SHIKSHANTAR
<shikshantar@yahoo.com>
NAI
TALEEM FILM FESTIVAL 2007
HOSTING DETAILS
Dear Friend-
Welcome to the Nai Taleem Traveling Film Festival
2007!
The second Nai Taleem Traveling Film
Festival is being organized in
Last year’s
festival was screened in over 30 locations around
HOSTING –
We are so happy
that you are interested in hosting this event in your area. There is a lot of freedom in organizing the
event in terms of space, timing, publicity, discussion groups, etc. We want to encourage maximum creativity to
break out of the often stiff, over-formal and elitest
nature of many official film festivals. We hope this event inspires people to
think about education and learning in new ways – starting with their own lives. Shikshantar
is encouraging schools, educational bodies, NGOs, social movements and film
enthusiasts, in places large and small, to consider hosting the Nai Taleem Film Festival. So if you have interested friends in other
areas, please ask them to get in touch with us.
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Please note that the festival
will only travel to places where host individuals
or organizations
are willing to take full responsibility for publicity, screenings and
all associated logistics. There can be multiple screenings in one city.
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We must make it clear at the outset that
ABSOLUTELY NO MONEY can be charged for this festival. We
have obtained permission from the various filmmakers and production houses to
show these films in the public interest, and therefore no money can be exchanged
or earned from screening the films, that is, no entry fees. We
also would like to say that, in keeping with the spirit of Nai
Taleem, NO AWARDS OR COMPETITION should be included
within this festival. We thank you
in advance for your cooperation and understanding.
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The Nai
Taleem package comes with the 35 films in VCD format,
posters, festival brochure and display material. The mix of documentary and
feature films is in a variety of languages, all having English sub-titles (a
significant number of films are in Hindi). Cumulatively, the films constitute
approximately 16+ hours of viewing time. We envision the audience for the films to be
teachers, educationists, B.Ed students, social work
students, parents, youth activists, etc.
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We will
send you a festival brochure for distributing
before and during the film festival. Please go through it closely. It requires
that you tailor it to your specific situation before printing and photocopying
it. If you have any questions or suggestions/changes about it, please contact
us. There will also be a summary insert
describing each of the films in the festival in more detail which can fit into
the festival brochure. You will be responsible for distributing the festival
brochure and description of films.
VENUE/SPACE –
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The
central principle we would like to invoke when thinking about where to host the
event is accessibility. The venue
should be easily accessible to people of all ages, sizes, shapes, etc. The size of the event (from 5 – 250) is up to
you, depending on what you feel comfortable with. Just try to make sure that you don’t sacrifice
quality for quantity.
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You
can try to enter into a partnership for space, so that you do not need to spend
money for rental. You can invite people
to co-host the festival in exchange for their support.
■
Explore open public spaces, such as your city’s
■
Local community halls may be available.
Talk with community leaders, where the special focus could be with their
community, but they may be open to other communities attending.
■
B.Ed. Colleges may also be open to hosting the
festival, particularly for their students and faculty. You may also ask them to be open to inviting
the larger public.
■
Your home or office is also a possibility where you
can screen the films on a TV set. Small
is beautiful! An intimate gathering may
even allow discussions to go deeper than a large event.
TIMINGS –
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The
dates for hosting the festival will be in your hands – from December 2007 –
December 2008. Please schedule as soon as possible and let us know the dates in
your locality so that we can post them on the email/web to others.
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Consider
your primary audience. What timings will
work best for them? Mornings and
afternoons tend to be better for students; evenings are usually the best option
for working people; Saturday and Sunday may be open to all.
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The
festival is split up into five 4-hour blocks.
It could be held over five evenings (say
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Please
make sure to leave some time after each session for open-ended discussion of
the films.
PUBLICITY –
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There
are numerous ways to creatively publicize the event while keeping the publicity
budget down. The idea of the festival is
to get new people (not those who typically go to official festivals) to come
and see the films.
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We
will send you a sample poster for the festival, which you can modify with your
own information, and post it at community centers, schools, temples, mosques,
churches, local businesses, public libraries, shops, chai
stalls, restaurants, etc. As much as
possible, talk with someone specific wherever you are posting posters and ask
them for assistance in publicity. You
may also ask them for a time where you might speak publicly to their audience.
