Cien niños esperando un tren (1988) - full transcript
"Tells the story of a group of Chilean children who discover a larger reality and a different world through the cinema. Each Saturday, Alicia Vega transforms the chapel of Lo Hermida into a film screening room as she conducts a workshop for children under the auspices of the Catholic church. The hundred or so children involved had never seen a movie, and in the workshop they see and learn about the cinema: photograms and moving images, projection, camera angles and movement, film genres, and much more. And they watch movies: Chaplin, Disney, Lamorisse's 'The Red Balloon,' the Lumieres' 'The Arrival of the Train to the Station.' Finally, each child designs his own film with drawings. And then, for the first time in most of their lives, the children got to the movies in downtown Santiago." [from the video container]
One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train
"FILM WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN"
"Mother of Life, Transform Our Heart."
We'd like you to write whether
you've ever been to the movies.
If you've gone to a cinema...
To a theater where they show movies.
If you've been to a cinema, write the name
of the movie you saw... If you remember.
I finished!
"I haven't been"
"No"
"None"
"No"
"Never"
"Rocky II"
"Rocky IV"
"Rambo"
"Rocky"
"Nothing"
"Gulliver's Travels"
"Rocky"
"Never"
"No"
"Never"
"No"
"I've never been"
"I haven't seen"
"I've never been"
"No"
We want the child that
has never seen a film,
because he has never gone to the cinema,
to know that from now on that doesn't matter...
because we're all going to watch
a movie every Saturday...
here in the chapel.
So we want you all to know
that from this Saturday onward,
until after September 18th we'll
be here at 10am waiting for you.
Ready, sit down!
"Today we will learn: the game..."
"Thauma" in Greek means: wonder.
And "Trope" means:
something that goes around,
something that spins.
During the past century,
in many laboratories,
they were worried about the
problem of the static image.
When you see a photo everybody is static.
So some investigators said,
how wonderful it would
be if this image moved.
If only we could record the same
movement that there is in real life.
So they began doing experiments,
and with these experiments...
they discovered something
about the human eye.
When an image passes...
in front of our eyes, we go on
seeing it for a moment after it's gone.
Ohh, I know!
It looks as if the bird
were inside the cage.
Alicia, why do you do this
workshop for marginalized children?
Because they seem to be the ones
suffering most in this country now.
They are marginalized not only in
the material aspect, but also spiritually.
I worked representing the...
the National Film Office
of the Episcopal Conference
for five years with children
from Catholic schools,
from paid schools and free schools.
And I felt...
that the child from a free school...
is far more marginalized because...
for example, he never went to the movies
because of financial problems.
And that his creativity...
goes unexpressed.
This is no false alarm it's a massive invasion!
But the body's army is prepared, look!
Our soldiers are decimating the enemy.
Look how the vehicles' firing power
beats the deadly germs of the disease.
We see brilliant examples of
military strategy everywhere!
The clatter of the vaccination
gun is heard everywhere.
And now the paratroopers,
look how they take the rear guard!
Vaccination has trained them with every
modern method of war against disease.
Look this is the toy we're
going to make today!
You see... here are the animals.
Listen up! What does "Trope" mean?
- Turn...
- It means to turn.
And what does "Zoo" mean?
- Wonder!
- No... let's see, who knows a similar word?
- A zoo!
- A zoo... What's in a zoo?
- Animals!
- Animals... right, fantastic.
The toy we're going to play with
now which is called a "Zootrope"...
means it has animals that spin around.
Look at the animals...
Everybody's going to make one.
You look at it from the outside... see?
When you each have three strips...
Don't lose them, you each have three strips.
If not then you won't have
enough for the whole wheel.
You have to make the hole, the peephole...
You have to cut it with the scissors.
That's what you're going to do today.
First he brought...
some horses that would run as
you spun a wheel around.
Then he brought...
some camels.
And today he came with this,
like a toy made of string and paper...
And you Veronica... does Cesar
tell you what he does in the workshop?
Very little.
- But you've seen what he's done.
- Yes.
- Do you know what those toys are called?
- No.
Something like Anthropo...
I don't remember the other names,
but they have... their names.
Cesar, do you remember?
Thaumatrope, Zootrope... and I don't
remember the other one.
- How old are you, Cesar?
- Eight.
- What would you like to be when you grow up?
- Grown up?
A military man.
Do you remember the last film you saw?
The Exorcist...
How long ago?
- About four years ago...
- Where?
- I don't remember.
- No idea... I think it was at the Rex.
And you Cesar, what was the
last movie you saw?
Here at home?
- No, in a cinema.
- I've never been...
- You've never been?
- No...
What did you do on Saturdays
before going to the Film Workshop?
I used to help my mom... at work...
- Tell me...
- She works in the street market.
She sells household articles.
I'd help her clean up...
Sometimes I'd ride the tricycle...
Do you sell anything as well?
- Yes.
- Tell me.
Well...
Before... she'd pay me
and I used to help her.
She lent me money and
I'd pay her back.
So I'd save up the money and...
I bought things for mending shoes
and I started selling...
I still have them.
Tell me, what are all of those things?
This is sandpaper for wood.
This is shoe polish.
These are colored pencils.
String...
And how much money
do you make in a week?
About... a thousand five hundred.
- What do you do with the money?
