At a time when screen-based entertainment for kids generates mostly negative comment, the second London Children’s Film Festival, due to open at the Barbican on Saturday, is set to demonstrate that at its best the big screen, at least, can be a force for good. It can entertain or enlighten and a good movie makes a great family outing. So, while providing children with their own televisions to watch in their bedrooms, or giving them unlimited access to computer games is unlikely to add to family harmony or kids’ communication skills, the purchase of an LCFF Golden Ticket (£7.50) – with which tickets for screenings cost just £1 each – comes highly recommended.
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Building on the success of the inaugural London Children’s Film Festival in 2005, this year’s event offers 39 features and 30 shorts at 16 venues, plus workshops and other related activities. The programme encompasses animated and live-action films for younger children and both features and documentaries for young people aged nine to 18. With films in 14 languages, subtitles have an important part to play. At some of the films suitable for children of 11 and under, the subtitles will be read by an actor – though they’ll be presented again normally elsewhere for children who can cope with the subtitles .
The festival offers lots of opportunities for active involvement. Last year a group of young people acted as Young Jurors and awarded the Festival prizes; this year they’ve been promoted to Young Consultants, which has meant working with First Light (an organisation whose remit is to inspire and fund the making of short digital films) to decide which films to include in the Official Selection and get involved with the PR for the festival. The Young Consultants will also introduce the films at some screenings. Meanwhile the 2006 Young Juries of seven-to-11-year-olds and 12-to-14-year-olds have been reviewing the current crop of films. They will award their prizes after the Closing Gala, a screening of a restored print of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at the Barbican on November 26.
Participation is the name of the game at many screenings, too, with hosting cinemas laying on workshop sessions that range from free finger-puppet activities after a programme of short animated films from around the world at the Rio (Nov 18, 1.15pm) and the Ritzy (Nov 19, 11am) to elaborate preparations for sing-along screenings of ‘The Jungle Book’ at the Phoenix (Nov 18, 12noon) and the Barbican (Nov 25, 2pm). There are several longer sessions designed to give kids a real taste of filmmaking, including the opportunity to make a film in a day with Film Fantastic at the Rio (Nov 25, 9.30am-6pm).
A particularly impressive aspect of the festival is the inclusion of a programme of international documentaries on topics ranging from the experience of deportation to the impact of globalisation on young girls working in a clothing factory in south China.
It’s a great line-up, which is not to say that it reflects the true picture of programming for children in the UK. As ‘Our Children Being Served?’ – an industry seminar at the Barbican (Nov 22, 6.15-8.15pm) – will highlight, most of the films shown at the festival will never find a UK distributor. Still, with a third year’s festival funding from Film London secured, a growing band of Young Consultants and Young Jurors developing critical skills and getting involved in the filmmaking process, maybe the distributors will start to get the message.
The London Children’s Film Festival (0845 120 7531/www.londonchildrenfilm.org.uk) takes place at the Barbican and other venues, Nov 18-26. Films £4.50, workshops £5, film + workshop £7.50; ‘Golden Ticket’ £7.50 (then all films £1).
