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RUS

Media education and documentary CONFERENCE

Summary papers

Of the fifth international new documentary film festival “Flahertiana-2004”

Memorandum

Of the constituent conference of National Association of Film Festivals - NAFF very year the film festival movement gains its power in Russia. Alongside with metropolitan festivals the number of regional film festival grows. They become not only shows of film art, but also an important factor of cultural development of regions and building the civil society in the Russian federation.

The experience shows that the festival movement can play a significant part in achieving such important goals as:

preservation and development of culture in Russian regions, enlightment, cultivation of social responsibility, tolerance, respect for traditional ethnical and cultural values;
support and development of media-education;
establishing conditions for interethnic dialogue and collaboration;
development of culture tourism;
learning diversity and wealth of Russia's cultural heritage and its modem achievements and problems by the foreign spectator.

Striving for these goals, we, the participants of the 5th Flahertiana International New Documentary Film Festival, representatives of organisations, interested in development of Russian festival movement, realised the necessity of co-ordination and consolidation of our efforts for building common information and communication space.

We have made a decision to establish a national film festival association.

Mr Robin Malick, Secretary General of the European Film Festival Coordination expressed his interest in establishing the Association and collaborating with the latter.

There has been organised a working group for elaborating constituent documents of the Association, headed by Mr Pavel Pechyonkin, President of the Flahertiana International Documentary Film Festival.

The Untersigned:

Kirill Razlogov, Head of Russian Ministry for Culture's Institute for Cultural Studies, Chairman of the MIFF Selecting Panel
Gennady Polichko, Head of the Department for Film and TV Management at the State University of Management Moscow, General producer of the "Sinderella and others" Children's Media-educational Festival
Pavel Miloslavsky, The Vremya Film Club, Nizhny Novgorod
Nadezhda Bakuradze, the Videodom Studio, the International Kansk Video Festival Chief Curator
Audrey Shemyakin, Head of Centre for Arts and Visual History, RGGU, Moscow
Ella Davletshina, The "Meetings in Siberia" Film Festival General Director, Novosibirsk
Alexej Kazarinov, The ANO "Cultural Propaganda" Director, Federal District of Siberia
Alexandra Blok, The "Living Water" Festival Director, Region of Altai
Alexandr Fedorov, President of the Film Education and Media Pedagogic Association, Taganrog
Valery Timoshchenko, The Noah's Arch Film Festival Director, Krasnodar
Natalia Yukhnevich, The PRO S Studio Director, Vilnius, Lithuania
Irina Bakanova, Dean of the History of Arts Department, RGGU, Moscow
Marina Yuzhaninova, the Salekhard Ethnography Film Festival, Salekhard / Moscow
Alexandra Lejbovich, The International Message to Man Film Festival Chief Coordinator, St. Petersburg
Pavel Pechyonkin, President of The Flahertina International Film Festival
Alexey Khanyutin, Chairman of The Guild for Non-Play-Film and - TV, Moscow
Georgy Negashev, The Rossija Open Documentary Film Festival General Director, Ekaterinburg
Naum Kleiman, The State Central Film Museum Director, Moscow
Svetlana Novikova, Director of the Peasemaking TV and Documentary Film Festival "Caucasus: yesterday, today, tomorrow", Rostov-on-Don

Declaration

Of Association of cinematography education and media pedagogics and of coordination council of All-Russian media educational conference (Perm, 5-6 May 2004)