- I buy my clothes...
- Things for school...
- What was the last thing you bought?
- My tennis shoes.
- Let's see them.
We're going to show you the
first cartoon ever made in the world.
Now that you've seen how the horse moves...
the film frames move
the same way in the projector.
And that's how cartoons are made.
You've all seen how we've been playing with...
with small machines...
the Thaumatrope and what else?
- The Zootrope! The Magic Roll!
- The Zootrope... The Magic Roll...
- The Magic Block!
- And the Magic Block, good...
But there was a wise man... an inventor.
- Edison!
- Edison, correct.
Edison, who...
also invented the light bulb...
and the gramophone,
to listen to music...
- Yes!
- Ok, so he...
had an idea... he said:
Instead of putting a drawing
on the Magic Block...
one photo after another and
moving them to produce movement,
it'd be good to make a strip
with one photo after another...
and to move the strip fast,
then you could watch through a viewer...
how this whole strip moves.
Edison had the idea of
putting one photo after another,
and he made this: a strip
where he put 48 photos...
of a man sneezing.
Exactly, so the man sneezed...
Let's hear you all sneeze!
Ok, good. One more time!
So this act of sneezing...
was photographed by Edison on 48 pictures.
So then, this strip...
that he made... he put it into this machine.
This is a copy, it's not the same one.
This was made by a Father from the
Lo Sierra neighborhood last year.
Look...
What Edison did was this...
He put this strip in
and he stuck together both ends...
so that it would keep turning around.
Like this...
He put it inside a machine like this,
and this spins around...
and the person can watch
it from the top.
This is what was called
Edison's Kinetoscope,
that he invented in 1893
in the USA.
Now we are going to make
the same strip, just for fun...
so you can cut them out,
they're in seven sections.
Cut them out and stick them together.
Everyone will make their own Edison strip.
Then we'll put them up on the wall.
Margot... where are you coming from?
From the market, from uptown Peñalolén...
- What were you doing?
- We were selling...
Margot, what have you got there?
Here I have a bicycle seat.
This... and this...
and this...
- How do you collect all these things?
- She goes on the cardboard round.
- What's that? I don't know...
- We go looking for cardboard,
and collect them from the streets.
Hey, can you take this out?
It hurts my fingers...
- Where should I put the trash?
- Over there in the bin.
My brother used to go out alone
and then I started going with him.
And since I had to buy myself a notebook,
mom couldn't buy it for me...
because there's four of us.
So I went out on the cardboard round
with my little sister...
and when I couldn't go with her,
I'd go with Alejandra.
But how do you collect?
Where do you get the things from?
Well, on Tuesdays and Fridays
they throw out the garbage...
so we pick up the detergent boxes...
the shoeboxes...
all that stuff.
So what happened was...
these experiments that
Edison did in the USA...
a couple of brothers began doing
the same thing in another laboratory...
the Lumiere Brothers.
So, the Lumiere Brothers had
inherited a factory from their father...
of photographic materials.
So they tried to work with films...
and so they invented a camera
to shoot the film with...
and then a projector,
like that one you see there.
A projector they could use
to show the film on a screen.
On a screen... so that a whole
group of people could see it.
This is the invention of the cinema.
And the Lumiere Brothers projected...
their film for the first time, this is the
date of the invention of the cinema:
the 28th of December,
now remember this... 1895.
At the end of the last century.
They saw the first cinema show...
that is known in world history.
We're going to watch this first
film that they saw called:
"The Arrival of a Train at the Station".
Here are the Lumiere Brothers!
The first movie in cinema history!
Now you're going to watch it.
Watch!
Has Mrs. Alicia left?
No, there she is. Come up here!
Mrs. Alicia is a lady who
works at the CENCOSEP...
of the Archbishopric,
Communications Department, is that right?
She's been working since April here...
with the children of this area,
in a film workshop.
There are about sixty children,
now eighty children...
that are learning...
how films are made... how the cinema
was born, and what it all means.
It is a very important service
where the children also learn...
to discover their own values...
and to bring dignity to their lives.
Did you notice that you couldn't
hear the music very well?
Right, because this copy of the film
isn't very good, it's old.
Let's try to listen to it again.
We've brought you a visitor...
Come in Enrique.
We're going to bless the exhibition.
- Do you have a child in the workshop?
- Yes I have two.
- How old are they?
- Five and six years old.
- Have you found their work here?
- Yes, yes...
- What do you think of the Film Workshop?
- Good, apart from going to the workshop...
his curiosity is stimulated,
and he understands the films well.
When I ask him what they've done,
he tells me of a film from the 1800s...
he remembers it, especially Juanito who
pays more attention...
- ...not Francisco since he's more fidgety.
- Do you remember which film it was?
No... a train!
Something about a train.
The first film in the history of cinema!
But this is really good,
and for the moms too...
because they realize that the kids
aren't as dumb as we sometimes think...
or that they don't have the capacity
to think or develop as kids, as people.
I had no idea!
Here for instance, this thing is...
when my kid came home with this
I had no idea how it worked!
I'd turn it and couldn't see a thing.
But you have to look through the peepholes.
- Who taught you to use it?
- Susana, the youngest.
Which one is Susana?
Susi! Susi!
She's the one...
- She taught me to use it.
- What other toys have you seen?
