bfi DVD short films and film clips
Suggested activities for:
- Better or Worse?
- Cousin
- Arko Ujyalo (Another Light)
- Together
- Alison's Baby
- Blind Sensation
- See the person, not the disability
- Black Dog
- Rhythm of Survival
- Tell it Like it is
- The Chapeau Roan
- The Sixth Happiness
- Raspberry Ripple Awards
- The Egg
- Gallivant
Detailed lesson plans for:
Activities on Better or Worse?
1. How have the filmmakers used the camera to convey that Rachel has a visual impairment?
2. Why do the filmmakers keep cutting back to the eye test?
3. How do the filmmakers show how Rachel feels about having a visual impairment?
4. What are the filmmakers telling us about Luke?
5. Think of other ways of showing visual impairment with the camera and write an outline for a three-minute documentary. Children could use the Write a scene/storyline handout (PDF).
Detailed lesson plans for KS2.
Activities on Cousin
1. Show the class the animation without prior discussion. Get first reactions.
2. Show it again and get them to list how the cousin is like other children and how he is different.
3. View the video, stopping after each scene. Allow enough time for pupils to storyboard each scene. Children could use the Storyboard handout (PDF).
4. Get pupils to make a list of the things that were used in the animation.
5. Talk about 'spazzo' or 'spazzie' and other disabilist name-calling. Make a list of words used to describe disabled people with the class. Go through them and circle any that they think might not be offensive. Look at the history of where these words come from and what they originally meant (see the Word power Student handout (PDF) and Origins of offensive words associated with disability).
6. Write down three of the things you like doing best. Then describe how you would do them differently if you were the cousin.
7. Watch the film with the soundtrack turned down. Then watch it again, with the soundtrack. List what the soundtrack adds to the animation.
8. The script was a very important part of this film. Listen to the soundtrack on its own (cover up the screen, or turn it away from pupils). Describe how the script gives a unique feel to the film. Analyse the language used. How is irony established?
9. Think of someone in your family, or whom you know, or in a book, who is disabled and think of a way you might make an animation about them. Do a storyboard of six scenes. Children could use the Storyboard sheet (PDF) in Student handouts.
10. Look at the bullying scene. In groups, work out other ways this scene might have played out. Develop role-plays in groups and show them to the rest of the class. Then discuss bullying and what you need to do when it happens.
Detailed lesson plans for KS2.
Activities on Arko Ujyalo
1. Ask the class to list ways Nandalal adapts the way he does things because he is blind, and the ways other people in the community adapt to help Nandalal.
2. Ask the children to imagine how they might need to do things differently in their own families if someone's needs changed.
3. Choose one daily task or activity and write a set of instructions for how to do it, including precise directions and guidance. Try out the instructions with a partner. Discuss how easy or difficult tasks were to carry out.
4. Discuss how Nandalal copes with his day at school. Children imagine they are Nandalal and audio record a diary entry of one activity or a day at school, describing what they have done.
5. Try to tell from watching the clip how Nandalal's and his friends' and family's lives differ from yours.
6. Nandalal was binded by having measles at the age of three. Discuss how the children think this could have been prevented.
7. Research organisations that are working towards healthy living in other countries and trying to prevent diseases.
Detailed lesson plans for KS2.
Activities on Together
1. Ask pupils to identify moments in the film when people showed prejudice towards the two deaf men.
2. Ask pupils to suggest what the two women in the doorway were saying as they watched the two men. Write a dialogue.
3. Watch the clip where the two deaf men are communicating between themselves. Discuss how the men communicate in ways other than using speech.
4. Research the history of British Sign Language and its recognition as an official community language.
5. Think about how sound and silence are used in the extracts.
6. Watch different types of TV programme without sound. How much can you understand without it? Include watching a programme with subtitles and an extract from BBC 2 news with Signing.
7. Get children to note down as many of the environments as possible in the film, eg: flat, pub, street. Ask them to decide what they think the barriers to disabled people are in each place. How many of them would still be barriers today? Ask for suggestions of adjustments that could be made to make places and activities more accessible.
