delivering content to children in fresh ways; relevant to the way they consume media.


Eva Radlicki

Head of News and Informational Programmes, ZDF, Germany

Eva Radlicki has been Head of News and Infor-mational Programmes at the Children and Youth Department of ZDF/Germany since 1998. She is responsible for “logo!” (daily children’s news), “Löwenzahn” (science & nature), “pur+” (weekly magazine social issues & sience), “Stark! – Children tell their Stories” (docu-mentary), “The Boys’/Girls’ House Share” (daily docu) as well as individual projects such as “Terra MaX” (history) or “Limit” (sports). She has received many awards including “Stark! Kevin – Hear me out” (winner at PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2006).

Preben Vridstoft

Head of Children’s Department, TV 2, Denmark

is Head of the Children’s Department at TV 2 Denmark (Denmark’s public service commercial media) as well as an international consultant to NRK/Norway, to Nelvana Canada and 4 Kids New York. From !993 – 2000 he was head of the Children & Youth department at TV 2 Denmark and from 2000-2005 Head of DR TV’s Children & Youth Department, and again back at TV 2 since 2008. Vridstoft has wide experience with inter-national programming; he created the “Junior Eurovision Song Contest” and chairs its steering group; he is former Chair of the EBU Item Exchange and a former Vice President of the EBU Youth Expert Group; and co-founded The Nordic TV Festival for Children. For PRIX JEUNESSE, he has presented seminars and workshops in Europe, Scandinavia, Asia and the Middle East.


STRONG STORIES FOR STRONG CHILDREN

PRIX JEUNESSE and DW Akademie promote Children’s Television in Uganda

by Natascha Schwanke, Deutsche Welle Akademie, Uganda

„How would you like to see fathers portrayed in television programmes?“ - pause – „I want to see fathers that don’t get drunk and don’t beat the mothers and don’t rape women.“Coming at the end of a long conference day, this statement came as an un-expected emotional challenge to interviewer Maya Götz and the audience in Kampala, Uganda. For two days at the Annual Media Convention, hosted by the Department of Journalism and Communication of Makerere University, distinguished

media experts, scientists and politicians had delivered speeches and discussed the relevance of media content for children and youth. No moment, though, had captured so clearly the extraordinary respon-sibility of media to serve the sensitive young generation. It made crystal clear how valuable it is to supply children and youth with quality content suited to their age, cultural background and circumstances.In Uganda, as everywhere in the world, children’s media has to fight for recognition and in the hierarchy of media companies. Because Uganda has the second youngest population in the world, and much to be done to protect children’s rights, it was highly important that Makerere University dedicated its annual event to sensitizing the media crowd to the needs of the young. Children’s television is still a “young sprout” in the production portfolios of many African broad-casters. The TV markets are developing quickly and are highly competitive, an environment that does not naturally foster quality productions for children. Yet media houses in several African countries have taken up the challenge of producing for children and supplying the young generation with locally produced content.In the past three years, Deutsche Welle Akademie


has been providing training and expertise. This has left to partners from Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Namibia forming a network – „Young Africa Connect“ – to overcome both country borders and traditional boundaries between commercial and public sectors. Each member of the group produces

content for a specific age group, and shares its programme with the other members.Thanks to this cooperation, the members have multiplied their output of “made in Africa” children’s programmes – a key project objective. The pan-African network has built a strong and powerful base, and its members have become experts in producing for children. They attended PRIX JEUNESSE 2014 and have screened productions from all over the world.Still, their experience in Uganda in October, with Maya Götz, literally caught them off balance: the participants spent some of the most intense moments on the floor trying to capture the key moments of their own childhood memories. The two-day workshop wanted to demonstrate how TV can help children discover their strength, find their role models and their ways of conquering the world. „It was a travel in time and a very special method of connecting to my childhood soul,“ one of the participants said. It was another milestone for this cooperation between the African Network „Young Africa Connect“, PRIX JEUNESSE and DW Akademie, in building a community of committed believers working for more and better children’s programmes, all over the world.