Another thing she taught me...
is a paper they have, they stretch
with a pencil and the figures move inside.
- What's it called?
- I don't know.
The Magic Roll I think.
Right, the Magic Roll. It's written there.
- When they come home do they
tell you what they've done? - Everything!
I just sit down and listen.
I say, "Yes, of course!"
and when they show me...
I start talking because I have no idea...
- What have they told you?
- For instance they've told me...
Eight! seven! six!
five! four! three!
two! one! zero!
Hello!
This is Laurel and Hardy's hat.
My name is Elizabeth del Carmen
Bobadilla Riveros.
- How old are you?
- I'm twelve.
- And you?
- Susana Bobadilla Riveros Salas.
- How old are you?
- Eight.
- You both go to the workshop?
- Yes.
Where do you sleep?
In that bedroom there.
Show it to me.
Here.
- Susana, which is your bed?
- This one.
- ...and yours?
- This one.
- And who sleeps over there?
- Our older sister...
Have you ever been filmed
or recorded before?
Only recorded, but never filmed.
- Who recorded your voice?
- Huh?
Who recorded your voice?
Sometimes the folks next door.
- The CNI (intelligence agency) recorded us.
- Really? Where?
- In a tape recorder here at home.
- Here at home? Why?
Because they wanted to record everything,
they wanted to tape everything we said...
to take it later some place and listen to it...
and if they came again and we
didn't say things the tape recorded did...
- ...then it'd mean something is going on.
- What did they ask you?
If we had anything hidden...
if we... if we had a cellar.
but no, we had nothing here.
- Did they ask you too?
- What?
- What did they ask?
- Hmm... what is my mother's job...
lots of things...
I said "no" to everything because...
I was almost six years old.
- Genres...
- That's right.
The genres...
- Film genres!
- Very good.
Alejandra...
have you been to the movies before?
No.
Which films from the workshop did you like?
- All of them.
- But which one did you like best?
The one of the balloon... the one of the kid...
who wanted the balloon.
In a plot film... which is invented...
the characters are actors who dress up...
as if they were real.
So when you see...
a fiction film...
you won't find those characters at home
dressed the same. They are made up.
Attention!
Everyone running in the
documentary we just saw...
were people actually protesting.
- They wanted democracy.
- Right... they wanted democracy.
And the police were real as well...
who were beating them, obviously.
"Documentary is what is real"
Last week we made the
Lumiere Brothers' strip.
So the children learned that a film...
is a long strip.
Nothing more than that.
With a beginning and an end,
since it had a title and the sign "the end".
So tomorrow's exercise...
is meant to allow the
children to perceive physically...
that the film is made of photograms.
Then each one is going
to make a giant photogram...
on four pages...
so each child will be given four pages...
to be arranged as a kite.
Once the children have
their photograms ready...
they'll be given markers, each with
a different color of their choosing...
so that each child makes a drawing...
according to a subject
that will be chosen that morning.
- Winter!
- Winter...
here we have an excellent subject!
What else?
- Autumn.
- Autumn, another one...
- Spring!
- Spring...
- Summer holidays!
- Ok... what's another subject?
- The protests!
- The protests.
Ok! Now then...
- Vacations!
- Ok, vacations.
We have three subjects... attention!
All those in favor of winter
raise your hands!
Two... those in favor of the protests?
Ok, and for vacation nobody... ready!
Then the subject for our film
will be the protests.
Here comes the police bus...
they're throwing stones at it.
here are the police with their shields.
- Here come the policemen, the cops...
- The cops!
they're throwing stones,
they won't let them pass.
They've built barricades so
the cops don't come on this side.
There's the helicopter, it's lighting up
where they're starting the fires...
This is the protest and this
is the lady who's dead in the street.
Once all the children have
their photograms ready...
we're going to put them all
together on a large strip,
that will be the support system of the film,
and we'll make a caterpillar out of it.
The thing is...
it will be 25 meters long...
the pieces haven't been put together...
because the idea is that the children
who drew the photograms, do it themselves.
Once the sections are put together
we can join the whole 25 meters...
because later all of them will
get underneath... this tablecloth.
You're going to put this on your head...
like this... but...
"FILM WORKSHOP"
Adam, what would you like
to be when you grow up?
Carpenter, the same as my dad.
Or if not, I want to be a mechanic,
or if not, a military man.
Wait... a carpenter, a mechanic...
- Or a military man.
- But which do you like best?
- Carpenter.
- Then why do you say mechanic?
Because if I don't make that... that...
What's it called? That class... then I'll be
a mechanic and if not, a military man.
- What do you like about the military men?
- The way they walk.
- The way they walk?
- Yes, the way they walk and all...
like soldiers... at home I play like that...
- You play...
- Yes, I put a square stick...
with two sticks underneath
to make a machine-gun...
here I put a clothes peg,
I nail it so it keeps firm...
firm... and here I hammer a nail,
a rubber band...
I nail it tight and fix it with
the clothes peg, I open it...
I close it... I leave the
rubber band there...
then I press the peg
and the dart shoots far!
- And what is that?
- A dart-shooter.
Nobody in my street can make one.
No one's invented it.
You invented the dart-shooter...
and what's it for?
To shoot darts! Some kids
shoot them with hoses like this...
But what does that have
to do with the soldiers?
