Film Education: A European School of Seeing

Today, children and young people move through endless streams of digital imagery without being sufficiently equipped to read and interpret the visual languages, or to apply and put them into creative practice themselves.

“A European School of Seeing” is a film education project conceived by the Wim Wenders Foundation aimed at students at schools. The project involves the viewing and analysis of six European films personally selected and introduced by director Wim Wenders, as well as the production of their own cinematic, photographic or textual works by the participating students in accompanying workshops. Eight schools – five in Düsseldorf and three in Berlin – participate in the 2024/2025 academic year edition.

Over the course of an academic year, six films are shown in the cinema in double screenings dedicated to special themes. Experiencing films on the big screen means immersing yourself in other worlds – an experience that the Wim Wenders Foundation wants to convey with the joint cinema visits as part of its film education project.

Film is a modern art form that has to constantly adapt to rapid technological developments like almost no other – and is therefore always at the cutting edge. The aim of “A European School of Seeing” is to contribute to paying greater attention to the teaching of visual languages in a world dominated by images and to show how diverse the possible uses of film are in cultural education and in the development of social skills in contemporary teaching.

 

Film pairs:

Theme I

The Fascination of Cinema

…shows with A TRICK OF THE LIGHT by Wim Wenders and CINEMA PARADISO by Giuseppe Tornatore how it all began and how the images learnt to move, or rather what emotional power they can unfold.

Theme II

Wild Childhood

…conveys lasting impressions of the lives of children who find it difficult to find their place in society at very different times with THE WILD CHILD by François Truffaut and SYSTEM CRASHER by Nora Fingscheidt.

Theme III

Dance Life

…shows with BILLY ELLIOT by Stephen Daldry and PINA by Wim Wenders two examples of the special potential of film to convey other art forms.

“The project has changed my perspective, I am now more attentive to the message of a film and not just whether I liked it. It’s a privilege to be able to take part in something like this because it helps to better understand films.”
(student, 16)
“The students see the project as a great luxury. This project is mentioned again and again when evaluating the lessons. Doing creative work yourself is so important. The video messages by Wim Wenders in particular were personal and emotional, they built a bridge. The workshops were really important for deepening the knowledge.”
(teacher)

Excerpts from Wim Wenders: “A Little School of Seeing – 12 Suggestions for Sharpening the Eye”

Active seeing

SEEING is not merely a passive process, but an active and thoroughly communicative matter. By seeing, we come into contact with the world around us. This act of seeing could also be called “active seeing”. And it is precisely this kind of seeing that makes up the profession of the film director, but also that of the photographer. So, if you want to make films or take photographs, you have to be aware that your act of seeing becomes an act of showing. The basic approach is that others should see what you have seen yourself. This “showing” is a kind of game, and like any game, it needs its rules.

The loving gaze

Every gaze also expresses an inner attitude. There is the “critical gaze”, the “ironic gaze”, the “bored gaze” and others, but also the most productive one in my opinion, the “loving gaze”. This may seem romantic or even kitschy at first, but it’s not at all. It’s not just a look with which you can look at your boyfriend or girlfriend, but one with which you can look at the whole world. But as a basic condition or inner attitude, it has an affection for the people or things it looks at. It is also not enough to “pretend”. The viewer can quickly see right through that. The loving gaze is nourished by its affection for the people or things it is talking about.

Seeing while writing

I am an enthusiastic traveller and writer. I prefer to write on trains and planes, but also in taxis, suburban trains and buses. I’m also fond of hotel rooms, cafés, park benches and libraries. I have become accustomed to watch myself thinking while writing. How a thought arises and what becomes of it while writing. My thinking can be much more playful when writing on a computer than it could ever be in mere thought. What I write by hand usually remains strangely abstract to me. As a “typeface”, I can see much more in it. And then I actually see images when I write. Not particularly concrete ones, but above all “desires for images”.

Responsible viewing

Digitization has given us a tool with which each and every one of us can at least potentially make films. This is a huge opportunity, but it also means a great responsibility for all of us, because we have to understand that we cannot simply film the world and place images in digital space without thinking. The language of images also needs to be learnt, just as the reading of letters and words needs to be learnt. Only when we are able to decipher images, question their effect and understand what they do to us, can we – yes, can you – use the creative possibilities of the digital world responsibly.

If you have questions to the project or would like to participate, please write to: kontakt@wimwendersstiftung.de

With the financial support of: