Children’s Film Festival: Educating young minds through visual arts

The animated films were especially made to cater to the specific age groups.

KARACHI: The Zuleikhabai Auditorium at the Rangoonwala Community Centre wore a festive look on Wednesday as a jam-packed room of young children, dressed in their school uniforms, enjoyed the back-to-back screenings of animated films.  

They were participating in the 3rd Karachi International Children’s Film Festival, being organised by The Little Art, in collaboration with the Teacher Resource Centre (TRC), from November 25 to 29 at the Rangoonwala Community Centre.



TRC’s training and development team member, Tabinda Jabeen, told The Express Tribune that the event comprised three-hour-long sessions starting from 9am to 1pm, in which four to five short films were screened for the children. The sessions were designed to cater to the children’s age-groups. The festival will also host two family shows on Friday evening.

“Each school is welcome to take part in the festival. They only need to reserve the space for their students prior to their visit,” said Jabeen, adding that over 70 private schools from different areas of the city had signed up for the occasion. “Parents had some queries regarding the material being shown but we managed to address them. Appropriate movies with suitable language are selected so that no objectionable material can go.”

According to Zubair Mushtaq of The Little Art, over 400 movies from 21 countries were received, out of which they had selected 38 movies to be featured in the festival. “You cannot ignore the importance of visual art in the learning process. Our aim is to use visual art to not only entertain children, but also educate them too,” Mushtaq said.

Animated films, including Bunty’s tree and Room on the Broom, received a tremendous response from most of the children. Bunty’s tree is a silent animated movie about the relationship between a young boy, Bunty and a tree that grooms in his garden. Bunty grows up playing with the tree and becomes an officer at a company which cuts the same tree along with others. Bunty regrets his actions and misses his tree.

The other animated films incorporated messages of friendship, loyalty and unity. The films aimed to instill good habits and strong moral values among the young minds that attended the festival.

Mahnoor Fatima, a student of class 5 of the PECHS Girls School, enjoyed all the movies but the ‘Room on the Broom’ was her favourite by far. “I learned that we should not get jealous of others and cooperate with each other,” said Fatima. The teachers of the schools also found the movies informative and educational. “Each film taught a good lesson. The children developed ideas of saving the environment and the importance of ethics,” said Sundas Iqbal, a teacher at the PECHS Girls School.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2013.