That's how I play... I pick it up, march,
drop down and shoot the dart!
And I put up a piece of cardboard
and the dart has a needle...
I shoot it and bam! It hits the
target right in the center!
- Have you ever been to the movies?
- Never.
Did you like the movies you've seen now?
Do you remember one?
- Yes... when Mickey walked on water...
- Which one?
- Who?
- Mickey. He goes along the beach...
and then goes back to the water...
and he jumped and hit a rock and he fell.
Come on! He's got to speak!
At that time they hadn't invented sound yet...
so Walt Disney couldn't put words to it.
This is, according to all the experts...
the best book ever written in Spanish.
and it consists of a few volumes of this size.
Now, the writers,
the authors of literature...
separated...
the books in chapters.
This is the first chapter...
of Don Quixote de la Mancha.
Here you have the book
that starts with its title...
and says "Don Quixote de la Mancha",
and all of these pages...
make up the first chapter, that is,
a large part of it...
and the book has several chapters.
Now what is called a chapter
in a novel, a certain amount of pages,
in the visual language of films,
is called a sequence.
So in each sequence...
there are some medium sized parts.
They correspond to smaller portions
within a sequence, which is larger.
There it stopped.
The whole time the camera was working...
is called a shot.
That's what we're going to learn today.
Carlos, can you start showing
all the kids how it works?
That's a shot.
- Carlos, have you been to the movies before?
- No.
What do you have to do this afternoon?
I have to go... to go
to the church at three o'clock.
- What for?
- To learn... to learn how to read.
Who teaches there?
Some people.
- How many times have you been?
- Never... not once.
- Oh, today is your first time...
- Yes.
- Yes, because he's epileptic.
- Oh, really?
Both of them, her and Carlos.
They are both epileptic.
Is that why it's hard for
them to learn to read and write?
That's why... the girl was seriously
affected because she's had lots of attacks.
- Alejandra.
- Yes... that's why.
And I didn't treat Carlos
when he had his first attack.
He had his first attack when
he was nine months old.
- What do you do in the morning?
- I stay home.
- What do you do at home?
- I watch TV, or if not... I watch TV.
You watch TV, or if not...?
I just watch TV.
I don't help out with anything.
- What time do you get home from school?
- At five.
What do you do when you get home?
I play with my friends.
- Who are you friends?
- Eri... all the ones in the workshop.
- From the workshop... and what do you play?
- Yes.
We skip rope, we play football...
What do you like about the Film Workshop?
- Everything.
- What have you learned there?
How they make movies...
What did you learn today for instance?
The high camera and low camera... no!
That's next Saturday...
- Which film do you remember?
- The one we saw about...
the little boy who looked
after the "ship", what's the name...
the kid who looked after
the "sheep"... the "ships".
Carlos... what would you like
to be when you grow up?
A doctor.
This is what follows...
you little girl, come here.
You're going to stand here.
This is going to be the character we film.
So we're going to put the camera...
Who can handle the camera? You? Come on!
Leave it there...
No... Both of you come here.
Take it.
We're going to place it...
over there so we can
film a long shot.
Be careful!
That's why I asked for a helper!
We dropped it... let's see...
never mind, you must place it like this.
Ok, from here this will
be the farthest spot.
and we can put it in the little hole.
Let's see, who's the helper?
There... you hold it there.
Ok, can you all see?
This is the farthest spot.
Here we have a long shot.
Ok, let's see...
If we had to film a medium shot?
Where would we have to put the camera?
No, not so far! Or you won't
have space for the two that follow.
Here we have a medium shot.
What can you see in the medium shot?
- The whole person.
- The person... right! The whole body.
Now let's film a medium long shot.
There! Right!
What can you see of the little girl?
- The body... to the waist.
- Down to the... waist, good!
Now let's film the closest shot.
What is it called?
A close... close-up!
Just the head, up close.
So this boat was moving along
the canals of Venice... on the sea.
When he projected his film later...
he realized that the houses that appeared
when he filmed would also appear on film.
This was the first camera
movement that was ever filmed.
So he had the houses on one side...
his camera was on a normal level
but he filmed from a boat that was moving.
There was a man rowing it...
so he was moving.
and so his camera followed
the same movement of the street.
This camera movement is called "traveling".
Right... your traveling!
Move your feet!
Fantastic! Go ahead and wave!
Wave to him!
The cardboard collector is coming in!
What's the name of the
movie we're going to watch?
Peace Street!
- Who's the director?
- Charlie Chaplin!
- When is it from?
- 1917!
Who knows what a plot is?
Let's see...
Once upon a time there was a
woman who had children and a husband.
They lived in a town.
Suddenly... there was...
a tidal wave. The house fell down,
and one of the sons died.
the husband was injured
and the other son was unhurt.
They tried... they bur...
they buried the dead son,
the woman had another son...
and the husband and
other son lived on... The End.
The boy went to a supermarket
and he stole a case.
The dad said, "Where did
you get that trunk?"
The boy: "It was lying around
and I found it, dad."
The dad says, "Go and give it back,
the cops are coming..."
"hurry up or they'll call you a thief!"
Very good.
- Had you ever been to the movies?
- No.
What do you like best,
the movies or TV?
- Both.
- And what's the difference?
In the movies the screen is bigger,
but on TV it's smaller, you can't see so well.
