Education
Just as we believe that every child should have seen Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, IDFA believes that every school student in Amsterdam should have should have seen a documentary as part of IDFA’s schools’ screenings. In this way, IDFA seeks to contribute to the creation of a media-savvy generation who are able to remain critical while appreciating our chaotic world with wonder and awareness: all of which are essential in a society dominated and polarised by media and technology. With its educational activities, IDFA reaches a large, young and diverse audience: made up in 2022 of no less than 50,000 school students.
IDFA’s educational programs consist of schools’ screenings during the festival in Amsterdam and in satellite cinemas throughout the Netherlands, as well as of workshops and projects in schools and films offered in the classroom through the Docschool Online platform. These are aimed at primary school children aged 9 to 10, all school students in secondary education and intermediate vocational education (Dutch: mbo).
The Vondelparkpaviljoen gives us the opportunity to receive (school) students all year round. A key aspect is to initiate a more intensive cooperation with schools in ‘cluster 1’ (for children who are blind or partially sighted). Part of the program aimed at this type of education will be made suitable for cinema screenings and online use in the classroom by means of audio description.