Consulting and Networking

In 2010, the sixth year since its inception, 130,000 pupils and students from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines visited the ASEAN Science Film Festival.

A survey of visitors demonstrated that far more than half of them were enthusiastic about the films dealing with scientific subject matter and phenomena and wish that such films would be broadcast in their countries.

When children in Thailand, Cambodia, or Vietnam watch television the programme usually consists of animated films on the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network. Only a fraction of the broadcasts are educational. In Germany, educational broadcasts for children – such as the stories about how things work on the Sendung mit der Maus and Löwenzahn, but also children’s news shows such as neueinhalb and Logo – are extremely successful. Based on these positive experiences in Germany, the Goethe-Instituts in Southeast Asia are advocating new formats and forms of knowledge transfer that are both informative and entertaining. In 2005, the Goethe-Institut Thailand launched the Science Film Festival.

The idea is just as ingenious as it is simple: television stations from around the world are called on to submit their science films made for a young audience. About 60 of the almost 150 submitted films are chosen and are then passed on to the respective national juries of the participating countries who determine the final selection for their country. Hence, there is one Science Film Festival with six different editions in the six different countries.

“It was very important to us that each country decide on their own. Every country has its own culture and history,” explains Andreas Klempin, regional project coordinator. The local organizers are scientists and media-makers who are involved whole-heartedly and with a great deal of dedication. There is no festival director deciding what should be shown. Everyone involved can input their ideas.

The selected films are dubbed in the respective national languages. An international jury grants six awards: the Visual Effects Award, Education Award, Eco-Film Award, Discovery Award, the BAYER Science Film Award and the Prize of the Jury.

Active learning with experiments

To help the children and young people understand and retain the sometimes complex content, after every film experiments are demonstrated or learning games are played that take up and illustrate a topic from the films just shown.

A workshop for this was held in August 2011 with two representatives from each country. There was a German expert at their sides, the science journalist Joachim Hecker, known for his books and shows that bring science to life in a playful and creative way in children’s everyday lives.

In response to the question of the differences he sees, Hecker said, “I am impressed by the playful approach in Asia. I see that things can be done with far less effort and expense than in Germany.” He continued to say that although Germany may have a 40-year lead with regard to “edutainment,” it better watch out because Asia is catching up.

The evolution question

Cultural or – more precisely – religious differences also were divulged by the workshop. When a film about evolution was shown, a representative from Indonesia expressed doubts about the theory. In countries such as Indonesia it is forbidden to publicly disseminate theses that question that God created humankind. This, too, is a challenge for the festival. “We need to learn to deal with the cultural differences, even if it – like it or not – conflicts with science,” said Andreas Klempin, who moderated the workshop.

The three-day meeting was a good opportunity to grow together as a team, to share with one another and to learn about and from one another in spite of different languages and cultures.

“The language barrier is actually not such a big problem. Science is ubiquitous; everyone experiences it everyday. But, I have learned that in some countries science is not absolute; that there are things such as religion or social constraints,” commented Ruby Christobal, consultant from the Science Ministry of the Philippines.

Impacting society

The great benefit of the festival is its far-reaching impact. It reaches a large number of pupils – tomorrow’s society. The partnership with local educational ministries allows the festival to reach a cultural policy level that is to be reckoned with. “The pupils are motivated to ask questions about things. This critical curiosity can also be transferred from science to society and politics. Hence, in the long run the Science Film Festival can offer important thought-provoking impulses to society,” hopes Andreas Klempin. “Through a convincing festival and other projects, one of our major future goals is to encourage a Southeast Asian media landscape with ideally many quality knowledge broadcasts in public and state television,” he explains.

Another promising step in this direction is an international project by the Goethe-Instituts in Southeast Asia in the scope of its Culture and Development initiative: the first TV knowledge magazine for children in Asia, I got it!, which was co-produced in nine ASEAN countries with the Goethe-Institut.