TEDSalon London Spring 2012
Beeban Kidron: The shared wonder of film
Filmed:
Readability: 4.9
974,698 views
Movies have the power to create a shared narrative experience and to shape memories and worldviews. British film director Beeban Kidron invokes iconic film scenes -- from Miracle in Milan to Boyz n the Hood -- as she shows how her group FILMCLUB shares great films with kids.
Baroness Beeban Kidron - Film director
Beeban Kidron directed Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. She also cofounded FILMCLUB, a charity for students devoted to the art of storytelling through film. Full bio
Beeban Kidron directed Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. She also cofounded FILMCLUB, a charity for students devoted to the art of storytelling through film. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
Evidence suggests that humans in all ages and from all cultures
0
670
4666
00:21
create their identity in some kind of narrative form.
1
5336
4150
00:25
From mother to daughter, preacher to congregant,
2
9486
2741
00:28
teacher to pupil, storyteller to audience.
3
12227
3064
00:31
Whether in cave paintings
4
15291
1790
00:32
or the latest uses of the Internet,
5
17081
2630
00:35
human beings have always told their histories and truths
6
19711
3831
00:39
through parable and fable.
7
23542
2457
00:41
We are inveterate storytellers.
8
25999
3477
00:45
But where, in our increasingly secular and fragmented world,
9
29476
4383
00:49
do we offer communality of experience,
10
33859
4098
00:53
unmediated by our own furious consumerism?
11
37957
4350
00:58
And what narrative, what history,
12
42307
3500
01:01
what identity, what moral code
13
45807
2681
01:04
are we imparting to our young?
14
48488
3352
01:07
Cinema is arguably
15
51840
2882
01:10
the 20th century's most influential art form.
16
54722
2585
01:13
Its artists told stories
17
57307
2050
01:15
across national boundaries,
18
59357
1282
01:16
in as many languages, genres and philosophies
19
60639
2868
01:19
as one can imagine.
20
63507
1250
01:20
Indeed, it is hard to find a subject
21
64757
2632
01:23
that film has yet to tackle.
22
67389
2017
01:25
During the last decade
23
69406
1651
01:26
we've seen a vast integration of global media,
24
71057
2416
01:29
now dominated by a culture of the Hollywood blockbuster.
25
73473
3384
01:32
We are increasingly offered a diet
26
76857
2416
01:35
in which sensation, not story, is king.
27
79273
3484
01:38
What was common to us all 40 years ago --
28
82757
2433
01:41
the telling of stories between generations --
29
85190
2799
01:43
is now rarified.
30
87989
2085
01:45
As a filmmaker, it worried me.
31
90074
2248
01:48
As a human being, it puts the fear of God in me.
32
92322
3867
01:52
What future could the young build
33
96189
2417
01:54
with so little grasp
34
98606
1367
01:55
of where they've come from
35
99973
1784
01:57
and so few narratives of what's possible?
36
101757
3058
02:00
The irony is palpable;
37
104815
1648
02:02
technical access has never been greater,
38
106463
3501
02:05
cultural access never weaker.
39
109964
3067
02:08
And so in 2006 we set up FILMCLUB,
40
113031
4333
02:13
an organization that ran weekly film screenings in schools
41
117364
4035
02:17
followed by discussions.
42
121399
2082
02:19
If we could raid the annals of 100 years of film,
43
123481
3733
02:23
maybe we could build a narrative
44
127214
2068
02:25
that would deliver meaning
45
129282
1548
02:26
to the fragmented and restless world of the young.
46
130830
3083
02:29
Given the access to technology,
47
133913
1603
02:31
even a school in a tiny rural hamlet
48
135516
3731
02:35
could project a DVD onto a white board.
49
139247
3701
02:38
In the first nine months
50
142948
1834
02:40
we ran 25 clubs across the U.K.,
51
144782
2348
02:43
with kids in age groups between five and 18
52
147130
3068
02:46
watching a film uninterrupted for 90 minutes.
53
150198
3032
02:49
The films were curated and contextualized.
54
153230
2884
02:52
But the choice was theirs,
55
156114
1751
02:53
and our audience quickly grew
56
157865
1816
02:55
to choose the richest and most varied diet that we could provide.
57
159681
4233
02:59
The outcome, immediate.
58
163914
2799
03:02
It was an education of the most profound and transformative kind.
59
166713
5586
03:08
In groups as large as 150 and as small as three,
60
172299
3332
03:11
these young people discovered new places,
61
175631
2716
03:14
new thoughts, new perspectives.
