Cinema and age come together to make movies

Jennifer Granville and Ann Tobin of the Northern Film School, and Dr Mark Robinson of the School of Health and Wellbeing, received funding from Europe's lifelong learning programme, Grundvig, for a two year programme entitled CINAGE, which sees them work alongside researchers in Portugal, Italy and Slovenia, exploring the EU's recommendations for healthy, active ageing and to see whether or not the needs and concerns of older people are reflected in contemporary cinema.

In the early stages of the research, the Leeds Met team invited a focus group to watch a broad range of European movies to discuss their portrayal of age and ageing, and how senior people with real life problems are addressed through film.

The team is now looking to recruit volunteers to take part in a programme of practical filmmaking workshops, culminating in the production of a series of short films.

Jennifer commented: "This is a very exciting project - the Northern Film School is totally committed to lifelong learning and has a lot of experience in developing creativity and skills in non-traditional learners through our Foundation Degree in Film and Television Production. Now we have the opportunity to extend our offer to an entirely new sector.

"We know that older people have a rich store of stories to tell that relate to both their past and their present, and that they will relish the opportunity to learn the latest technology to bring those stories to an audience. We are also very much looking forward to the interaction we will encourage between these older learners and our students on our BA and MA Filmmaking degrees, and the research results as to how that impacts on active ageing."

From September/October 2014 onwards, volunteers will be invited to attend a series of workshops including seminars on the appreciation of European film, and practical sessions on producing, directing, scriptwriting and editing. The culmination of the workshops will be the production of original films using the Northern Film School's facilities and guided by filmmaking practitioners. The finished films will be screened at a festival in July 2015, supported by the Centre for Culture and the Arts at Leeds Metropolitan. To be eligible, volunteers must be able to commit to the whole series of evening workshops and weekend classes.

The researchers will use the CINAGE films made by the volunteers in the UK and Portugal, Italy and Slovenia as part of an information pack for those working with older people, to show them how to engage people in active learning for active ageing through viewing and making film.

Dr Mark Robinson has compiled all of the evidence reviews across all four countries in the project and is ensuring that the research evidence on how each country approaches active ageing is integrated into the whole project.

Dr Robinson commented: "This multi-centre project is very exciting from the perspective of research into active ageing and wellbeing. It is very important to support men and women in ageing actively and creatively for several reasons. These include: health reasons, as engaging and creative activity can help to support and foster emotional wellbeing; demographic reasons in an 'ageing society' where it is now possible to speak of several phases of older age; citizenship and economic reasons, as prolonging wellbeing and encouraging social participation in arts among older people can encourage more civic engagement and sustained productivity e.g. through volunteering or paid activities, peer support, creative output etc, while reducing the costs of lack of wellbeing."

If you are interested in attending the workshops, please contact David Turner at d.p.turner@leedsmet.ac.uk or call 07506648135.