HOW TO GUIDES
Ideas for how to host a film night GENERAL POINTS There are three types of film that are worth showing. Those that: • explain the problem (such as “End of Suburbia”) • create inspiration for solutions (such as “Power of Community” and ‘In Transition’) – these are a little thin on the ground, though we do have a film of “Transition in Scotland coming out in November 2010. • reawaken our deepest connections to the earth and to the other forms of life with whom we share this planet (such as ‘Home’ or ‘Winged Migration’) With all of these types of movie, it’s important to create a bit of an event, rather than just a screening. This isn’t too hard – here’s a recipe: 1. Introduce the film personally by putting it into the context of your overall hopes for your community 2. Have everyone turn to someone they don’t know and, in turns, introduce themselves and explain what brought them to the event that night. 3. Show it
4. Have everyone pair up (preferably with someone they don’t know) and do an active talking/listening exercise about their impressions of the film (ie one talks for 3 minutes while the other listens, then they switch over). You can give direction with something like “Say what gives you cause for concern and then what gives you cause for hope about the film” 5. Run a Q&A on Peak Oil and/or Climate Change – whichever is relevant to the film. Make sure you have someone there who knows what he/she is talking about – though it’s no shame to say “I don’t know, but I can find out and get back to you”.
a cry out for counselling or connection and can paralyse a room. What can work in that situation is to acknowledge the person’s fear and then to ask in the room “if there’s anyone here who has a part of themselves that is full of fear around this, please put up your hand”. Put yours up first... and hope! Unless you’re sitting in a room full of denial, you’ll see a lot of hands shoot up. You can then explain that the Transition Model has a place where people can move through their fears and into a place of action (usually handled by the “Heart and Soul” group, once it’s formed).
Getting people to discuss films can go much more smoothly if you have a few key questions 6. Watch out for the “I’m alone or simple exercises up your in the depths of my fear” type sleeve to get people thinking. questions – they’re typically
BEFORE THE FILM
SUGGESTED FILMS
It can be helpful if, when you’re introducing the film, you ask the audience to think about something for you’re going to talk about at the end. So if you have a particular topic you want to discuss, tell people what it is, so that they can relate to the film with that in mind.
Ideas for suitable films, which can be borrowed to show to your group, can be found on the transition scotland website.
One simple exercise to get people to notice how they’re feeling when they’re watching, is to ask your audience to turn to one of the people sitting next to them and take it in turns to briefly (give them a couple of minutes each) say why they came to see the film. After the film, and before any group discussion begins, they can turn to the same person and say how they’re feeling after seeing the film.
http://www. transitionscotland.org/ resources-list
People sometimes get a bit lost in the film they’re watching, and it can be hard to single out bits that were particularly affecting straight afterwards. It can help people to remember the important bits to flag this up before hand and ask people to watch for their own reactions to the film. Keep it simple, and tailored to the kind of film they’re watching, e.g. for In Transition, you might ask them to keep an eye out for if they feel inspired during the film, for Age of Stupid, you could ask them to keep an eye on what bits of the film made them want to take action.
You can review a film on the website and tell others how you found it. To leave a review log in to / register for the website and go to the list of films available.
AFTER THE FILM Use the exercise above or ask a question which connects the topic of the film to the kinds of things you’re hoping will lead on from the showing
LEAVE A REVIEW
If the film you watched is listed you can open up the information page about it and leave a review or comment at the click of a button. If not why not suggest it?
QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT ASK How do you think Scotland would adapt to an oil shortage like Cuba’s? How different or similar do you think our situation here is compared to the one shown in the film? What kinds of Transition working groups do you think would go down well in our community?
Find a range of useful resources at www.transitionscotland.org