- Go on, read!
- Film Workshop for Children...
Saturday October 3rd,
today we go to the cinema.
Departure at nine o'clock.
Chi Chi Chi! Le Le Le!
(Chile)
Get out of here Pinochet!
"The Film Workshop for Children was created,
designed and carried out by ALICIA VEGA,"
"Director of the National Film Office
of the Episcopate."
"FILM WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN"
"Mother of Life, Transform Our Heart."
We'd like you to write whether
you've ever been to the movies.
If you've gone to a cinema...
To a theater where they show movies.
If you've been to a cinema, write the name
of the movie you saw... If you remember.
I finished!
"I haven't been"
"No"
"None"
"No"
"Never"
"Rocky II"
"Rocky IV"
"Rambo"
"Rocky"
"Nothing"
"Gulliver's Travels"
"Rocky"
"Never"
"No"
"Never"
"No"
"I've never been"
"I haven't seen"
"I've never been"
"No"
We want the child that
has never seen a film,
because he has never gone to the cinema,
to know that from now on that doesn't matter...
because we're all going to watch
a movie every Saturday...
here in the chapel.
So we want you all to know
that from this Saturday onward,
until after September 18th we'll
be here at 10am waiting for you.
Ready, sit down!
"Today we will learn: the game..."
"Thauma" in Greek means: wonder.
And "Trope" means:
something that goes around,
something that spins.
During the past century,
in many laboratories,
they were worried about the
problem of the static image.
When you see a photo everybody is static.
So some investigators said,
how wonderful it would
be if this image moved.
If only we could record the same
movement that there is in real life.
So they began doing experiments,
and with these experiments...
they discovered something
about the human eye.
When an image passes...
in front of our eyes, we go on
seeing it for a moment after it's gone.
Ohh, I know!
It looks as if the bird
were inside the cage.
Alicia, why do you do this
workshop for marginalized children?
Because they seem to be the ones
suffering most in this country now.
They are marginalized not only in
the material aspect, but also spiritually.
I worked representing the...
the National Film Office
of the Episcopal Conference
for five years with children
from Catholic schools,
from paid schools and free schools.
And I felt...
that the child from a free school...
is far more marginalized because...
for example, he never went to the movies
because of financial problems.
And that his creativity...
goes unexpressed.
This is no false alarm it's a massive invasion!
But the body's army is prepared, look!
Our soldiers are decimating the enemy.
Look how the vehicles' firing power
beats the deadly germs of the disease.
We see brilliant examples of
military strategy everywhere!
The clatter of the vaccination
gun is heard everywhere.
And now the paratroopers,
look how they take the rear guard!
Vaccination has trained them with every
modern method of war against disease.
Look this is the toy we're
going to make today!
You see... here are the animals.
Listen up! What does "Trope" mean?
- Turn...
- It means to turn.
And what does "Zoo" mean?
- Wonder!
- No... let's see, who knows a similar word?
- A zoo!
- A zoo... What's in a zoo?
- Animals!
- Animals... right, fantastic.
The toy we're going to play with
now which is called a "Zootrope"...
means it has animals that spin around.
Look at the animals...
Everybody's going to make one.
You look at it from the outside... see?
When you each have three strips...
Don't lose them, you each have three strips.
If not then you won't have
enough for the whole wheel.
You have to make the hole, the peephole...
You have to cut it with the scissors.
That's what you're going to do today.
First he brought...
some horses that would run as
you spun a wheel around.
Then he brought...
some camels.
And today he came with this,
like a toy made of string and paper...
And you Veronica... does Cesar
tell you what he does in the workshop?
Very little.
- But you've seen what he's done.
- Yes.
- Do you know what those toys are called?
- No.
Something like Anthropo...
I don't remember the other names,
but they have... their names.
Cesar, do you remember?
Thaumatrope, Zootrope... and I don't
remember the other one.
- How old are you, Cesar?
- Eight.
- What would you like to be when you grow up?
- Grown up?
A military man.
Do you remember the last film you saw?
The Exorcist...
How long ago?
- About four years ago...
- Where?
- I don't remember.
- No idea... I think it was at the Rex.
And you Cesar, what was the
last movie you saw?
Here at home?
- No, in a cinema.
- I've never been...
- You've never been?
- No...
What did you do on Saturdays
before going to the Film Workshop?
I used to help my mom... at work...
- Tell me...
- She works in the street market.
She sells household articles.
I'd help her clean up...
Sometimes I'd ride the tricycle...
Do you sell anything as well?
- Yes.
- Tell me.
Well...
Before... she'd pay me
and I used to help her.
She lent me money and
I'd pay her back.
So I'd save up the money and...
I bought things for mending shoes
and I started selling...
I still have them.
Tell me, what are all of those things?
This is sandpaper for wood.
This is shoe polish.
These are colored pencils.
String...
And how much money
do you make in a week?
About... a thousand five hundred.
- What do you do with the money?
- I buy my clothes...
- Things for school...
- What was the last thing you bought?
- My tennis shoes.
- Let's see them.
We're going to show you the
first cartoon ever made in the world.
Now that you've seen how the horse moves...
the film frames move
the same way in the projector.
And that's how cartoons are made.
You've all seen how we've been playing with...
with small machines...
the Thaumatrope and what else?
