Malta George Cross - Film presented by San Andrea School

On Monday 20th March, San Andrea School, a non-profit making school of  the Parents' Foundation for Education launched the documentary drama  film: Malta George Cross. The launch held at Despott Hall, Education Division, Floriana was geared towards informing the public about the success of producing a film within all the requirements of the syllabus set out the National Minimum Curriculum for the primary years.

This wasn't just another school project... it was the school's work manifested in an enjoyable way. Throughout the scholastic year 2004-2005, the school organised a series of educational activities in relation with the topic: "Maltese children and the Second World War". The school's ethos is founded on the concept of holistic education. It seeks to emphasise the aesthetic experience in the curriculum by giving the children a wide range of creative opportunities to make the learning process meaningful. The climax of this learning experience was the making of a short documentary drama film: Malta George Cross, directed by Winston Azzopardi involving 80 children from Grade 7 classes.

As "World War II" is quite a difficult topic to teach within a formal classroom situation, a film would certainly pose a different twist to the manner that this topic would be presented, especially the way children would perceive the concepts of war and peace.

The filming process took several days, quite a few weeks of planning and a few other months of follow-ups, publicity, editing, discussions and screenings. After all locations had been chosen and the permits obtained, the three days for the filming were set. This filming experience exposed the children to a way of living that was alien to them. They're used to a finished product in the cinema, but through this experience they learnt other aspects involved in producing a film. They all had to go through the hands of hairdressers and makeup artists for a start and also through repetitive takes of the same scene. They also had the chance to experience what a special effects units can come up with especially when a room had to be destroyed to look as if a bomb had just fallen on it. The filming at the war shelters in Courve de Porte, Vittoriosa certainly left an imprint on the children's perspective on how families had to live underground for a long time within a confined space during air-raid bombings.

As a school we hope that this learning experience will remain with our students for many years to come so that they may all strive towards times of peace. Malta George Cross is being shown this Saturday, 25th March, in Canada on Omni 1 TV 08:30 (14:30 Maltese Local Time), through the programme "Lehen Malti" and in Australia on Channel 31, through "One World -- Malta" on the 4th April, 12:30 (04:30 Maltese Local Time).

Malta George Cross is available on DVD for Lm5.99 from di-veshop.

Enquiries on maltageorgecross@gmail.com

Source:  www.di-ve.com