Introductory Sessions for Young Programmers from Primary Schools at Giro Giro Film: on November 14 and 15, 2019, as part of two screenings at Giro giro film – Film Days for Children, Families and Youth at the Youth Center Koper, more than 130 curious youngsters who love cinema and are interested in peeking behind the scenes of programmed films at festivals or cinemas got introduced to what it takes to be a Young Programmer.

We invited local primary schools to bring their students to the films Goodbye, Berlin (Tschick, Fatih Akin, Germany, 2016) and Fight Girl (Vechtmesje, Johan Timers, The Netherlands / Belgium, 2018), and discussed with the young people the specifics Moving Cinema concept of Young Programmers, how they can apply, which films they will watch and how they will choose their favourite, which will then be programmed at the 16th International Kino Otok – Isola Cinema in June 2020. When the festival takes place in Izola, they will get a chance to look behind the scenes of the making of festivals. During the films, we conducted conversations that, due to the multitude of topics 130 young people were eager to open, lasted both times around an hour.

The second Young Programmers activity in a row within Moving Cinema project that was focused on Primary School children started in November 2019 with Filmsko rajanje / Giro giro film event, where the first two introduction screenings with discussions were organized and applications were open.

We continued with sessions of film screenings and discussions with a chosen group of 11 young people between the ages of 12 and 14 from the Anton Ukmar Koper primary school. As Young Programmers, we introduced them to thinking about the concept of selecting films for public screening. We had more than 8 sessions in which they watched 7 films. The meetings had to be stopped because of the closing of schools during the COVID-19 epidemic in the beginning of March 2020, which lasted almost until the end of schools in June. We had to wait to set up the final session in which the Programmers would select the best film of their choice, which we started organizing again in September, but unfortunately Slovenian schools closed again in October for more than a month and online access to the children was not possible. Meanwhile, instead of the final choice of one film children sent pictures of their film reviews, mostly of 400 blows.

Selection of reviews of 400 blows:

‘’The film was very unusual as I didn’t expect it in that light. I didn’t know that much about the old schools and what the teachers were like back then. But now I know how my grandparents went to school.” 

‘’The boy ran away from home, which was a very interesting part. Parents, however, could show more love for him as he is their child. The only thing I found kind from the parents was that they could take him to the movies.” ‘

’When I watched this film, I had a weird feeling. I don’t think I’ve ever watched anything like this. When the hero escaped, I was overwhelmed by a sense of freedom, and when he was captured, a sense of impatience. How should I say, my feelings about this film were mixed. For a moment, I was happy, for example, when they ran behind sports teacher’s back. At times I was also sad. But this film taught me something and that is, obey mom and dad and hang out with friends who wish you well.’’