THE MACEDONIAN STORY

by Angela Dimitrovska, OXO, Macedonia

In December 2009, Barbara Kolucki came to us and said: “You are making such good children educational programmes in Macedonia; you have to visit PRIX JEUNESSE – it is the most inspirational place in the world for people doing this kind of media!”

Six months later, we were on a plane to Munich wondering what awaited us. It was beyond our expectations – 6 days of watching programmes, no sleep (because we wanted to socialize with

everyone), endless discussions, laughs and tears. These were our production’s most inspirational days outside the office and the television studios.

Since 2010, we’ve become closer to the world’s biggest children’s media research center and had the honor of meeting the PRIX team. We produced videos for the Guessing Games and organized a PRIX JEUNESSE International Youth Jury in 2012.

OXO’s production, the “5+” children show, is celebrating its 6th season, and “Who is Raised by Whom” – the show for parents – is celebrating one year of existence. Both were supported with fresh ideas and trends adopted in Munich.

Next, it was the Suitcase time!

With the support of Goethe institute Skopje, OXO brought the PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase to Macedonia. Jens Ripke from ZDF/Germany guided us through the two-day workshop, “Watch, Learn and Grow with Children’s TV”.

We had faith in everything except in the number of participants. Macedonia suffers from a lack of children’s shows and TV products, thus, there are few experts working in the field. But, look what happened! 30 people visited the event: producers, actors, hosts, teachers, directors, psychologists, musicologists, and more.

Macedonia’s small media and children world gathered, and carefully followed the workshop, engaging in debate on “You are Not a Werewolf”, “ The Bicycle”, “The Little Boy and the Beast”, “Two Brothers”, “Duck, Death and the Tulip” and more. People held very different opinions on whether some of the


programmes should be presented to kids or not, and at what age. There were lots of surprised screams and comments on the drums in “The Boy, the Slum and the Pan’s Lids”, the dots in “Mina Moes“ and the fire in “Two and a Half Heroes”.

By observing new points of view and ideas, we could see clearly that our participants became more and more aware of what defines “good” educative children’s media.


COMKIDS 2013 – THE 6TH EDITION OF FESTIVAL PRIX JEUNESSE IBEROAMERICANO

by Beth Carmona, Midiativa and Singular, Brazil

More and more quality in media for children. This is what we saw in São Paulo, Brazil, during PJIBA: more entries, more countries, more co-pro-duction initiatives, and more passion. The payoff has arrived, after a decade of hard work all over Latin America: we see new producers, new channels for children, and the digital world opening new perspectives, formats and business models.

During eight days more than 1000 people - producers, writers, creators, educators, designers, children and family – got together at Sesc and Goethe Institut to watch, debate and judge 86 audiovisual finalists (from 200 entries) and 25 digital interactive pieces.

Animation, live action and nonfiction programmes from Colombia, Argentina and Brazil were the big winners. Señal Colombia, Pakapaka, TV Cultura and TV Brasil are giving new chances to independent producers, leading to a new perspective for the industry arising in the South.

In preschool, music clips and musical stories confirmed the trend, with original songs and rhythms through animation in fiction. “Pedro and Bianca” (Brazil) brought a very sensitive issue: bullying between teens; children s docs and realities with non-scripted series were again a big and nice surprise in genuine shows like “La LLeva and El Gran Dia” from Colombia. “Migropolis”, a co-production with Hierro Productions and Señal Colombia about kids and migration, a difficult subject seen from the children s perspective, using real kids’ voices and animation, got two prizes. All winners will travel to Munich to attend PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2014.

The digital interactive categories included discussion of games, apps and webpages. An 11-year-old boy, Antonio Pedrosa Ferreira, and his teacher, Helena Mendonça, got a special medal for a game created during school classes. These categories are growing a lot in Latin America, with entries from several countries.