- The Zootrope! The Magic Roll!
- The Zootrope... The Magic Roll...
- The Magic Block!
- And the Magic Block, good...
But there was a wise man... an inventor.
- Edison!
- Edison, correct.
Edison, who...
also invented the light bulb...
and the gramophone,
to listen to music...
- Yes!
- Ok, so he...
had an idea... he said:
Instead of putting a drawing
on the Magic Block...
one photo after another and
moving them to produce movement,
it'd be good to make a strip
with one photo after another...
and to move the strip fast,
then you could watch through a viewer...
how this whole strip moves.
Edison had the idea of
putting one photo after another,
and he made this: a strip
where he put 48 photos...
of a man sneezing.
Exactly, so the man sneezed...
Let's hear you all sneeze!
Ok, good. One more time!
So this act of sneezing...
was photographed by Edison on 48 pictures.
So then, this strip...
that he made... he put it into this machine.
This is a copy, it's not the same one.
This was made by a Father from the
Lo Sierra neighborhood last year.
Look...
What Edison did was this...
He put this strip in
and he stuck together both ends...
so that it would keep turning around.
Like this...
He put it inside a machine like this,
and this spins around...
and the person can watch
it from the top.
This is what was called
Edison's Kinetoscope,
that he invented in 1893
in the USA.
Now we are going to make
the same strip, just for fun...
so you can cut them out,
they're in seven sections.
Cut them out and stick them together.
Everyone will make their own Edison strip.
Then we'll put them up on the wall.
Margot... where are you coming from?
From the market, from uptown Peñalolén...
- What were you doing?
- We were selling...
Margot, what have you got there?
Here I have a bicycle seat.
This... and this...
and this...
- How do you collect all these things?
- She goes on the cardboard round.
- What's that? I don't know...
- We go looking for cardboard,
and collect them from the streets.
Hey, can you take this out?
It hurts my fingers...
- Where should I put the trash?
- Over there in the bin.
My brother used to go out alone
and then I started going with him.
And since I had to buy myself a notebook,
mom couldn't buy it for me...
because there's four of us.
So I went out on the cardboard round
with my little sister...
and when I couldn't go with her,
I'd go with Alejandra.
But how do you collect?
Where do you get the things from?
Well, on Tuesdays and Fridays
they throw out the garbage...
so we pick up the detergent boxes...
the shoeboxes...
all that stuff.
So what happened was...
these experiments that
Edison did in the USA...
a couple of brothers began doing
the same thing in another laboratory...
the Lumiere Brothers.
So, the Lumiere Brothers had
inherited a factory from their father...
of photographic materials.
So they tried to work with films...
and so they invented a camera
to shoot the film with...
and then a projector,
like that one you see there.
A projector they could use
to show the film on a screen.
On a screen... so that a whole
group of people could see it.
This is the invention of the cinema.
And the Lumiere Brothers projected...
their film for the first time, this is the
date of the invention of the cinema:
the 28th of December,
now remember this... 1895.
At the end of the last century.
They saw the first cinema show...
that is known in world history.
We're going to watch this first
film that they saw called:
"The Arrival of a Train at the Station".
Here are the Lumiere Brothers!
The first movie in cinema history!
Now you're going to watch it.
Watch!
Has Mrs. Alicia left?
No, there she is. Come up here!
Mrs. Alicia is a lady who
works at the CENCOSEP...
of the Archbishopric,
Communications Department, is that right?
She's been working since April here...
with the children of this area,
in a film workshop.
There are about sixty children,
now eighty children...
that are learning...
how films are made... how the cinema
was born, and what it all means.
It is a very important service
where the children also learn...
to discover their own values...
and to bring dignity to their lives.
Did you notice that you couldn't
hear the music very well?
Right, because this copy of the film
isn't very good, it's old.
Let's try to listen to it again.
We've brought you a visitor...
Come in Enrique.
We're going to bless the exhibition.
- Do you have a child in the workshop?
- Yes I have two.
- How old are they?
- Five and six years old.
- Have you found their work here?
- Yes, yes...
- What do you think of the Film Workshop?
- Good, apart from going to the workshop...
his curiosity is stimulated,
and he understands the films well.
When I ask him what they've done,
he tells me of a film from the 1800s...
he remembers it, especially Juanito who
pays more attention...
- ...not Francisco since he's more fidgety.
- Do you remember which film it was?
No... a train!
Something about a train.
The first film in the history of cinema!
But this is really good,
and for the moms too...
because they realize that the kids
aren't as dumb as we sometimes think...
or that they don't have the capacity
to think or develop as kids, as people.
I had no idea!
Here for instance, this thing is...
when my kid came home with this
I had no idea how it worked!
I'd turn it and couldn't see a thing.
But you have to look through the peepholes.
- Who taught you to use it?
- Susana, the youngest.
Which one is Susana?
Susi! Susi!
She's the one...
- She taught me to use it.
- What other toys have you seen?
Another thing she taught me...
is a paper they have, they stretch
with a pencil and the figures move inside.
- What's it called?
- I don't know.
The Magic Roll I think.
Right, the Magic Roll. It's written there.
- When they come home do they
tell you what they've done? - Everything!
I just sit down and listen.
I say, "Yes, of course!"
and when they show me...
I start talking because I have no idea...
- What have they told you?
