Last night I watched a super little film called 'The Itch of the Golden Nit', made almost entirely by children. I came across the project the other day in the Telegraph magazine. It’s the Tate Movie Project for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
They have got children involved at every stage possible, from creating the narrative and story, drawing and illustrating the artwork (all illustrations by children) and recording sounds and the score. They have been holding workshops at art galleries all round the UK and touring the country with a mobile movie studio, a touring truck visiting schools, festivals inspire children
The project’s online presence seems interesting too. Through the Tate Movie website they have created this big community of kids (I think it said about 20 thousand or so!) open to all 5 -13 year olds, and provided them with more opportunities to be involved in the film, from designing more characters to voting on who will voice the characters . The website is also designed to teach kids about the process and development of making a film, how all the elements come together.
The Itch of the Golden Nit was great to watch too. It was obviously made by children, but that was the real charm. It was so colourful; really bold. Such a fresh visual identity, naive but with a real complexity and sophistication about it too.
The imaginations of the children are fantastic, the characters and narratives they created were genius. And I found myself laughing at some brilliant lines, perhaps it's just a childish side of me coming out.
Either way I think the whole approach is, and has been great: fantastic ways to reach kids, what a brilliant way to inspire creativity and get them involved and excited.
The video above is from the Telegraph article, about The Making of the film.
You can watch the Itch of the Golden Nit on iPlayer.
