Film In Schools

St. Joseph's School, Ballyheigue

FAS which stands for Film In Schools and is a literally translation of the Irish word for 'vision' is an initiative from the Department of Education which began as a pilot project and was designed to introduce the medium of film as a support to the Revised Primary School Curriculum. But unlike other projects which concentrate on the history of film or the appreciation of film, FAS actually allows the primary students to make their own films! The project provides schools with film equipment and acts as a resource for teachers to enable them to guide the creation of films from embryonic ideas through to the final product which is then screened.

Students are involved in all the stages of making the film from the initial act of coming up with a plot, to writing the script, to storyboarding how they would like the film to look on screen before getting down to the actual mechanics of making the film. Individual students each have a specific role - some behind the camera and some in front - so the resultant films are truly the creation of the children involved.

The original pilot scheme began in March of 2000 and ran for three years until March of 2003, it was an unequivocal success and informed the development of a comprehensive Resource Pack for teachers, which is available to all participating schools on the official site www.fas.ie

2006 - 2007 marks the first year of Kerry's schools participating in the scheme and five schools were chosen from the many that applied. Lissivigeen National School, Killarney; Scoil Naomh Gobnait, Dun Chaoin; Kiltallagh National School, Castlemaine; St. Joseph's National School, Ballyheigue and Scoil an Chroi Naofa in Tralee took part and on a recent morning the fruits of all their efforts were screened at the Kerry regional screening in the Education Centre in Dromtacker in Tralee.

The films were of a fantastically high standard and ranged from the retelling of the tale of Nano Nagle, founder of the Presentation Sisters to an imaginative take on News Casts from Lissivigeen.

The judges on the morning had the unenviable task of picking one school to represent the Kerry contingent at the upcoming national screening to take place in The Helix in Dublin. A wickedly funny and finely acted film showing the unexpected come-up-ance of a school bully, called Ni Mar Siltear a Bitear, from Dun Chaoin was the film chosen by the judges to represent Kerry but the films were all of such high quality that discussions are in place to have the films screened as part of the upcoming Kerry Film Festival.

For more information on the project please contact Pat Lawlor of the Education Centre on 066 719 5000 or via email at edcentretralee@eircom.net