Understanding Cinema is a creative learning project from the Centre for the Moving Image in Edinburgh. The project worked with almost 500 young people between the ages of 9 – 19 in eight Scottish local authorities including: Aberdeen, Dundee, East Lothian, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Lewis and Mull.

The project is modelled on a French programme, Le Cinéma, Cent Ans de Jeunesse from the Cinémathèque Française  and is focussed on building critical cinema literacy through learning practical filmmaking techniques. It is designed to inspire students’ creativity and help them learn more about the artform’s history. Each year the programme focuses on one key technique – most recently it was the long take.

A selection of the students who participated in the Understanding Cinema were able to travel to Paris to share their films with students from 10 other countries around the world. Additionally the films were screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and in the video above not only do students and teachers speak compellingly about what they learned from participating in the project but you can get a little flavour of the types of films that the young people produced.