Handmade cinema: animation and education in the project "Escola Animada"

Abstract

Concerns regarding the academic performance of Brazilian children – born into a world shaped by digital media – places them as important allies in the construction of knowledge within school settings. This study examines the extension project denominated Escola Animada ("Animated School"), an initiative capable of connecting culture and education through the integration of audiovisual resources and digital media into teaching and learning processes. The project’s main objective is to promote the active participation of children from public schools by integrating them into audiovisual production teams and encouraging their interest in oral, written, and artistic expression. The study proposes a reflection on the possibilities of using audiovisual media in education, guided by the establishment of links between education and decolonization. The theoretical framework is based on authors such as Chimamanda Adichie, Christine Costa and Francisco Mattos, and Luiz Rufino. The actions of Escola Animada also contribute to renewing the repertoire of local identities and point toward a heritage education that is more emancipated from Eurocentric markers, which inspired the mythologized Modernist Cataguases. In methodological terms, this is a qualitative experience report, built on the description and analysis of the project’s development stages, which included the collective creation of 12 animated short films by public school children in partnership with university students and professors. The detailed report on the technical execution of each stage of the project highlights an environment in which the creation and implementation of pedagogical activities place children as agents in both the educational and historical process.