In a media landscape where the president of the United States tweets “fake news!” one moment and peddles outlandish lies the next, critical thinking isn’t some optional, elitist philosophy. It’s a survival strategy, and you’re never too young to learn how to think critically, says Venay Felton, founder and executive director of Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth.
“Today’s generation is even more exposed to the media, and more diverse forms of media, from streaming services to Facebook,” says Felton. “There’s just so much more of it, and that’s why there’s a need for even more critical viewing skills.”
Felton has been helping kids develop their critical lenses for more than three decades, the bulk of it through the Reel 2 Real Fest, which she founded in 1998. Reel 2 Real typically takes place each spring, but its 20th anniversary called for an extra-special summertime event in the form of a free outdoor screening of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, the critically acclaimed animated feature film based on Gibran’s seminal work.
Reel 2 Real is built on the idea that media consumption shouldn’t be a passive experience. This is why every single one of Reel 2 Real’s screenings is accompanied by some sort of youth-oriented workshop, from claymation to digital filmmaking, from pixelation to sound design.
Felton started on this path more than 30 years ago, when she lived in New York City and worked for the Media Center for Children, screening films for children in their classrooms and then writing reviews based on their comments. “I was carrying 16mm films to classrooms all over the city and I thought there must be a better way to go about introducing kids to great films from around the world,” she muses.
In the case of Reel 2 Real, youth are engaged in the fest long before the hands-on activities and screenings. The festival’s director of programming works with a youth jury to lock down the Reel 2 Real schedule; before those deliberations can begin, the kids must participate in a critical thinking workshop.
“We frame each discussion around a component of the film,” says Felton. “We’ll talk about how music and sound influence what we understand of the film, and we’ll talk about the editing process. We talk about lighting. We break it down into different parts, and get them to develop a vocabulary for critiquing film.”
It’s a skill set that will serve them well into adulthood, adds Felton. “It’s even more important now, but it’s always been important,” she says. “There are many hidden messages in what we watch, so it’s good to always have a critical eye. These kids are really savvy.”
Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth presents a free screening of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet at 9:15 p.m. on July 13 in Ron Basford Park on Granville Island. Animation workshops and VR demonstrations from the National Film Board of Canada will take place between 5 and 9 p.m. in Performance Works. Details at .