- For instance they've told me...
Eight! seven! six!
five! four! three!
two! one! zero!
Hello!
This is Laurel and Hardy's hat.
My name is Elizabeth del Carmen
Bobadilla Riveros.
- How old are you?
- I'm twelve.
- And you?
- Susana Bobadilla Riveros Salas.
- How old are you?
- Eight.
- You both go to the workshop?
- Yes.
Where do you sleep?
In that bedroom there.
Show it to me.
Here.
- Susana, which is your bed?
- This one.
- ...and yours?
- This one.
- And who sleeps over there?
- Our older sister...
Have you ever been filmed
or recorded before?
Only recorded, but never filmed.
- Who recorded your voice?
- Huh?
Who recorded your voice?
Sometimes the folks next door.
- The CNI (intelligence agency) recorded us.
- Really? Where?
- In a tape recorder here at home.
- Here at home? Why?
Because they wanted to record everything,
they wanted to tape everything we said...
to take it later some place and listen to it...
and if they came again and we
didn't say things the tape recorded did...
- ...then it'd mean something is going on.
- What did they ask you?
If we had anything hidden...
if we... if we had a cellar.
but no, we had nothing here.
- Did they ask you too?
- What?
- What did they ask?
- Hmm... what is my mother's job...
lots of things...
I said "no" to everything because...
I was almost six years old.
- Genres...
- That's right.
The genres...
- Film genres!
- Very good.
Alejandra...
have you been to the movies before?
No.
Which films from the workshop did you like?
- All of them.
- But which one did you like best?
The one of the balloon... the one of the kid...
who wanted the balloon.
In a plot film... which is invented...
the characters are actors who dress up...
as if they were real.
So when you see...
a fiction film...
you won't find those characters at home
dressed the same. They are made up.
Attention!
Everyone running in the
documentary we just saw...
were people actually protesting.
- They wanted democracy.
- Right... they wanted democracy.
And the police were real as well...
who were beating them, obviously.
"Documentary is what is real"
Last week we made the
Lumiere Brothers' strip.
So the children learned that a film...
is a long strip.
Nothing more than that.
With a beginning and an end,
since it had a title and the sign "the end".
So tomorrow's exercise...
is meant to allow the
children to perceive physically...
that the film is made of photograms.
Then each one is going
to make a giant photogram...
on four pages...
so each child will be given four pages...
to be arranged as a kite.
Once the children have
their photograms ready...
they'll be given markers, each with
a different color of their choosing...
so that each child makes a drawing...
according to a subject
that will be chosen that morning.
- Winter!
- Winter...
here we have an excellent subject!
What else?
- Autumn.
- Autumn, another one...
- Spring!
- Spring...
- Summer holidays!
- Ok... what's another subject?
- The protests!
- The protests.
Ok! Now then...
- Vacations!
- Ok, vacations.
We have three subjects... attention!
All those in favor of winter
raise your hands!
Two... those in favor of the protests?
Ok, and for vacation nobody... ready!
Then the subject for our film
will be the protests.
Here comes the police bus...
they're throwing stones at it.
here are the police with their shields.
- Here come the policemen, the cops...
- The cops!
they're throwing stones,
they won't let them pass.
They've built barricades so
the cops don't come on this side.
There's the helicopter, it's lighting up
where they're starting the fires...
This is the protest and this
is the lady who's dead in the street.
Once all the children have
their photograms ready...
we're going to put them all
together on a large strip,
that will be the support system of the film,
and we'll make a caterpillar out of it.
The thing is...
it will be 25 meters long...
the pieces haven't been put together...
because the idea is that the children
who drew the photograms, do it themselves.
Once the sections are put together
we can join the whole 25 meters...
because later all of them will
get underneath... this tablecloth.
You're going to put this on your head...
like this... but...
"FILM WORKSHOP"
Adam, what would you like
to be when you grow up?
Carpenter, the same as my dad.
Or if not, I want to be a mechanic,
or if not, a military man.
Wait... a carpenter, a mechanic...
- Or a military man.
- But which do you like best?
- Carpenter.
- Then why do you say mechanic?
Because if I don't make that... that...
What's it called? That class... then I'll be
a mechanic and if not, a military man.
- What do you like about the military men?
- The way they walk.
- The way they walk?
- Yes, the way they walk and all...
like soldiers... at home I play like that...
- You play...
- Yes, I put a square stick...
with two sticks underneath
to make a machine-gun...
here I put a clothes peg,
I nail it so it keeps firm...
firm... and here I hammer a nail,
a rubber band...
I nail it tight and fix it with
the clothes peg, I open it...
I close it... I leave the
rubber band there...
then I press the peg
and the dart shoots far!
- And what is that?
- A dart-shooter.
Nobody in my street can make one.
No one's invented it.
You invented the dart-shooter...
and what's it for?
To shoot darts! Some kids
shoot them with hoses like this...
But what does that have
to do with the soldiers?
That's how I play... I pick it up, march,
drop down and shoot the dart!
And I put up a piece of cardboard
and the dart has a needle...
I shoot it and bam! It hits the
target right in the center!
- Have you ever been to the movies?
- Never.
Did you like the movies you've seen now?
Do you remember one?
- Yes... when Mickey walked on water...
- Which one?
- Who?