Under UNESCO (1999, 2002) and European Council papers (2002) «Media education is closely connected with all media (printed and graphic, phonetic, visual, etc.) and technology types; it gives people the understanding of how mass communication is being used in their communities and teaches them how to use media while associating with other people; it provides members of society with following abilities: 1) how to analyse, critically comprehend and create media texts; 2) how to find sources of media texts, their political, social, commercial and/or cultural interests, their context; 3) how to select means of media suitable for working out and spreading of one’s own media texts and for attracting concerned audience; 5) how to get an easy access to media for perceiving information as well as for creating it. Media education is an integral part of basic rights, that each citizen of any country in the world has – the rights for frree self-expression and for information; it also supports the democracy… Media education is recommended to be included into national curricula all over the world, into extra curricula, non-formal and “life-long” education”. [UNESCO, 1999, pp.273-274]. That is why media education in Russia is to be supported and developed – in schools and colleges, as well as in the system of complementary education and media critique.
Educational institutions of Russia need media educated teachers, who are to be taught in pedagogical high schools of our country. In 2002 high school specialization 03.13.30. “Media education” was officially registered by Ministry of education and science of Russian Federation. But now it is not enough. That is why it is essential to solicit the Ministry of education and science of Russian Federation for setting up new speciality “Media education” registered by the state. To implement this the Association of cinematography education and media pedagogics of Russia has worked out projects of State standard and the curriculum of the speciality “Media education” and placed them on the federal site of the Association http://edu.of.ru/mediaeducation
The setting up of the inter-regional Ural center of media education in Perm could be an important prerequisite for the development of media education in Russia. This center could combine efforts of media teachers from Ekaterinburg, Tchelyabinsk and Kurgan (media educational conferences, seminars, summer courses, courses of advanced training for teachers, etc)
It is necessary to popularize positive experience of russian media teachers from Moscow, Voronezh, Tver, Saint-Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Perm, Kurgan, Rostov, Taganrog, Tambov, Krasnodar and other cities (for example, media educational center was set up in Tchelyabinsk Southern Ural University).
Collaboration of russian documentalists and media teachers is a positive tendency, because the gold fund of russian documentation is unclaimed and is not widely distributed, whike being a part media educational process in schools and universities it could attract an appreciative audience there (in this respect Perm documentary film festival “Flahertiana” deserves overall appoval)

Signed by:

A.V.Fyodorov, President of the Association of cinematography education and media pedagogics of Russia, Doctor of Pedagogical Science, professor, member of cinematographer union of Russia and CIFEJ.
G.A.Politchko, chairman of board of directors of the Association of cinematography education and media pedagogics of Russia, Doctor of Pedagogical Science, professor, member of cinematographer union of Russia.
P.A.Pechenkin, President of International documentary film festival “Flahertiana”, film director, member of board of directors of cinematographer union of Russia.

Summary paper of round-table discussion “ORTHODOXY AND CINEMATOGRAPHY” in the context of creative meetings “Orthodoxy and cinematography”, devoted to the Days of Slavic character and culture

Round-table discussion “Orthodoxy and cinematography” was held in the central municipal library named after A.S.Pushkin (Komunisticheskaya street, 25) as a concluding part of the meetings organized by the library of Spiritual rebirth MUK “OMB” with the assistance of Perm Diocesan Administration of Russian Orthodox Church, under support of internal policy administration and in cooperation with the territories of administrational machinery of Perm region, committee of culture and art of Perm administration, state regional institution “Cultural and business centre”, film studio “Novij kurs (New course)”.

Chairman of the round-table discussion– Father-Superior Daniil (Ishmatov) – head of the department of cooperation between dioceses attached to Synodal department of religious education and catechization of Russian Orthodox Church, of rural dean Patriarchal church in town of High-Peter monastery.

Curator of the round-table discussion– Pavel Pechenkin, President of International documentary film festival “Flahertiana”, film director, member of board of directors of cinematographer union of Russia.

Round-table discussion was based on the results of series of creative meetings “Orthodoxy and cinematography” held in Perm in “Cultural and business centre” from 17 up to 21 May 2004 (Kujbisheva street, 14). In the course of the meetings screening and discussion of the films took place: «Forgotten war», «Gift of the faith», «Having suffered completely», film studio «Otechestvo (Motherland)», author and producer Boris Krinitsin; «It is me - Apocalypse», author and producer Nikita Voronov; «Lonely paradise», Krasnodar film studio, authors Valerij Timotschenko and Father Viktor (Saltikov), producer Valerij Timotschenko; «Ascension in silence », Orthodox film studio «Pnevmatikon», author and producer Father-Superior Daniil (Ishmatov) Moscow; «My father Sergij», author Yurij Kolcheev, film director Peter Soldatenkov, «Film studio PS», Saint Petersburg – Moscow; etc. Many of the documentaries presented have won the recognition on the international and russian film festivals and have been screened on the traditional international film festival “Flahertiana-2004” in Perm.

In the course of the meetings the sentational film by M.Gibson «The Passion» has been lively debated. 

