Making a Mockumentary
Priority topics
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs), Agriculture, Food, Biodiversity, Fair Trade, Sustainable Consumption, Democracy, Human Rights, Equality, Migration and Immigration, Local/Regional Products
Target groups
Cycle 3, Cycle 4, 7th grade, 6th grade, 5th grade, 4th grade, 3rd grade, 2nd grade, 1st grade, General public, Education professionals, Groups of children (ages 6–12), Groups of teens (ages 13–25)
Vehicular languages
allemand, anglais, français, luxembourgeois
Duration
in consultation with the teaching staff
Location
within the educational institution
Objectives
Students produce a fictional documentary based on a subtopic of their own choosing related to a selected SDG.
They film staged interviews with friends, family members, and «experts,» blending fiction with real facts and statistics about the selected SDGs. The result mimics the style of investigative documentaries while encouraging critical thinking and media literacy.
– Learn about the selected SDGs through documentary storytelling.
– Understand how documentaries construct narratives.
– Learn to distinguish between (scientific) facts, opinions, and fiction.
– Critical reflection on daily (individual) consumption habits.
Program
1. Students receive materials from youth4planet on the selected SDG, and a group decides on a subtopic (for example: reducing food waste). The student group then researches this topic and gathers information, facts, statistics, and scientific findings.
2. Youth4planet introduces the storytelling method and offers an exercise on the topic. Next, the students write a story and incorporate the facts they have researched. At this point, roles can already be assigned (Who will be in front of the camera? Who will film? Who will edit? Etc.). Finally, the group decides what to film, how, and where.
3. Depending on their level of knowledge, students are introduced to the production of film clips and to editing these clips using the appropriate software.
4. Youth4planet simulates an interview situation in front of the class with three students and explains, as the simulation unfolds, what factors to consider when conducting interviews. (Frame composition, positioning of the interviewees, questions, etc.)
5. Youth4Planet works with student volunteers to simulate the process of filming a fictional scene, explaining various filmmaking techniques along the way.
6. Youth4planet is not required to attend these meetings, but may be available as a point of contact on-site and/or online.
Methodological approaches
Subject-Centered Interaction (SCI) according to R. Cohn
Telling stories to structure one's own narrative.
Teacher-Centered Knowledge Transfer
Project Work
Participatory Identification of Subjects
Remarks
Skills
• Creating videos using a smartphone or tablet and the accompanying software
• Learn about and apply maintenance and turning techniques
• Critical Thinking and Reflection (on SDG 12)
• Media literacy
• Self-organized teamwork