- Mickey. He goes along the beach...
and then goes back to the water...
and he jumped and hit a rock and he fell.
Come on! He's got to speak!
At that time they hadn't invented sound yet...
so Walt Disney couldn't put words to it.
This is, according to all the experts...
the best book ever written in Spanish.
and it consists of a few volumes of this size.
Now, the writers,
the authors of literature...
separated...
the books in chapters.
This is the first chapter...
of Don Quixote de la Mancha.
Here you have the book
that starts with its title...
and says "Don Quixote de la Mancha",
and all of these pages...
make up the first chapter, that is,
a large part of it...
and the book has several chapters.
Now what is called a chapter
in a novel, a certain amount of pages,
in the visual language of films,
is called a sequence.
So in each sequence...
there are some medium sized parts.
They correspond to smaller portions
within a sequence, which is larger.
There it stopped.
The whole time the camera was working...
is called a shot.
That's what we're going to learn today.
Carlos, can you start showing
all the kids how it works?
That's a shot.
- Carlos, have you been to the movies before?
- No.
What do you have to do this afternoon?
I have to go... to go
to the church at three o'clock.
- What for?
- To learn... to learn how to read.
Who teaches there?
Some people.
- How many times have you been?
- Never... not once.
- Oh, today is your first time...
- Yes.
- Yes, because he's epileptic.
- Oh, really?
Both of them, her and Carlos.
They are both epileptic.
Is that why it's hard for
them to learn to read and write?
That's why... the girl was seriously
affected because she's had lots of attacks.
- Alejandra.
- Yes... that's why.
And I didn't treat Carlos
when he had his first attack.
He had his first attack when
he was nine months old.
- What do you do in the morning?
- I stay home.
- What do you do at home?
- I watch TV, or if not... I watch TV.
You watch TV, or if not...?
I just watch TV.
I don't help out with anything.
- What time do you get home from school?
- At five.
What do you do when you get home?
I play with my friends.
- Who are you friends?
- Eri... all the ones in the workshop.
- From the workshop... and what do you play?
- Yes.
We skip rope, we play football...
What do you like about the Film Workshop?
- Everything.
- What have you learned there?
How they make movies...
What did you learn today for instance?
The high camera and low camera... no!
That's next Saturday...
- Which film do you remember?
- The one we saw about...
the little boy who looked
after the "ship", what's the name...
the kid who looked after
the "sheep"... the "ships".
Carlos... what would you like
to be when you grow up?
A doctor.
This is what follows...
you little girl, come here.
You're going to stand here.
This is going to be the character we film.
So we're going to put the camera...
Who can handle the camera? You? Come on!
Leave it there...
No... Both of you come here.
Take it.
We're going to place it...
over there so we can
film a long shot.
Be careful!
That's why I asked for a helper!
We dropped it... let's see...
never mind, you must place it like this.
Ok, from here this will
be the farthest spot.
and we can put it in the little hole.
Let's see, who's the helper?
There... you hold it there.
Ok, can you all see?
This is the farthest spot.
Here we have a long shot.
Ok, let's see...
If we had to film a medium shot?
Where would we have to put the camera?
No, not so far! Or you won't
have space for the two that follow.
Here we have a medium shot.
What can you see in the medium shot?
- The whole person.
- The person... right! The whole body.
Now let's film a medium long shot.
There! Right!
What can you see of the little girl?
- The body... to the waist.
- Down to the... waist, good!
Now let's film the closest shot.
What is it called?
A close... close-up!
Just the head, up close.
So this boat was moving along
the canals of Venice... on the sea.
When he projected his film later...
he realized that the houses that appeared
when he filmed would also appear on film.
This was the first camera
movement that was ever filmed.
So he had the houses on one side...
his camera was on a normal level
but he filmed from a boat that was moving.
There was a man rowing it...
so he was moving.
and so his camera followed
the same movement of the street.
This camera movement is called "traveling".
Right... your traveling!
Move your feet!
Fantastic! Go ahead and wave!
Wave to him!
The cardboard collector is coming in!
What's the name of the
movie we're going to watch?
Peace Street!
- Who's the director?
- Charlie Chaplin!
- When is it from?
- 1917!
Who knows what a plot is?
Let's see...
Once upon a time there was a
woman who had children and a husband.
They lived in a town.
Suddenly... there was...
a tidal wave. The house fell down,
and one of the sons died.
the husband was injured
and the other son was unhurt.
They tried... they bur...
they buried the dead son,
the woman had another son...
and the husband and
other son lived on... The End.
The boy went to a supermarket
and he stole a case.
The dad said, "Where did
you get that trunk?"
The boy: "It was lying around
and I found it, dad."
The dad says, "Go and give it back,
the cops are coming..."
"hurry up or they'll call you a thief!"
Very good.
- Had you ever been to the movies?
- No.
What do you like best,
the movies or TV?
- Both.
- And what's the difference?
In the movies the screen is bigger,
but on TV it's smaller, you can't see so well.
- Go on, read!
- Film Workshop for Children...
Saturday October 3rd,
today we go to the cinema.
Departure at nine o'clock.
Chi Chi Chi! Le Le Le!
(Chile)
Get out of here Pinochet!
"The Film Workshop for Children was created,
designed and carried out by ALICIA VEGA,"
"Director of the National Film Office
of the Episcopate."