The aim of this creative meetings is to introduce the models of the cinematography inspired by Christian moral ideals and having contributed its share in consolidation of the unity between Slavic and Orthodox people. Creative teamwok of the film studio “Novij kurs (New course)” took an active part in the debates: art director and producer Pavel Pechenkin, script writer Konstantin Shumov, priest - Father-Superior Daniil (Ishmatov) (Moscow), head of the department of cooperation between dioceses attached to Synodal department of religious education and catechization of Russian Orthodox Church, of rural dean Patriarchal church in town of High-Peter monastery, deaconess Genadij Viharev, secretary of diocesan department of education of Perm and Solikamsk eparchy, scientists: A.V.Vertinskij (candidate of historical science, dean of historical department of Perm State Pedagogical University, assistant professor), V.M Rakov. (candidate of historical science, assistant professor of the department of humanities in Perm branch of the High school of Economics), journalists, creative intellectuals, cinema-lovers. 

In the course of the debates following decisions have been taken:

Film festival tendency in Russia is growing stronger and stronger year by year. Along with greatest metropolitan festivals many new regional film festivals are appearing and becoming rather significant. The latter are becoming not only a review of cinematographic masterpieces, but an important prerequisite for the cultural development of regions and for the building and preservation of spiritual and moral views in the civil society of Russian Federation. 
As our experience shows, the festival tendency can be of major importance in achieving such essential goals as:

preservation and development of cultural heritage in regions of Russia, propagation of moral education among young generation, building of social responsibility, tolerance and respect for traditional ethic and cultural values,
maintenance and development of media education, creation of favourable conditions for inter-ethnic dialogue;
acquaintance of foreign audience with variety and wealth of russian cultural heritage and its present-day achievements and problems.

To implement this project it is necessary to cover several aspects:

Taking into consideration the successful experience of the previous series of creative meetings “Orthodoxy and cinematography” the members of the round-table discussion advise:

to make this undertaking traditional, to hold it yearly,
to include the topic for discussion “Orthodox cinematography” (preliminary title) into the series of screening during the International film festival “Flahertiana”.

To achieve these goals the members of the festival “Orthodoxy and cinematography” have supported the idea of the members of the constituent conference of national association of festivals held in the context of “Flahertiana” festival concerning the setting up of the “Perm cinematography fund” with film- and video fund of orthodox cinematography.
Educational institutions of Perm and Russia need media educated teachers, who are to be taught in pedagogical high schools of our country. In 2002 high school specialization “Media education” was officially registered by Ministry of education of Russian Federation. But now it is not enough. That is why it is essential to increase the number of media educated teachers by means of soliciting the Ministry of education and science of Russian Federation for setting up new speciality “Media education” registered by the state.
Collaboration of russian documentalists and media teachers is a positive tendency, because it makes it possible to use the unclaimed gold fund of russian documentation.

Signed by:

Father-Superior Daniil (Ishmatov) – head of the department of cooperation between dioceses attached to Synodal department of religious education and catechization of Russian Orthodox Church, of rural dean Patriarchal church in town of High-Peter monastery.
P.A.Pechenkin, President of International documentary film festival “Flahertiana”, film director, member of board of directors of cinematographer union of Russia.

Media education and documentary

More than a century ago, namely with the advent of cimenatography, began the epoch of audiovisual culture with specific language based on the other non-verbal communicative processes. Considering the effective influence of the screen interactions upon a human being they are taking a dominating position today. According to the last evidence the volume of the television broadcasting has increased in the last 5 years of the XX century by 600 times. The generation whose consciousness from the very birth was formed by TV and computer has already grown up.

It is natural that in the last years non-verbal language is becoming a major mechanism in struggle for the influence upon human consciousness.

That explains the priority of studying audiovisual language in comparison with classic verbal languauge. Thereupon it is logical to apply to the core principles: morphology of art, history of audiovisual culture, particularly, history of cinematography – the most popular art of the XX century. There is no agreement of opinion concerning teaching technique of non-verbal language. However, the subject at the heart of which is a good intention to teach how to see and understand the world around was given a name media education.

The history of media education started with the release of Lumyer’s film. But in the last decade of the XX century the state standards of media education were adopted in the major developed countries, such as Great Britain, the USA, France, Germany. Today in Russia we have only one department of media education – in Taganrog University of Management and Economics – headed by professor, Doctor of Art, All-Union State Institute of Cinematography graduate Alexander Fyodorov.

As in pedagogics, there is no common, accepted all over the world terminology in media education. As a rule, national scientific schools, as well as scientists from different countries give their own wordings of such core notions as “media education”, “media culture”, “media competence”, etc. In UNESCO papers media education is explained as “teaching of theory and practical skills for acquirement of modern means of mass communication considered to be a part of specific and autonomous field in pedagogical theory and practice; media education should be distinguished from the means of mass communication used as auxiliary technique in teaching of such sciences as mathematics, physics or geography”

However, despite the alternative versions, we can assert, that British scientist L.Masterman has strongly influenced the forming of western terminology and media educational theory and technique. Masterman thought that the aim of media education is not only to form the critical thinking, but “the critical independence” of the personality regarding media text.

