Launched in 2016 by film director Moncef Dhouib, the image education project Mille et un films is being renewed for 2023.
Financed by the Ministry of National Education and the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image (CNCI), this project introduces pupils aged 8 to 14 to film making. Every year across the country’s 24 provinces nearly 6,000 secondary school pupils from 300 schools and colleges take part in this initiative.
10 educators in film-making chosen by the CNCI travel in pairs to each school to explain the purpose of the project to the teachers. A three-step initiation is then offered to the children. Over several sessions the educators introduce them to the elementary rules of film language, script writing and filming.
Moncef Dhouib emphasises the importance and need for such an education even for the youngest. “When it comes to reading an image we are illiterate. Film language should be accessible to everyone, especially children aged between 8 and 14. It’s a way of deciphering this tsunami of images and understanding their impact – hence the urgency of starting early,” he explained to the daily La Presse.
However, M.Dhouib points out that “the project remains expensive.” After support from the Rambourg Foundation, he is now looking for a new patron to supplement the public finance so he can spread his project more widely across the country.
Sources: Boxoffice Pro, La Presse