62
178347
1917
03:16
By the time the pilot had finished,
63
180264
2134
03:18
we had the names of a thousand schools
64
182398
2833
03:21
that wished to join.
65
185231
3819
03:24
The film that changed my life
66
189050
1621
03:26
is a 1951 film by Vittorio De Sica, "Miracle in Milan."
67
190671
4967
03:31
It's a remarkable comment
68
195638
1753
03:33
on slums, poverty and aspiration.
69
197391
3330
03:36
I had seen the film on the occasion of my father's 50th birthday.
70
200721
4234
03:40
Technology then meant we had to hire a viewing cinema,
71
204955
3962
03:44
find and pay for the print and the projectionist.
72
208917
2977
03:47
But for my father,
73
211894
1672
03:49
the emotional and artistic importance of De Sica's vision was so great
74
213566
5786
03:55
that he chose to celebrate his half-century
75
219352
2631
03:57
with his three teenage children and 30 of their friends,
76
221983
3865
04:01
"In order," he said,
77
225848
1352
04:03
"to pass the baton of concern and hope
78
227200
3467
04:06
on to the next generation."
79
230667
2483
04:09
In the last shot of "Miracle in Milan,"
80
233150
2767
04:11
slum-dwellers float skyward on flying brooms.
81
235917
3950
04:15
Sixty years after the film was made
82
239867
2532
04:18
and 30 years after I first saw it,
83
242399
2201
04:20
I see young faces tilt up in awe,
84
244600
2550
04:23
their incredulity matching mine.
85
247150
2268
04:25
And the speed with which they associate it
86
249418
2498
04:27
with "Slumdog Millionaire" or the favelas in Rio
87
251916
3624
04:31
speaks to the enduring nature.
88
255540
2948
04:34
In a FILMCLUB season about democracy and government,
89
258488
3117
04:37
we screened "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
90
261605
1916
04:39
Made in 1939, the film is older than most of our members' grandparents.
91
263521
6419
04:45
Frank Capra's classic values independence and propriety.
92
269940
4141
04:49
It shows how to do right,
93
274081
1559
04:51
how to be heroically awkward.
94
275640
1734
04:53
It is also an expression of faith
95
277374
2750
04:56
in the political machine as a force of honor.
96
280124
3525
04:59
Shortly after "Mr. Smith" became a FILMCLUB classic,
97
283649
3483
05:03
there was a week of all-night filibustering in the House of Lords.
98
287132
4666
05:07
And it was with great delight
99
291798
1284
05:08
that we found young people up and down the country
100
293082
2651
05:11
explaining with authority
101
295733
1833
05:13
what filibustering was
102
297566
2016
05:15
and why the Lords might defy their bedtime on a point of principle.
103
299582
5517
05:20
After all, Jimmy Stewart filibustered for two entire reels.
104
305099
4134
05:25
In choosing "Hotel Rwanda,"
105
309233
3067
05:28
they explored genocide of the most brutal kind.
106
312300
3283
05:31
It provoked tears as well as incisive questions
107
315583
3533
05:35
about unarmed peace-keeping forces
108
319116
1800
05:36
and the double-dealing of a Western society
109
320916
2683
05:39
that picks its moral fights with commodities in mind.
110
323599
3934
05:43
And when "Schindler's List" demanded that they never forget,
111
327533
4066
05:47
one child, full of the pain of consciousness, remarked,
112
331599
4117
05:51
"We already forgot,
113
335716
1269
05:52
otherwise how did 'Hotel Rwanda' happen?"
114
336985
4014
05:56
As they watch more films their lives got palpably richer.
115
340999
3767
06:00
"Pickpocket" started a debate about criminality disenfranchisement.
116
344766
4633
06:05
"To Sir, with Love" ignited its teen audience.
117
349399
3867
06:09
They celebrated a change in attitude
118
353266
2649
06:11
towards non-white Britons,
119
355915
1700
06:13
but railed against our restless school system
120
357615
3420
06:16
that does not value collective identity,
121
361035
3048
06:19
unlike that offered by Sidney Poitier's careful tutelage.
122
364083
6067
06:26
By now, these thoughtful, opinionated, curious young people
123
370150
4115
06:30
thought nothing of tackling films of all forms --
124
374265
2835
06:33
black and white, subtitled,
125
377100
1315
06:34
documentary, non-narrative, fantasy --
126
378415
2734
06:37
and thought nothing of writing detailed reviews
127
381149
2699
06:39
that competed to favor one film over another
128
383848
3484
06:43
in passionate and increasingly sophisticated prose.