However, we should mention, that such wording defines aims of any type of education (not referring to media).

The history of cinematography is the history of efforts to formulate the principles of screen language. That is why the core techniques of media education should be based on the achievements of cinematography. Today, graduates of All-Union State Institute of Cinematography work on TV. That is fair because the masterpieces of world cinematography build up the taste and professional exactingness towards TV, form professional knowledge of language of audiovisual culture.

The Minister of education of federal land of Saar (Germany) is at the same time the Minister of Culture. Education based on the best samples of culture is the basic principle of humanitarian foundation of the society. 

The question: “What would media education in Russia be like?” is past our prime. It is essential to join efforts of teachers, psychologists, methodologists, cinematographic historians and professionals of cinematography and television in working out in shortest time the basis of state standards of media education.

What one is being taught on the lessons of literature? To understand life and people, ethic principles of social way of life. The same we pick up from the best films. That is why we can suppose that in the nearest future lessons of media education will stand next to the lessons of literature. Here comes the question what to show? Undoubtedly, the masterpieces of world cinematography. Thereupon we should mention, that fiction films have been developing as a kind of business. Being a business it aims at getting maximum profit. To achieve this producers of fiction films have discovered the secret of box office, based on manipulation of the basic instincts, such as sex, violence, fear.

Today, non-fiction films are a part of cinematography joining documentaries, popular science films, educational films not depending on the carrier: film, video or digital discs.

The notion “non-fiction” includes the opposition – different from “fiction”, entertaining, commercial films.

In contrast to fiction films, the essence of documentaries comes from ethic principles of everyday life.

Documentary is, as a rule, a part of the life of a real person formulated by the authors according to the rules of the dramatic art. So, documentary is a moment of real life shot by means of method of observation. It take months or even years for the authors to prepaire the film for the review, for the meeting with the audience. Documentalists are deep in the thick of life, their films are rich in style, they are penetrated with real life. The screen is like a magnifying glass, that brings near, let us pay attention to the details of everyday life, that surrounds the spectator. The impressions of the spectator of the documentaries is nothing but the response to the urgent problems of today life, the projection of his/her own life experience on the personal experience of the hero and authors of the film.

The time of the review is the time of inner dialogue of spectator with the authors and hero of the film. Usually after the review the spectator has a lot of questions to ask.

This state of the spectator offers wide possibilities of effective researches for social psychologist, teacher, experts and specialists.

The main object of media education is to create these possibilities. 

Today in Russia from 15.000 to 20.000 of non-fiction films are “on the shelf”. These are films shot in our country, about our people, our problems and they can not find their spectator. This is due to the fact that the collapse of the USSR caused the collapse of the documentaries distribution system, that was lobbied by the authoritarian regime and was a source of propaganda. On the other hand, in the 90s of the last century the techniques of film production changed – theatre review disappeared, other means of distribution were unclaimed because of the absence of clear state ideology and financial sources.

Film club “Flahertiana”, whose chief founder and organizer film studio “Novij kurs (New course)” exist in Perm as a permanent operating site of the Intenational Film festival “Flahertiana” since 1995 and makes it possible to review the documentaries in the periods between the festivals. 

As our experience of film reviews in the film salon “Premjer” in Perm showed, in the festival time during out reviews in schools and clubs of Perm region and on the other sites teachers, specialists of cultural sphere and what is more important students perceive with animation the new kind of review, they are ready to dispute and are interested in the documentaries.

The authors of the project suppose, that the experience of the film club “Flahertiana” can be easily adopted in other regions of Russia. Universities, film clubs, libraries, cultural institutions, systems of film review can form the environment that makes it possible to proceed with working out of the model of media education based on the documentaries review. Because of the lack of media educational state standards film clubs can become a part of extra curriculum education and an experimental basis for developing of the techniques based on the non-fiction films reviews when setting state standards of media education. Professional teachers, specialists of cultural sphere and all who love and know how to watch documentaries can be organizers and leaders.

How should the system of media education, that use documentaries for creating their techniques, look like? This is the topic of our discission today.

Pavel Pechenkin