Madrid, Dec 19 (EFE).- More than 100 students and teachers from four European schools, along with 12 artists, have collaborated to create a short film that instills respect for the environment in young people through the technique of stop-motion animation, which simulates the movement of a static object through a series of still images.
This initiative is part of the Green Tales project, led by the Yehudi Menuhin International Foundation and co-financed by the European Union. The initiative is dedicated to developing illustrated children’s stories in the form of animated films to awaken children’s connection with nature.
The project director and senior project manager of the foundation, Bianca Rubino, has described it as “a shared experience that inspires the imagination, empowers people, and creates a lasting impact,” reminding us that “great changes happen collectively.”
Imane Tamli, head of Global Communication for the project, which also belongs to the European social network Panodyssey, explained to EFE that Green Tales began with a straightforward idea: “What would happen if we gave children a space to express themselves creatively about the environment?
Children’s creativity in stop motion
The stop-motion work carried out by schoolchildren in Spain, Iceland, Germany, and Turkey is related to the four elements of nature: water, air, earth, and fire.
Nine minutes long and available online, the short film is the culmination of two years of work and brings together the experiences of the different countries. Each nation features an element and its relationship with nature. The film tells a story about an alien who travels to Earth to learn about the elements and concludes that “everyone must do everything possible to preserve the planet.”
Tamli said that the creative process was the responsibility of the children, who invented the plots, designed the sets, animated the scenes frame by frame, and finally recorded the narration with their own voices. They even created sounds.
“It’s a complete creative process where the classroom becomes an animation studio, and they feel like real filmmakers,” she said.
Respect for nature in class
For her, the students “can be ingenious, creative, and free,” something that the project wants to protect and encourage because “as adults we have lost that, and children still don’t have that fear of expressing their ideas; they are not critical of their thoughts.”
According to Tamli, parents said they had never seen their children so happy to wake up and go to school: “They would come home and try to animate some objects.”
For her part, Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Executive Vice President Marianne Poncelet highlighted the importance of raising children’s awareness of respect for nature and how Green Tales has brought together children from all over Europe.
“This trip has been very inspiring for us, and the results encourage us to continue this beautiful project,” she said.
The Green Tales project is part of Panodyssey, which has collaborated with EFE in publishing this content. The CEO of the social and cultural network for creators, journalists, and readers, Alexandre Leforestier, has described it as a “safe and collaborative place to engage young writers in diversity.”
To this end, the organization ensures that there is no fake content, comments, or profiles, and that collaboration between users “is very much part of its DNA.” For Leforestier, the Green Tales project “is one example of how we can educate and collaborate differently.” EFE
Project co-financed by the European Union