129
387332
3824
06:47
Six thousand reviews each school week
130
391156
3166
06:50
vying for the honor of being review of the week.
131
394322
4518
06:54
From 25 clubs, we became hundreds, then thousands,
132
398840
4060
06:58
until we were nearly a quarter of a million kids
133
402900
3082
07:01
in 7,000 clubs right across the country.
134
405982
3416
07:05
And although the numbers were, and continue to be, extraordinary,
135
409398
2884
07:08
what became more extraordinary
136
412282
2283
07:10
was how the experience of critical and curious questioning
137
414565
3550
07:14
translated into life.
138
418115
2518
07:16
Some of our kids started talking with their parents,
139
420633
2867
07:19
others with their teachers,
140
423500
1766
07:21
or with their friends.
141
425266
983
07:22
And those without friends
142
426249
1700
07:23
started making them.
143
427949
2201
07:26
The films provided communality across all manner of divide.
144
430150
5316
07:31
And the stories they held provided a shared experience.
145
435466
3117
07:34
"Persepolis" brought a daughter closer to her Iranian mother,
146
438583
4417
07:38
and "Jaws" became the way in which one young boy
147
443000
3801
07:42
was able to articulate the fear he'd experienced
148
446801
3565
07:46
in flight from violence
149
450366
1550
07:47
that killed first his father then his mother,
150
451916
2984
07:50
the latter thrown overboard on a boat journey.
151
454900
4882
07:55
Who was right, who wrong?
152
459782
1959
07:57
What would they do under the same conditions?
153
461741
2116
07:59
Was the tale told well?
154
463857
1549
08:01
Was there a hidden message?
155
465406
1601
08:02
How has the world changed? How could it be different?
156
467007
2733
08:05
A tsunami of questions flew out of the mouths of children
157
469740
4884
08:10
who the world didn't think were interested.
158
474624
1750
08:12
And they themselves had not known they cared.
159
476374
3471
08:15
And as they wrote and debated,
160
479845
1912
08:17
rather than seeing the films as artifacts,
161
481757
2966
08:20
they began to see themselves.
162
484723
5066
08:25
I have an aunt who is a wonderful storyteller.
163
489789
3165
08:28
In a moment she can invoke images
164
492954
2154
08:31
of running barefoot on Table Mountain and playing cops and robbers.
165
495108
3965
08:34
Quite recently she told me
166
499073
1566
08:36
that in 1948, two of her sisters and my father
167
500639
3399
08:39
traveled on a boat to Israel without my grandparents.
168
504038
2648
08:42
When the sailors mutinied at sea in a demand for humane conditions,
169
506686
4466
08:47
it was these teenagers that fed the crew.
170
511152
3734
08:50
I was past 40 when my father died.
171
514886
2150
08:52
He never mentioned that journey.
172
517036
2552
08:55
My mother's mother left Europe in a hurry
173
519588
3685
08:59
without her husband, but with her three-year-old daughter
174
523273
3397
09:02
and diamonds sewn into the hem of her skirt.
175
526670
3831
09:06
After two years in hiding,
176
530501
1284
09:07
my grandfather appeared in London.
177
531785
2834
09:10
He was never right again.
178
534619
2300
09:12
And his story was hushed as he assimilated.
179
536919
4701
09:17
My story started in England
180
541620
3938
09:21
with a clean slate and the silence of immigrant parents.
181
545558
4263
09:25
I had "Anne Frank," "The Great Escape,"
182
549821
2151
09:27
"Shoah," "Triumph of the Will."
183
551972
2514
09:30
It was Leni Riefenstahl
184
554486
2055
09:32
in her elegant Nazi propaganda
185
556541
2783
09:35
who gave context to what the family had to endure.
186
559324
3908
09:39
These films held what was too hurtful to say out loud,
187
563232
5650
09:44
and they became more useful to me
188
568882
2350
09:47
than the whispers of survivors
189
571232
2717
09:49
and the occasional glimpse of a tattoo
190
573949
2935
09:52
on a maiden aunt's wrist.
191
576884
2848
09:55
Purists may feel that fiction dissipates
192
579732
2783
09:58
the quest of real human understanding,
193
582515
3001
10:01
that film is too crude
194
585516
1499
10:02
to tell a complex and detailed history,
195
587015
2434
10:05
or that filmmakers always serve drama over truth.
196
589449
4250
10:09
But within the reels lie purpose and meaning.
197
593699
3134
10:12
As one 12-year-old said after watching "Wizard of Oz,"
198
596833
3267
10:16
"Every person should watch this,
199
600100
2299
10:18
because unless you do
200
602399
1850
10:20
you may not know that you too have a heart."
