Derry animators help mould the first Ramallah International Film Festival Plasticine in Palestine By Shauna McNeilly
THE NERVE CENTRE’S Animator-in-Residence, Gary Rosborough and Derry-based freelance animator Jan Caspers have returned from a Palestinian Refugee Camp where they taught the art of animation to local children.

Their five-day animation workshop ‘Animating Palestine’ formed part of the outreach education element of Ramallah’s first-ever International Film Festival (RIFF) which ran from the 8-14 July. Ramallah is the cultural hub of Palestine and also the residence of Yasser Arafat.

The brainchild of 29-year old Palestinian film producer Adam Zuabi (director) and Fatin Farhat (co-ordinator), the RIFF aims to establish a cultural infrastructure in the country, encouraging the emergence of Palestinian cinema and art on the international stage. It also targets Palestinian youth with a view to introducing cinema and TV production into the high school curricula. The aspects of training and education are fundamental to this end.

Animating Palestine

Animation workshops were based at the Youth Centre in the Al Am’ari Refugee Camp, which is home to over 5,000 Palestinians. Gary said: “We had a very enthusiastic group of children who were aged from 8 to 14. They were all very keen to learn.“

The RIFF organisers had selected five individuals from the camp to take part in the classes but the popularity of this new found art-form caused numbers to swell and according to Gary, “At the end of the five-day workshop we were taking classes of 20 children a day.”

Gary conducted a training session in traditional animation processes based upon plasticine and set modelling. He said: “Once the children were made aware of the possibilities of working with clay they created aliens, space ships and European houses and gardens, which they don’t have. We then used the animation computer package to create short films of their pieces, which they found to be an enthralling process. The animation workshops were also featured on Palestinian and Italian TV and acknowledged at the closing night of the RIFF.

“The children were very responsive and just like at home, they all wanted to take their models home to show their parents. The only problem we encountered at the beginning was the clay kept falling apart in the 40° heat in addition to having no air conditioning, but we found an alternative type of clay in Ramallah which worked just fine,” said Gary.

Story Films

Jan explained the art of Story Film which he taught to the children: “Story Films are simple paper films made from coloured tissue paper collages assembled onto a long roll of masking tape film and presented as a series of still images in a light box illustrating the live narration of a story. Their technical simplicity has the practical advantage of being technologically largely independent, the pedagogical objective of being an autonomous achievement of the children, without any debt to video or film cameras, computers, etcetera, and the social aim of being a locally created cultural resource.

“During the workshops, the children of Al Am’ari camp made two Story Films, “The Crying Bird” and “The Wall that Divides Us”, which they performed to other children from a local summer camp, and will show to their parents and friends.”

Before their departure Gary and Jan installed the animation package on the youth centre’s computers to enable the children to continue making animation models and films and teach the craft to their peers.

“The youth centre’s polite and hospitable volunteers warmly received us and Adam Zuabi and Fatin Farhat were more than helpful. It was great to be a part of the first Ramallah International Film Festival and hand on the skill of animation to the local children and we hope to return next year.”

The British Council in association with Gaslight Productions funded the trip. The Animator-in Residence position at the Nerve Centre, filled by Gary Rosborough, is funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

ANIMATOR Jan Caspers from Derry with children of the Al Am'ari Refugee Camp who took part in the 'Animating Palestine' workshop as part of the first Ramallah International Film Festival.	GARY ROSBOROUGH, Animator-in-Residence at The Nerve Centre, Derry pictured with Rand Safi who participated in the 'Animating Palestine' workshop based in the Am'ari Youth Centre as part of the first ever Ramallah International Film Festival.
A CHILD from the the Al Am'ari Refugee Camp enjoys the animation workshop conducted by Derry animators Gary Rosborough and Jan Caspers at the Ramallah International Film Festival.	CHILDREN of the Al Am'ari Refugee Camp learn the craft of animating on computer as the recent Ramallah International Film Festival.
PALESTINIAN children of the Al Am'ari Refugee Camp enjoy the animation workshop at the Ramallah International Film Festival which took place 8-14 July.	RAMALLAH International Film Festival Director Adam Zuabi overlooks children working on animation projects at the Am'ari Youth Centre.