Around the festival, Comkids also provided workshops with the best professionals in the field. Producers had access to fantastic information about stories for children, from Maya Goetz, Jan Willem Bult and Walter Kohan (professor of Philosophy and Childhood). They covered issues like: how do children un-derstand stories, writing and creating short stories for children and what do we mean by “a good story for a child.” More than 500 professionals attended and participated in a very enthusiastic way.

Other festivals and international groups decided to join us, to be more close to Latin America. Japan Prize (Japan), The Children s Media Conference (UK), Youth Media Alliance (Canada), TRT (Turkey) and Sichuan Gold Panda Festival (China) sent executives to present their messages to the Latin American professionals.

During the award ceremony, a gala night at CineSesc, we dedicated a special moment to Pablo Ramos, our Cuban colleague, who passed away in May in Venezuela, during a working trip. Liliana de La Quintana made an emotional speech on the groups‘ behalf, listing all the actions Pablo organized in the name of quality media for children in our region, illustrated by nice moments and pictures of Pablo, from events where we got together.

We thank the PRIX JEUNESSE Foundation and all international professionals and institutions who helped us to build this fantastic network on children and media in Latin America. We can promise that we are here to bring our very original contribution to the world!


YOUTH MEDIA ALLIANCE HOSTS PRIX JEUNESSE SUITCASE IN TORONTO

by Karen Palomo, TVOKids Canada

Two girls try to cure a sick doll, a group of young boys take apart an abandoned weighing scale, and a playful baby boy prances with flying monkeys and dancing rabbits. These are just some of the memorable characters from the PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase hosted by Canada’s Youth Media Alliance. The screenings at the Corus Entertainment office in Toronto were held on two evenings; the first one focusing on pre-school shows, the second on school age and tween shows, featuring a wide international variety of programmes from PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2012.

The screening drew interesting reactions from the audience, with Sweden’s “Doll Adventure” and UK’s “Baby Jake” garnering laughs and audible “awww” from the audience.

But wait: there’s more to these films than the requisite cuteness factor and prancing animals. What truly made the PRIX JEUNESSE screening memorable was the opportunity to view a variety of children’s programming that captures the unique perspective of children from around the globe. For example, in Ireland’s “Grubz Up,” children were featured gathering rhubarb from the garden and making their own rhubarb pie. What child would not have fun with flour, sugar and some sprinkling of wild imagination? As an audience, we found ourselves laughing and wanting some rhubarb pie as we watched the kids in the video get grubby and have fun with baking (and eating) pies! In “Two and a Half Heroes”, “Friends at 2000 Miles Away” and “Duck, Death and the Tulip,” our heartstrings were tugged by the poignant portrayal of friendship and loyalty, something that children find very familiar. The importance of family is another unique childhood perspective predominant in the films as seen in “2Brothers,“ “Baby Jake,” “My Crazy Granny” and “My Autism and Me.” These programs reminded us that children do have the uncanny ability to show love and support for family members in the most innocent yet sincerest way.

As YMA Executive Director Chantal Bowen said about the decision to host the screenings in Toronto: “Canadians produce wonderful youth and kids shows, but these productions have a different signature. European or Asian productions produce (programmes) with a very distinct pace and a unique aesthetic and unfortunately, unless you attend the PRIX JEUNESSE in Munich, you wouldn’t be able to see these productions.” Indeed, we were very lucky that night to bear witness to these amazing films and programmes. Toronto certainly looks forward to hosting another screening in the future!

The successful event was attended by children’s media professionals from various broadcasting and production companies, as well as students from the Children’s Entertainment and Production program at Centennial College in Toronto.


“HAVE BOOK WILL TRAVEL” - PJ SUITCASE TOURS US LIBRARIES

by Elizabeth M. Spezia, Southern Illinois University (SIU) College of Mass Communication, USA

Summer in steamy southern Illinois is a time to slow down, relax, and read a book. The local public library is an excellent place to cool off and check out a book for free. In 2013, the Illinois Library Association chose “Have Book Will Travel” as the summer reading program theme. At public libraries in rural communities in the Midwestern United States, children not only read many books, but they traveled around the globe through videos.