201
604249
4667
10:24
We honor reading, why not honor watching with the same passion?
202
608916
4399
10:29
Consider "Citizen Kane" as valuable as Jane Austen.
203
613315
3294
10:32
Agree that "Boyz n the Hood," like Tennyson,
204
616609
3199
10:35
offers an emotional landscape and a heightened understanding
205
619808
4018
10:39
that work together.
206
623826
1749
10:41
Each a piece of memorable art,
207
625575
1534
10:43
each a brick in the wall of who we are.
208
627109
3449
10:46
And it's okay if we remember Tom Hanks
209
630558
2867
10:49
better than astronaut Jim Lovell
210
633425
2050
10:51
or have Ben Kingsley's face superimposed onto that of Gandhi's.
211
635475
4564
10:55
And though not real, Eve Harrington, Howard Beale, Mildred Pierce
212
640039
3556
10:59
are an opportunity to discover
213
643595
2697
11:02
what it is to be human,
214
646292
2416
11:04
and no less helpful to understanding our life and times
215
648708
4034
11:08
as Shakespeare is in illuminating the world of Elizabethan England.
216
652742
5750
11:14
We guessed that film,
217
658492
1568
11:15
whose stories are a meeting place
218
660060
1999
11:17
of drama, music, literature and human experience,
219
662059
2229
11:20
would engage and inspire the young people participating in FILMCLUB.
220
664288
4505
11:24
What we could not have foreseen
221
668793
1532
11:26
was the measurable improvements
222
670325
1633
11:27
in behavior, confidence and academic achievement.
223
671958
3718
11:31
Once-reluctant students now race to school, talk to their teachers,
224
675676
4282
11:35
fight, not on the playground,
225
679958
1485
11:37
but to choose next week's film --
226
681443
2133
11:39
young people who have found self-definition, ambition
227
683576
3586
11:43
and an appetite for education and social engagement
228
687162
4247
11:47
from the stories they have witnessed.
229
691409
2966
11:50
Our members defy the binary description
230
694375
3383
11:53
of how we so often describe our young.
231
697758
2818
11:56
They are neither feral nor myopically self-absorbed.
232
700576
4983
12:01
They are, like other young people,
233
705559
1767
12:03
negotiating a world with infinite choice,
234
707326
3467
12:06
but little culture of how to find meaningful experience.
235
710793
4700
12:11
We appeared surprised at the behaviors
236
715493
2634
12:14
of those who define themselves
237
718127
1998
12:16
by the size of the tick on their shoes,
238
720125
2201
12:18
yet acquisition has been the narrative we have offered.
239
722326
4249
12:22
If we want different values
240
726575
1817
12:24
we have to tell a different story,
241
728392
3467
12:27
a story that understands that an individual narrative
242
731859
4002
12:31
is an essential component of a person's identity,
243
735861
3863
12:35
that a collective narrative
244
739724
1769
12:37
is an essential component of a cultural identity,
245
741493
3981
12:41
and without it it is impossible to imagine yourself
246
745474
3734
12:45
as part of a group.
247
749208
1401
12:46
Because when these people get home
248
750609
3056
12:49
after a screening of "Rear Window"
249
753665
2519
12:52
and raise their gaze to the building next door,
250
756184
2749
12:54
they have the tools to wonder who, apart from them,
251
758933
3665
12:58
is out there
252
762598
1567
13:00
and what is their story.
253
764165
2533
13:02
Thank you.
254
766698
1651
13:04
(Applause)
255
768349
2682
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Baroness Beeban Kidron - Film directorBeeban Kidron directed Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. She also cofounded FILMCLUB, a charity for students devoted to the art of storytelling through film.
Why you should listen
Beeban Kidron is a British filmmaker who successfully navigates between pop culture and society’s darkest underworlds. Kidron is best known for directing Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and the Bafta-winning miniseries Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1989), adapted from Jeannette Winterson’s novel of the same name. She is also the director of To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995) and Antonia and Jane (1991), as well as two documentaries on prostitution: Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and their Johns (1993) and Sex, Death and the Gods (2011), a film about “devadasi,” or Indian “sacred prostitutes.”
In 2006 Kidron, with journalist and film critic Lindsay Mackie, founded FILMCLUB, an educational charity aimed at transforming the lives of young people through film. Through FILMCLUB, schools can screen films at no cost, and afterwards students discuss and review the films. Each week the charity reaches 220,000 children, in over 7,000 clubs.
Baroness Beeban Kidron | Speaker | TED.com