PROFESSIONAL FILM TRAINING FOR TEACHERS UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF DIRECTOR EVI KARAGEORGU (SOFIA, BULGARIA)

BEGINNINGS OF FILM – CINED EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOP FOR TEACHERS ON USING FILM IN THE CLASSROOM LED BY DIRECTOR EVI KARAGEORGU (SOFIA, BULGARIA)

The CinEd program on using film for educational purposes, organized by the Shadow Casters Association, continues with workshops!

APPLICATIONS HERE!

The educational workshop “Beginnings of Film” for elementary and high school teachers will take place on April 2nd and 3rd, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, at the “Dr. Ivan Merz” Elementary School (Rački Street 4) in Zagreb.

It will be led by Evi Karageorgu, a director, producer, and film educator from Sofia, Bulgaria, and will include a presentation of the international film-educational platform CinEd, available films, and educational material, watching and analyzing films, exercises demonstrating practical work with children and youth, and independent work with a chosen film.

“Beginnings of Film” presents an exciting program of short films that delves into the very beginning of film art and its early developmental stages. This program explores the origin and evolution of two key directions in film creation that have shaped the cinema as we know it today. Following the traces of film history, we embark on a journey through a time landscape that encompasses two fundamental approaches: recording reality and using visual tricks to create magical worlds. The first belongs to the Lumière brothers, whose films captured authentic moments of everyday life. Their approach was based on documenting reality, depicting the world as it is, without intervention or manipulation. On the other hand, Georges Méliès experimented with cinematic visual tricks to create fantastic and magical worlds on the film screen. His creativity and innovation resulted in films that gave a completely new dimension to exploring the boundaries of imagination and creativity. Through the “Beginnings of Film” program, we discover the richness and diversity of the early days of cinema and recognize the influence of these pioneers on contemporary film art. The program provides a unique opportunity to immerse oneself in the history and development of the artistic medium – film. The workshop consists of four parts:

Day 1, April 2 2024. – The first part will introduce the principles of film education, guidelines on how to prepare the classroom for film education activities, and familiarize participants with the CinEd digital platform and pedagogy. The second part is reserved for screenings of selected short films from the very beginnings of cinematography and methods of conducting analyses and activities with students (working in small groups).

Day, April 3 2024. – The third part begins with a demonstration of the “Lumière minute” exercise and ends with group work on simple film shooting. The fourth, and final, activity will be independent work by participants, based on selected films and tailored to the subjects they teach.

The number of places is limited, and applications are accepted until March 29, 2024, at 1:00 PM via email: ivana@bacaci-sjenki.hr

Participation in the workshop is free, and participants will receive certified confirmations upon completion of the program, indicating the area of education and the number of hours. The working language of the workshop is English, but along with the facilitator from Bulgaria, there will be a facilitator from Croatia present. Lunch will be provided for all participants during breaks (12:30-13:00).

BIOGRAPHY OF THE FACILITATOR

Evi Karageorgu (Sofia, Bulgaria), a producer and film educator specializing in cinema education programs for children and youth. She is employed as a project coordinator and mentor for film production at the largest non-governmental organization for film education in Bulgaria – Arte Urbana Collectif. Among her main projects at AUC is the coordination and production of the international film festival for children and youth “Meetings of Young European Cinema”.

Before returning to Bulgaria in 2019, Evi was part of the team at the documentary production organization Doc Society in London, where she worked on developing methodology for school education through documentary film. Prior to London, she lived in Slovenia, where she was a producer of the “Eye on Film Youth Film Festival”, which included an extensive selection of international films and organization of accompanying programs in the form of workshops and masterclasses for children and youth.

Key areas of work:

• Expert in film education; conducts research and writes pedagogical manuals for schools in the field of audiovisual arts – how to use film in teaching children and youth about current social issues such as minority rights, women’s rights, migrant rights, and human rights in general.
• Development of training materials for teachers in various countries of the European Union and conducting workshops.
• Project manager of “My Place in Cinema”, which introduces rural girls in Bulgaria to the works of female filmmakers with the aim of empowering and encouraging them to pursue professional development and higher education.
• Producer of the human rights film festival in Bulgaria “Sofia Documental”

Shadow Casters (Zagreb, Republic of Croatia) is a multi-award-winning and acclaimed international artistic and production platform for interdisciplinary collaboration, creation, and reflection on intermedial arts, which successfully intertwines international collaboration, film production, theater performances, urban intermedial projects, activism, pedagogical work, video art, and curatorial practice into comprehensive artistic activity. Since 2002, Shadow Casters has been engaged in film, media, and interdisciplinary education and professional development. Since 2019, they have been partners in the largest European film education project CinEd, led by the Portuguese Cinematheque in collaboration with 16 partners from 13 countries.

The workshop is financed within the framework of the CinEd 2.1 project by: Creative Europe – MEDIA strand, Croatian Audiovisual Center, City of Zagreb – City Office for Culture and Civil Society, and the Office for Associations of the Government of the Republic of Croatia

Shadow Casters’ activities are co-financed by: Erasmus+, National Foundation for Civil Society Development, Kultura Nova Foundation, Croatian Audiovisual Center, City of Zagreb, City of Rijeka, City of Koprivnica, Agency for Electronic Media, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, City of Velika Gorica, and others.