PORTFOLIO

Locarno Kids HomeMade Movies is an education and media literacy project initiated by the Locarno Film Festival.
In today’s world, where the production and consumption of audiovisual content are both predominant and often indiscriminate, the Locarno Film Festival feels a duty and responsibility to offer educational programs. These programs aim to serve the younger generation, helping them navigate this complex media landscape consciously and critically.
Children and teens use audiovisual media to inform, communicate, entertain, share information and experiences, and express themselves. Locarno Kids HomeMade Movies aims to be a practical and user-friendly guide that can be used as an educational tool within schools.

The project consists of three phases:
1. The first phase involves creating educational materials that are published online and made available to the public.
2. The second phase focuses on introducing the project to schools, enabling students to develop the skills needed to produce a short film.
3. The final phase emphasizes promoting the completed works and screening the short films at the Locarno Film Festival.

One of the project’s features is close cooperation with the LernFilm Festival. The resulting synergies will enrich the individual projects and amplify their positive effects and impact.

The Locarno Kids HomeMade Movies project proposal is governed by two cornerstones:

1. Innovation in Education: Locarno Kids HomeMade Movies, along with other educational tools from the Locarno Film Festival, aims to be a practical and effective resource for renewing the educational system. Understanding and creating audiovisual content, as well as experimenting with new technologies and digital media, will become increasingly crucial in contemporary and future educational methods and approaches.
2. Transfer of Skills: The project’s success hinges on its ability to be reproduced and developed further. The educational programs are designed to be reworked, reproduced, and shared by the target audience (children, teenagers, school students). This peer-to-peer skill transmission is meant to multiply the project’s outcomes, ensuring long-term sustainability.

After a year of work, the project can be considered successfully completed. The KPIs were met, and in some cases, the numbers exceeded expectations.
Several films produced in the Canton of Ticino reached the final stages of the LernFilm Festival selection and were discussed by the jury, while one film from the LernFilm Festival was awarded in Locarno during the August event.
All three phases of the project proved to be extremely important, and for each of them, we gathered valuable insights and ideas for the future.

Phase 1: Producing educational materials allowed us to discover the interests of the younger generations and respond to their passions. At the same time, we were able to understand the needs of teachers and adapt our proposal accordingly.

Phase 2: During the second phase, we were able to further explore the needs, limitations, and potential of our target audience (schools). Bringing the project into schools and working closely with students proved to be an enriching and highly rewarding experience. It also allowed us to present the educational potential of using and producing Lernfilms in the classroom.

Phase 3: The awards ceremony at the Festival, the screening of the short films in the cinema, and, more broadly, the recognition given to the works created by the project’s participants represented the culmination of the entire experience.

In conclusion, the success of the project is also reflected in the research and analysis process carried out throughout its duration, in the creation of a product that remains valuable over time and can be expanded, updated, and thus generate greater impact and benefits. Finally, the HomeMade Movies project has strengthened the entire educational sector of the Locarno Film Festival, helping to attract new partners and stakeholders.