Why we work?

We are glad to share the great news that our project Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! has received financial support by Erasmus+ Programme under contract N: 2021-1-HU01-KA220-SCH-000029686.

The project has the ambitious objectives to help secondary school teachers to connect to and guide young people. This we hope to achieve by the making of a new method to highlight the importance of social issues, using documentary films – helped along with collecting knowledge in the field, film screenings and workshops, and collecting data through students' feedback, in order to produce effective tools to bring students closer to reality in a protected environment and thus offer a model to the teachers and other educators.

What we do?

The project's primary target group is secondary school teachers, willing to tackle social issues in class and open to using documentaries in education.

Project Countries:

Bulgaria

Hungary

Lithuania

Netherlands

Who are the partners?

Leading partner:

Palantír Film Vizuális Antropológiai Alapítvány, Hungary

Partners:

Changes & Chances, Netherlands

Civil Initiatives Association - Lovech, Bulgaria

CROMO Alapitvany, Hungary

Kürt Alapítvány, Hungary

Professional school of veterinary medicine " Prof. dr. Dimitar Dimov", Bulgaria

Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam (SKVR), Netherlands

VŠĮ Nepatogus kinas / PO Inconvenient Film, Lithuania

Youth Centre Babilonas, Lithuania

What are the results?

The project covers variety of activities closely connected to achieving the following Project Results:

• Curriculum development
• Online Database
• Tutorial Video for Field Work
• Professional Visual Project Diary
• Pedagogical Manual
• Development of short trainings
• Manual about Student Feedback
• Toolkit/exercise book (good practices from teachers)

Within the project implementation period 4 short training for teachers outside the partnership will be organized as well as 4 classic multiplier events and teacher exchanges related to the different film packages.

Within the project, a Magic of the Frame website will be created and also a Facebook page, where all activities will be shared as well as the project results.

1. Project meeting:

The first meeting of the Magic of the Frame's partnership took place in Budapest, Hungary on 21 and 22 of March 2022.

Through introducing a new mindset - use the potential of the documentaries in schools, the partnership has the ambition to develop useful methodology and tools for teachers and educators in support of their work with young people – to help them see and learn about the reality as "it is".

The project started on 1st of January 2022. During the period of three months before the kick-off in Budapest, as partners, we have organized the start of this innovative, challenging but so inspiring and promising project. Defining in details our activities and plans, clarifying our goals and discussing how to make the project more useful for the final beneficiaries - teachers in secondary schools, etc. were among the activities our project team was engaged with.

The kick-off Project Management meeting opened space for discussion of many important topics as clarification of the project management rules, contract regulations, budget flow and reports, update of the project plan and gantt chart, distribution of activities and responsibilities, discussion of the project management manual (including evaluation and monitoring methodology), risk management, monitoring and evaluation.

Another important part of the Project meeting were the discussions on the methodology update based on preliminary research, forming a common knowledge base as a starting point, how to choose the documentaries, where is the cross point of the different points of view, etc.

The all 9 partners from 4 European Union countries took part as follows: Palantír Film Vizuális Antropológiai Alapítvány, Hungary (lead partner), Changes & Chances, Netherlands, Civil Initiatives Association - Lovech, Bulgaria, CROMO Alapitvany, Hungary, Kürt Alapítvány, Hungary, Professional school of veterinary medicine " Prof. dr. Dimitar Dimov", Bulgaria, Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam (SKVR), Netherlands, VŠĮ Nepatogus kinas / PO Inconvenient Film, Lithuania, Youth Centre Babilonas, Lithuania.

2. Project meeting:

The second project management meeting of Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! Project took place in Lovech, Bulgaria between 9 and 11.11.2022. During the 3 days meeting the 9 partners - Palantír Film Vizuális Antropológiai Alapítvány, Hungary (lead parthner), Changes & Chances, Netherlands, Civil Initiatives Association - Lovech, Bulgaria, CROMO Alapitvany, Hungary, Kürt Alapítvány, Hungary, Professional school of veterinary medicine " Prof. dr. Dimitar Dimov", Bulgaria, Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam (SKVR), Netherlands, VŠĮ Nepatogus kinas / PO Inconvenient Film, Lithuania, Youth Centre Babilonas, Lithuania - from 4 countries mapped the results and discussed the 4 lesson plans prepared in the previous project phase. Partners from each project country presented their selected documentary films as well as the lesson plans related to the selected topics/movies.

Dívák/Divas is the Hungarian team's choice of documentary - https://vimeo.com/531191141 - "Belvárosi Tanoda" is a school where a last chance is given to misfit teenagers, banned from all other schools, to finish their studies and graduate. This is where he meets three strikingly different girls: Szani, Tina, and Emese, the Divas.

The Netherlands team presented the documentary film A Brothers Journey - https://vimeo.com/740914394/56e902d2ee - two brothers, fled together from Syria lose track of each other in the Dutch asylum system.

The Lithuanian team lesson plan is based on the documentary Seahorse - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsSmxiPsbiQ where "The seahorse in the title refers not only to the creature that remains upright in the water, but also to the area of our brain, the hippocampus, where our memories are stored. This balanced documentary shows how water can take on a new meaning over time, and how swimming has become Hanan's way of coping with trauma."*

As final result of several discussions among the partners, the Bulgarian team has selected Bayer and the Bees documentary - https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bees+documentaries&view=detail&mid=E091447B747C876BE82EE091447B747C876BE82E&FORM=VIRE - insecticides are sometimes necessary in farming however some substances, like neonicotinoids, kill not only pests but bees as well. Scientists around the world have found that neonicotinoids are the main cause of mass bee deaths. One of the main manufacturers of these pesticides - the Bayer Group is coming under pressure.

During the three days in Bulgaria, 4 developed lesson plans have been presented and by the 9 partners of Magic of the Frame - Teach with documentary film! As a final result all of the plans received suggestions and ideas for improvement before the pilot beginning. The partners agreed on the schedule the lesson plans would start their pilot phase.

Particular attention was paid to the 8 teachers who took part in the meeting and their opinion and recommendations.

The project management meeting finished with some particular project management discussions regarding the next steps, narrative and financial reporting.

Project budget: 356 488 EUR

If you are interested in this project, please, contact Borbála Hadrévy: hadrevy.borbala@cromo.hu