Detailed lesson plans for KS2.
Activities on Alison's Baby
1. Run the extract on the DVD through for the class without prior discussion and get first reactions.
2. Ask pupils to draw up a list of adjustments that Alison makes to get on with her life.
3. How do the filmmakers get us to understand Alison's point of view?
4. Make a list of all the things you have done using your hands and arms since you got up this morning. For three of them, say how you might do them if you had no arms.
5. In the past, Social Services might well have argued that Alison's baby should be taken into care. Appoint two teams who have to make arguments for or against Alison keeping her baby. The rest of the class has to be the Jury and have a discussion, make a decision and give their reason.
6. In groups, make a list of the support and adjustments that you think will need to be made so Alison will be able to care for her baby.
Detailed lesson plans for KS3.
Activities on Blind Sensation
1. View the film and ask the class what they think the filmmakers are trying to say about the experience of being blind?
2. Describe what is being shown by the camera in the first minute of the film. What techniques are being used to suggest visual impairment?
3. Listen to the soundtrack. What does the female voice mean by what she is saying?
4. What does the male voice mean by what he is saying?
5. List the aids and adjustments for blind people that are shown in the film?
Detailed lesson plans for KS3.
Activities on See the person, not the disability
1. Look at Getting Served. Think of other situations where forms of Sign language are used, eg at horse racing courses.
2. Think of another everyday situation where a disabled person is doing their job and this challenges people's prejudices. Write a script for a 45-second advert to show this. Pupils could use the Write a scene/storyline sheet (PDF) in the Student handouts.
3. In the second advertisement, Wheelchair, a young man in a wheelchair addresses the prejudices he is faced with. Make a list of them and think about how people can overcome them.
Give examples of positive reactions towards people with impairments.
4 In the advertisement, Maria, about the woman and her roses, how is the filmmaker challenging perceptions of disability?
5 Keep a watch on advertisements on your TV for a week. Write down any that include or feature disabled people. Bring your records in the following week and discuss your findings.
6 Get a pile of magazines with advertisements in them. Also bring in photocopied pictures of disabled people doing active things. Get the class to choose an advertisement and then to cut out disabled people and collage them into the advertisement. Make a display or share the work with the rest of the school at an assembly.
7. Many disabled people don't like the slogan, 'See the person, not the disability'. Can you think what might be wrong with it, from their point of view? (See the notes, below.)
Many disabled people, especially those who support the social model (see 'Medical model' v. 'social model') of disability, are highly critical of this slogan. They believe that what it should actually say is, 'See the person, not their impairment'. Disabled people want the general public to become much more aware of what disables them. In the case of this advertisement, the girl and the younger barman would probably normally have been disabled by how few people can use or understand British Sign Language; a wheelchair-user is often disabled by architectural barriers, such as stairs or lack of lifts; or someone with learning difficulties can be disabled by lack of signs and messages in simple language.
The film has a strong message that sometimes doing things in a different way because of an impairment can be helpful - lipreading and communicating by British Sign Language is an advantage in a very noisy environment. Disabled people want the Government and the population to stop confusing impairment with disability, which results frompeople's attitudes, policies and practices, and environments which discriminate against disabled people.
Detailed lesson plans for KS3/4.
Activities on Black Dog
1. Watch the film right through, then play it again, pausing after each 15 seconds and getting pupils to describe:
a) the visuals;
b) the music;
c) the words.
2. What is the filmmaker conveying to the viewer by the choices of a), b) and c)?
3. What do you think is the filmmaker's view of the nature of depression?
4. Depression is the most common form of mental health issue. It is estimated by Young Mind that 20% of young people will, by the time they are 15, experience a major bout of mental distress. What sort of things might trigger off depression in young people?
5. Write down the words from on the screen as a poem. Now compose a poem about something that has made you really angry.
6. What would you put in a short film to convey what made you angry. How might you feel and what would you want to do about it?
7. Listen to the music only (cover the screen or turn it away), noting down the different tempos and styles. What does the music convey that words and visuals cannot?