This past summer, the PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL, the Southern Illinois Uni-versity (SIU) College of Mass Communication and Media Arts (MCMA), WSIU Public Broadcasting (WSIU), and the SIU Center for International Education organized a special project. Dr. Dafna Lemish, MCMA Interim Dean and Professor, and Elizabeth Spezia, an education and community engagement employee of WSIU and SIU PhD student, co-created the project and its resources. Carla Coppi and Elaine

Conrad of the SIU Center for International Education identified university students who are native to countries depicted in the PRIX JEUNESSE television programs. The international students enjoyed travelling around the region, interacting with children in southern Illinois, and making new friends.

The Have Book Will Travel project includes these resources: a PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL Suitcase of award-winning television programs about rural life in other countries; a comprehensive promotions and outreach toolkit; bibliography of suggested companion book titles and references; surveys; press materials; and artwork. The toolkit was provided to libraries on compact discs and used by the project team to create web pages, social networking posts on Facebook and Twitter, promotional fliers, electronic postcards, and news releases in advance of the summer reading program launch.


Spezia visited 11 public libraries in small remote towns during June, July and August. The team traveled more than 1,000 miles using WSIU’s PBS KIDS literacy van. More than 400 families with children ranging from infant to 16 years of age participated in 14 screenings of 33 PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL videos. The Suitcase videos were complemented with books, activities, and special guests. Southern Illinois University international students who visited the libraries and shared stories about their native countries were from Canada, China, Iran, Japan, Kenya, South Africa

and Turkey. SIU’s international students contributed many enriching elements to the program and tried to dispel myths about their countries.

Children were delighted to receive autograph cards with their names written in Chinese, Japanese, and Farsi. Adults were interested in the videos too, asking many questions and guiding their children in selecting books about the topics shown in the videos.

International students who participated in the program were excited. Javid Pourkia, an SIU graduate student in computer science said, “It’s been almost a year that I’m in U.S. and it was kind of the most fun day that I ever had.” South African graduate student in history, Lindani Memani, thought the programs helped to dispel myths about her country: “Kids are curious. They want to know more. They may have stereotypes like adults do and in fact, sometimes you gather that they get the stereotypes from their parents. So in my interactions, I do my best to explain about Africa, which is the continent, but also about South Africa, which is the country where I come from….If we were to have a similar program at home, where children and their families come to the libraries and listen to students from other parts of the world, it would open up a different world and they would possibly have a different perspective on things; because sometimes, hate and violence is fueled by misinformation.”

Indeed, children expressed curiosity about differences between customs in the United States and the countries depicted in the programs they watched. Many asked questions about how the corn was used in The Story of A Letter, a program from China. “It was interesting how they put corn around the house,” said an 11-year old from West Frankfort. Other Chinese customs made distinct impressions. A 14-year old from Salem was amazed that “kids in China learn English at about six years of age.” A 9-year old from Mt. Vernon was surprised to learn that “people wash their clothes in a river!” and another 9-year old from the same town remarked about how “people sing at work.” Several younger children were impressed with the way the boy was able to cut an envelope out of paper by himself and a 6-year old from Mt. Vernon said she learned that you “don’t open someone else’s mail.” After watching the


program from Turkey, My Dream Bike, children generated comparisons to southern Illinois. Many children focused on the boy’s effort to obtain his bike, asking questions such as, “Why does it cost so much to buy a bike?” and declaring “The little boy worked hard for what he wanted,” and “The Turkish boy had to work to earn his bicycle.” An 11-year old from Metropolis said, “I’ll remember that kids in other countries don’t have all the things we have.” Children also focused on differences in language, es-pecially the word ‘biscuit,’ which was used in the Irish program Grubz Up.

Children expressed en-thusiasm for the new knowledge they learned from the programs. A 10-year-old from Metropolis said the best thing about the program was that “I got to listen to different languages.” A 9-year-old from Mt. Vernon liked the introduction to the inter-national student: “I got to meet someone from China.” A 9-year old from Salem was interested in the conclusion

of Picture This, a program from South Africa, “when everyone wanted the girl to paint.” Several girls indicated that Picture This was their favorite program. As a result of watching it, they wanted to read books about Africa and African art. A 16-year-old from Herrin said, “I find the cooperation of so many broadcast companies encouraging, and I think their concern for the next generation is admirable.” A 7-year-old from Salem said, “It was super great.”


