Camara Chica is a British Council filmmaking project which provides young people with opportunities to discover and develop creative and technical skills through filmmaking. The project aims to develop the knowledge of educators, equipping them with the skills needed to teach digital filmmaking to young people; and to introduce young people to filmmaking and visual storytelling. 

Camara Chica (which translates to Small Camera) has been implemented in Cuba and Venezuela till date. A revised version of the project is being piloted in Nepal with stronger institutional framework for greater impact. Besides the workshops, British Council is working with UK partner Into Film and local partners, Film Development Board, UNICEF, Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival and others to create opportunities for school children to produce films on critical subjects. The Camara Chica programme in Nepal is dubbed Camara Sika (translating to Learn Camera).

29 AND 30 NOVEMBER 2019 

Through open call applications, 13 schools and 14 mentors were selected to participate in the orientation programme run by UK film professionals Hafsah Naib, Mark Bishop and Barry Hale, representing UK implementation partner Into Film. 

During the two days, the facilitators engaged participants in various filmmaking related exercises and approaches that can be made use of to teach young people the art of filmmaking and to engage them creatively. The group was introduced to several physical as well as mental exercises to engage young people in coming up with ideas and implementing them. During the orientation workshop, school educators were paired with mentors in order to run five-day workshops at the schools where the educators were involved.  

*Please access out progress report (downloads below) for more information on schools and mentors.

Mentors during training exercise. Photo: Gaurav
Trying the equipments. Photo: Robic

Workshop at Educational Institutions

2 to 20 December 2019

Thirteen five-day workshops were held between 2 and 20 December, 2019, wherein students from the 13 schools participated. The workshops were led by the mentors and respective school educators who were supported by the three UK experts. Fifteen students participated in each workshop with a minimum of 50% of girls. During the workshop the participants learned to: 

  • Brainstorm story ideas 
  • Draft scripts and storyboard  
  • Handle filmmaking and editing equipment (both hardware and software) 
  • Learned the basic technicalities of filmmaking 
  • Observe their surrounding and take inspiration from social issues prevalent  
  • Make use of filmmaking as a tool to tell stories and express 

All 13 schools have completed at least one short film as part of the workshop. 

Filmmaking Mentorship Grant

All trained mentors have been awarded grants — through the support of UNICEF — to continue work with their respective partner schools in order to provide guidance to the students to continue work on film production. All schools, teaming up with their mentors, will be producing at least one film based on the themes: 

  • Mental Health 
  • Online Safety
  • Child Marriage 
  • Climate Change 

The films are slated to be completed by the students in September. 

*Please note that production has been halted until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown.

Digital Showcase

A digital showcase of all films produced through Camara sika in 2019-2020 is being planned for October. This will be a digital children’s film festival, the first of its kind in Nepal and will feature films produced in Nepal as well as films produced by and for young people from around the world. The collection will be jointly curated by Into Film and the British Council and its organisation will be supported by KIMFF. 

*Dates for the festival will be released later during the year.

What the Young People Used?

Into Film and the UK trainers worked to put together a standalone setup for young people to use to produce films.

In the above image, in the centre of the setup is an Apple Ipad that can be used for all phases of filmmaking including screenwriting/storyboarding, audio/video production, editing and post-production. Microphones, lenses and other filmmaking gear are attached to the rig in order to efficiency and quality.

Panel Discussion at KIMFF

On 14 December a group discussion titled Creative Engagement of Children through Film was held at the Nepal Tourism Board conference hall. The discussion was led by: 

  • Tania Dhakhwa – Chief of Communications – UNICEF Nepal 
  • Sapan Hamal – International Youth Media Summit  
  • Ben Woodiwiss – Into Film – Camara Chica 

The UK experts who travelled here to facilitate the workshops also participated in the discussion. During the talk, all speakers talked about their work through their respective organisations and stressed the importance of young people participating in the production of content that becomes a means for them to express, tell stories and realise their situation in the global context. 

Partners

INTO FILM 
Into Film is the primary delivery partner of Camara Sika workshops who identified facilitators (independent UK filmmakers and arts professionals) to train Nepali mentors and to monitor training to young people. Into Film provided learning resources, films and filmmaking kits to support children’s learning. The organisation will work with the British Council on a post-workshop manual to help distill lessons into best practice. 

UNICEF 
UNICEF is a partner to the overall activities mentioned in the programme. The grant scheme for beneficiary children to produce original content around Children's Rights is being supported by the organisation. 

NEPAL FILM DEVELOPMENT BOARD
Government partner NFDB is endorsing the workshops/events. Is contributing limited financial and in-kind resources to the overall scope of the event. 

KATHMANDU INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL 
KIMFF is Camara Sika’s talk programme delivery partner. The organisation is also providing platforms to continue conversations around children and films and will be contributing to the organising of the digital film festival