AML’s National Media Education Week Event, November 2007

On Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007 the AML held the fall event entitled Feature Film & Popular Culture in support of National Media Education Week. Held in the OISE library, the well-attended event (which was webcast – an AML first!) featured guest speakers followed by a group discussion. The speakers included Jesse Wente, CBC film critic and programmer, Kristine Collins, Supervisor of Education, National Film Board, and Chris Worsnop, Media Literacy Educator.

Jesse Wente opened his presentation entitled “Hollywood’s Marketing to Youth: moral panic or celebration?” by asserting that Hollywood directly targets the youth market for commercial gain. Of the top 50 grossing movies of all time, a full 30 of them are aimed straight at the youth market. Many of the movies are, of course, cross-marketed to adults with adult subplots, ideas and humour beginning to creep in.

Mr. Wente showed examples of obvious product placement, including of all things, a washing machine. At times, he commented, these commercial overtones can fly in face of the overall message contained within the movie.

Next, he moved to the Christian allegory contained within Walden Media’s release of The Chronicles of Narnia. He highlighted the branding of an ideology to children and adults by a movie studio. Walden Media’s Family Values agenda is front and centre in all their film adaptations.

Finally, Mr. Wente finished with one of his favourite guilty pleasures: Transformers. The original movie was a collision of the movies and commercialism. The movie was made purely to sell toys. Interestingly, however, it was not targeted to promote the original favourites like Optimus Prime, but a new series of transformers (this was accomplished by killing off the main character thirty minutes into the movie). The movie was a flop, as the diehard fans couldn’t stand to see their heroes fail. On the other hand, the new Transformers movie, a box office smash, is full of current symbolism and wartime rhetoric.

Following Mr. Wente’s presentation, various topics were discussed including Star Wars which, arguably, was the first to make a strong link between the movie and commercialism and demonstrated the importance of gaining the youth market early and holding on to them for life.

Next up was Kristine Collins, Supervisor of Education for the National Film Board. She reminded us of the long history the NFB in creating documentaries that focus on social change. She highlighted educational outreach programs that the NFB actively pursues. Currently over 30,000 teachers and students go through the NFB’s education programs. She concluded her part of the program by showing us a glimpse of an upcoming documentary film entitled, Up the Yangtze.

The final panel member was media literacy educator, Chris Worsnop. His topic was the formation of film curriculum for the International Baccalaureate. The IB provides a standard curriculum for the numerous international schools throughout the world. Following his talk, he was presented with the prestigious Jesse McCanse award from Marieli Rowe from the National Telemedia Council in Madison, Wisconsin.

The evening concluded with a general discussion of the use of film in the classroom. Questions were addressed to the three panelists and ideas discussed included the shift away from film to sites like youtube and what that says about our society, the lack of common media experiences in our non-homogeneous society, and difficulty of using irony with some students.

All in all, a successful and educational evening for all!

*Colin McAuley is an elementary teacher in Toronto District School Board, Toronto, Ontario, Canada