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You
can also make your own posters and ask designers/children/youth to think about
what nai taleem means to
them. If you make your own posters,
please send copies to Shikshantar so that we can
share with others.
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You
may hire a tanga (bullock cart or camel cart or horse
cart) which can announce the festival through a simple microphone and pass out
small flyers. Typically this can be done
at very minimal cost for a few hours.
You may focus especially on the area where you are hosting the festival.
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A
press release to your local newspapers, especially those that feature local
events, is good to share. If you have a
city information center, it may be good to get in touch with the PR
representative there, as s/he usually maintains close contact with the
newspapers. We will send you a sample copy of a press release which you can
modify for your situation.
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If
possible, you can contact your local cable channel and ask them to air simple
announcements of the festival.
CREATIVE LEARNING EXCHANGES
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We
hope that you will be able to facilitate some discussion after each block of
films – each of the films provides different insights into transformative
learning. This will help to deepen understanding of the content, share diverse
experiences, relate the films to our own local contexts, and inspire new forms
of collaborative activity. Budget allowing, you may want
to invite the individual filmmakers to your venue.
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In
addition to the films, you may wish to organize a Seminar on Learning for the
21st Century during the Festival. If you are interested in doing so, please
contact us for more ideas on this.
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The Festival
is also an opportunity to connect with the innovators in learning in your
community. You may also have a mela (fair)
during the festival, where individuals and groups may feature their work and
practices and host mini-workshops. This
could happen in off-times, or even as the festival is running, so people can
have a few options. Interesting
individuals or groups may also be invited to host discussions after films, so
as to enrich the level of dialogue.
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There
will also be a set of publications related to Nai Taleem that can be put on display.
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While it is not obligatory,
you may also consider inviting someone associated with Shikshantar,
who will be able to introduce the festival before the local audience and also
help to facilitate the discussion sessions and seminars. Any host seeking the
presence of Shikshantar team members will be
requested to pick up the related cost of travel and stay.
COSTS
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Our working principle is “contribute
what you can plus a little more”. The suggested
contribution for obtaining the Nai Taleem package will be Rs.750 which will be used to cover
cost of copying CDs and postage. Extra
contributions will go towards supporting other local community groups in
hosting the festival.
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We also ask that you consider
making a contribution to the individual filmmakers or their organizations for
films that you plan on screening again in the future or for films that you plan
on copying. The filmmakers have very
graciously agreed to waive their charges for the purposes of this Festival,
despite themselves being in difficult financial circumstances. Your generous
contribution will help to support their future work.
AGREEMENT
I have read through the basic
terms for hosting the Nai Taleem
Film Festival in my area and am in agreement with it. Please send me the package of materials for
the Film Festival. I am enclosing a DD payable to Shikshantar
Sansthan,
Date: ______________________________ Name: _________________________________
Address:_________________________________
Signature: __________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Phone:
_________________________________
Email: _________________________________
I plan on hosting the Nai Taleem Festival from
_______________, 2008
to ___________________, 2008 at the following
______________________________ venue.
PLEASE PRINT OUT, SIGN, AND MAIL
THIS PAGE BACK TO SHIKSHANTAR, 83 Adinath Nagar,
NAI TALEEM 2007 – TENTATIVE
LIST OF FILMS
Block 1
Colors of
Leap of Faith (
Loving Teacher (
Summerhill (
Muktangan Vigyan Shodhika
(
Scary School Nightmare (
Block 2
Accepted (
Vigyan Ashram (
Swapathgami films – 4 Shorts (
Production of Meaning (
A New Dream (USA/Peru) 6 min
Sarang (
Do Flowers Fly? (
Block 3
Whale Rider (Aotearoa/New
SIDH-Hindi (
SIDH-English (
Guni (
North Star: Self-Directed
Learning for Teens (
The Nature of Unschooling (
Block 4
Learning with Narayanbhai Desai (
Free to Learn -
Believe the Hype (
If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit (
Kathalaya – Once Upon a Time… (
How Others See Us (
Block 5
Voices from the New American
Schoolhouse (
Little Shaolin
Monks (
Gijubhai (India) 19 min
Kabaad Se Jugaad: Upcycling Our Lives (