8. What do you think is meant by:
a) the Churchill quote;
b) the Dodie Smith quote?
9. What is the purpose of such quotes and why do you think they were placed at the beginning and end of the film?
Detailed lesson plans for KS4.
Activities on Rhythm of Survival
1. Watch the clip and make a list of the activities that members of Hackney Core Arts are undertaking.
2. Watch the film again and list the ways the participants are similar and different to people without mental health issues.
3. Using the information from Mind (Mental distress in the UK in Statistics), discuss different forms of mental health issues and the proportion of people affected. From the data, get the class to develop a graphic representation of the proportion of the population with mental health issues.
4. The ethos at Core Arts is to let people participate as much or as little as they want to. Why do you think this is a useful approach for mental health system users, or survivors.
5. Why do you think people who have had mental health issues call themselves mental health system survivors?
6. Get a video/DVD of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and show a couple of clips to the class:
a) the group therapy session;
b) the coach and boat outing.
Then have a discussion about mental health hospitals and whether these are the best places for people with mental health issues. What are the alternatives?
Detailed lesson plans for KS4.
Activities on Tell it Like it is
1. Video the beginning of the Channel 4 news and show it to the class after viewing this film. How is it the same as the beginning of the film, and how different?
2. Why do you think disabled people find words like 'cripple', 'handicapped', 'brave', 'tragic' offensive when used to describe them in the newspapers?
3. Give out copies of the Word power sheet (PDF) in Student handouts and get pupils to decide whether the language is positive, negative or neutral.
4. Afterwards, give out the Disabling newspaper headlines sheet (PDF) in Student handouts, showing some examples of press headlines which use negative language about disabled people. You may find other good examples in your local newspaper. Ask pupils to rewrite the headlines using positive language.
5. Get pupils to make posters to be put up around school with strong messages about including disabled people.
6. Get pupils to watch local and national TV news for a week and keep a diary of the number of mentions of disabled people or disability, and whether they think they were positive or negative. Remind them that at least nine million people in the UK are disabled, that's at least one in eight of the population. Then graph the number of mentions. Discuss the findings. Have another look at the film and then get the pupils to write letters to the editors of these news programmes.
7. View what
a) Mandy Colleran;
b) John Quinn;
c) David Crawl;
do and say in the film. Say how their lives are different from your expectations of them when you first saw them.
8. Watch the two clips of Francesca Martinez on the film. Write down her jokes. Analyse what Francesca is doing with the audience's assumptions. See if you can write a gag or joke that does the same thing.
Detailed lesson plans for KS4.
Activities on The Chapeau Roan
1. Watch the film. What do you think the filmmakers are trying to show?
2. Write a description of the character of the man pushing the wheelchair.
3. Write a description of the character of the woman wheelchair user. Pupils could use the Character comparison sheet (PDF) in Student handouts.
4. Disabled people have a lot of problems with their personal assistants assuming they know what is best for those they serve. Write a speech for the woman in the wheelchair, telling her personal assistant how to behave and treat her.
Detailed lesson plans for KS4.
Activities on The Sixth Happiness
1.The first clip shows the attitude of the Doctor, Mother and Father to Brit being born with an impairment. Make a list of what happens in the scene to give you an understanding of their different attitudes towards Brit.
2. From the birth scene, the film cuts to Brit at an indeterminate age talking to camera about his mother and himself. What makes this a very effective way of telling the story?
3. Brit's parents, especially his father, are very keen to try all possible cures. How is this behaviour made humorous and therefore shown up for the sham it is in the film clip?
4. Why do you think Brit does not want to dance, and why does he then enjoy it in the end?
5. People with brittle bones don't grow very much physically which is why Firdaus could play Brit at eight (first scene) and at 18 (second scene). Why do you think he called his book Trying to Grow?
6. Do an analysis of a still from this film from Stills analysis.
Detailed lesson plans for KS4.
Activities on Raspberry Ripple Awards
1. Having watched the extract from the awards, have a discussion with the class about the point of such award ceremonies and whether they could have any adverse consequences.