TEL AVIV? TELEVISION? TEL-A-VISION!

By Nava Mizrahi, Filmmaker & Producer, Israel

The PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase workshop in Tel Aviv just celebrated its fifth year as a bi-annual project of the CoPro Documentary Marketing Foundation and Goethe Institute in Tel Aviv.

CoPro is a non-profit foundation that aims to encourage quality documentaries in Israel, through collabo-rations with counterparts overseas. With the PRIX JEUNESSE Suitcase workshop, we aim to motivate talented independent Israeli filmmakers to create quality children’s programmes. Israeli Network repre-sentatives, producers, filmmakers and educators were invited to take part in this challenging and fascinating meeting.

Hili Horev Cassuto, director of the Israeli children’s channel Logi/Noga Communications, moderated the workshop. The diverse programmes presented offered an overview on newest and most diverse TV products from across Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Arab world, across various genres. We saw the workshop as an opportunity to keep up with the newest worldwide trends in programming for children and teens, and as a fertile platform for future productive projects.

70 participants attended the workshop, most from the children’s department in the Israeli public channel 1, Israeli Educational TV, and the Israeli children’s channel, as well as independent filmmakers.

The workshop consisted of three sessions, each dealing with different topics:

(1) Diversity: One of the most relevant issues faced by most of today’s social environments and so-cieties. The films in this section approached the subject of social diversity, i.e. ethnicity and outsiders. (2) Friendship and Relationship: A challenge based in the core of humanity - relationships and friendships in a changing world. (3) Entertaining and Creative ways to learn: Varied genres like animation, drama, documentary and reality TV, showcasing different ways these genres can be used creatively in to teach children and to encourage awareness (e.g., for the environment).

The workshop related to a broad spectrum of ages, from preschoolers to ages 6-12 and even Teenagers. When selecting the films for the screening we also tried to create variety in regard to film budgets, genre and format.

Viewing these films was a fascinating experience. We trust that the next PRIX JEUNESSE workshop shall be even more heterogeneous and will include even more independent filmmakers, taking part in a very dynamic gathering!


SYRIAN REFUGEE KIDS ENJOY PRIX JEUNESSE SUITCASE

by Shadi Al-Nimri, Jordan

In the framework of the convention signed by the Commission and UNICEF in February 2013, the Royal Film Com-mission from Jordan (RFC) in collab-oration with UNICEF organized screenings of films from different parts of the world, for Syrian children in the refugee camp Za’atari in Jordan.

The project was launched to alleviate the children’s difficult conditions and provide a much needed entertainment space. RFC, PRIX JEUNESSE and Goethe Institute Amman had cooperated in the

past on several Suitcase activities in Jordan, so it was only natural that programmes from the Suitcase would become part of this important activity.

The screenings were aimed at specific age groups: one for children 6-10 and the second for children 11–14. The films were shown in UNICEF’s friendly spaces in Za’atari camp, where the children expe-rienced a real theater screening experience.

The program included a variety of film genres - animation, documentary and fiction - from Jordan, Lebanon, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland and the United States. Most of the films were in Arabic, while others had no dialogue or Arabic subtitles. The films were very well received by the young audience!

All screenings were followed by discussion sessions with the children, and voting, encouraging the young audience to think while watching, and then to express their ideas, opinions and creativity concerning the films.

The Jordanian Comedian Nabil Sawalha performed a special sketch about smiling and laughter yoga, focusing on the need for tolerance, regardless of difficult circumstances. The TV presenter Aroub Soubh engaged children in an exercise exchanging words of optimism, love and peace.

watchwords winter 2013/2014 - prix jeunesse · the macedonian story 12 ... grew up on disney tunes...

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