Francis Fifth-Grade Film Festival

​Our graduating fifth graders are participating in the "Francis Fifth-Grade Film Festival" for our final classes in library. Inspired by Providence Children's Film Festival &  Media Smart Libraries' workshop, Be a Cinema Detective: Discover, Explore, and Inspire through Film, students are being introduced to independent film and exploring several different film types. We will also vote for our favorite in true film festival style.


​Week 1
First, we talked about the definition of independent film.

• an independent film or indie film is a film production that is produced and distributed mostly or completely outside of the major film studios. 

Next, we discussed the definition of animation 

• a way of making a movie by using a series of drawings, computer graphics, or photographs of objects (such as puppets or models) that are slightly different from one another and that when viewed quickly one after another create the appearance of movement.

I showed Marcel the Shell (below) as an example of this type of film.

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After watching Marcel the Shell we had a discussion and students wrote their responses down on the sheet below.

Week 2
For our second week, we defined the term "live action film."

• refers to works that are acted out by human actors, as opposed to by animation.

As an example of this film type, we watched Jonah the Crab. We integrated our theme of animation from last week by creating flip books. Using post-it notes, students made quick sketches of a scene of their choice (some students chose scenes from Jonah the Crab). See examples of our work below.

Week 3
​Our final class will be on documentary film (nonfiction film).  We will watch the film, "Before" which is described by Providence Children's Film Festival as:

a short film that looks at the penultimate tween year of 11 through the lens of one fifth-grade class on the last day of elementary school. It is a funny, moving and sometimes heart-breaking story about that very short time in life when childhood and adolescence coalesce.

This film will be especially relevant to our graduating 5th graders. At the end of class we will discuss how these students' experiences are the same/different than their own. We will also vote on our favorite film from all three lessons. It seems like a no-brainer that the students' favorite will be "Before" given that they too will be in their last days of elementary school. But, the response to Marcel the Shell and Jonah the Crab was so positive that it will be interesting to see the winner!

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