Pearson pupils’ movie makes waves
IT was a day of nerves and excitement for a group of Pearson High School pupils this week when the film they had shot was selected as one of the learning tools for a department of applied language studies module at Nelson Mandela University (NMU).
NMU visual literacy: film study lecturer Sinovuyo Mcunukelwa welcomed the school group to her lecture room as her students analysed the visuals in the film, Uneven Sisters, made from scratch by the pupils.
“In visual literacy, we teach students how to analyse media and when it comes to film we teach about the different camera shots used in a film and why they are used, plots, the setting and other different themes,” she said.
She chose the film as one of her ways of decolonising higher education by using local content that her students could relate to.
“When I started teaching the module, they had been using this other film about [Adolf] Hitler and the Nazis, and I felt I needed to bring in local films because decolonisation cannot just be about changing textbooks,” she said.
Uneven Sisters was made by a crew and cast of pupils between the ages of 13 and 16 from the Arts Creative Nation, a newly formed Pearson High arts group.
“I brought in this film to bridge the gap between the community and higher education learning by allowing the kids to be in this environment so they can see that a university is not a far bet for them,” Mcunukelwa said.
Film concept developer Britney Bebe, 16, said she had come up with it as a stage play and had not foreseen it coming this far.
“I was excited and nervous about the idea of having my concept being used as a teaching tool in university and being analysed by university students because more people get to see what we are capable of,” she said.
The film was directed by poet Zukiswa Mali, 16, who was thrilled by the experience of artistic concepts outside poetry.
The pupils were trained by filmmakers from the UK between April and May before creating the film under the mentorship of Bay playwright Xolisa Ngubelanga.