2. Use the definitions in 'Medical model' v. 'social model' to have a discussion about who are disabled people? Get the class to list disabled people they know. Then get the class to list what they like and dislike about these people. It should emerge that their personalities are not dependent on their impairment. Yet this is the most usual way disabled people are shown in the media.
3. The Awards are for the categories: TV Drama, Light Entertainment and Documentary, Film, Radio, Theatre and Advertising. Run through the common stereotypes of disabled people and whether the class can think of other examples.
4. Homework activity: Ask the class to watch TV for the next week and note down any portrayals of disabled people. Get them to say if the portrayal was positive or negative and whether it involved stereotypes. Have a further discussion the following week. This activity can be expanded into a more prolonged media watch.
5. Write a play with disabled and non-disabled characters, in which the disabled characters are not stereotyped. It might be useful to give out and discuss the guidance in 'Medical model' v. 'social model' on non-stereotyped portrayal.
6. The episode of Holding on featured an unprovoked attack by a character with severe mental distress on a girl in a phone box. It was nominated for a 'worst portrayal' award for supporting the myth that all people with mental health issues are violent. Is this true? The Home Office points out that there are fewer murders and violent attacks committed by people with mental health issues today than 40 years ago. Discuss how the myth that more violence is perpetrated by people with mental health issues today has arisen?
7. 'Soap' watch - look at all the TV 'soaps' in a particular week. The Broadcasting Standards Council did an annual survey for four years in the 1990s and found only between 1-2% of broadcast time features disabled people or disability issues on terrestrial channels. Remembering that at least one in eight of the UK population is disabled, count the number of characters who appear and how many are disabled people. Graph the data and then have a discussion in class.
8. Write a letter to the producer of your favourite TV 'soap', presenting the arguments about why they should include disabled people in their programmes.
9. Look at the extract from the Raspberry Ripple Awards and identify the ways in which the programme makers tried to make it different from most award ceremonies. What do you think were the reasons for this? Did this programme help you re-think your ideas?
Activities on The Egg
1. Watch the film. What is the main point about disabled people the filmmakers are trying to get across?
2. Watch the film again. Write a character analysis of:
a) the man;
b) the waitress;
c) the chef.
Pupils could use the Comparing characters sheet (PDF) in Student handouts.
3. What role did the man play in the life of the chef and the waitress?
4. How does the film challenge our assumptions?
5. Rule a line down the middle of a piece of paper. Label one side 'barriers' and the other 'solutions'. Make a list of all the barriers there may be for a man with physical impairments, such as the man in this film, being included:
a) in the film;
b) in the environment generally.
Next to the barriers write possible solutions.
6. Do you think it is attitudes and the environment which disable people or their impairments? Discuss.
7. Write the script for a similar short play in which the disabled character challenges the audience's assumptions about them. Students could use the Write a scene/storyline sheet (PDF) from Student handouts.
8. In the past, people with cerebral palsy who had a communication difficulty, like the man in this film, were locked away in mental handicap hospitals for the whole of their lives. The book and film, Skallagrigg, tell one such story. Write a secret diary about your experiences and how you would feel if this had happened to you.
Activities on Gallivant
1. The road movie is an established genre. Whether it's Thelma and Louise or Easy Rider, the plot unfolds as the main characters are on a journey. Here, the journeying characters are revealed to the audience in a whole range of situations. If you were going to develop a road movie, which three well-known people or literary characters would you put together, and what would happen to them? Students could use the Write a scene/storyline sheet (PDF) from Student handouts.
2. The little girl, Eden, tells a story with Sign language. How does the film give this dramatic effect using the landscape?
3. Discrimination against people because of their age is as widespread as discrimination against disabled people. As people get older, they tend to acquire impairments and become disabled. 80% of people have impairments by the time they are in their eighties. How does the filmmaker tackle these twin prejudices in the film?
4. This film also contains elements that are like a home movie. Make a list of the ways in which it is more like a home movie than a mainstream film?
5. Do an analysis of a still from this film from Stills analysis.
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