„Centropa movies remake”

Centropa is an Institute that is preoccupied with preserving the memory of the Jewish population from the Central Europe region. The main tool of interaction between Centropa and the public is its website, http://www.centropa.org/. Through this site’s means Centropa offers a variety of teaching materials. Here, interested teachers can find some raw pedagogical materials (Holocaust Jewish survivors’ testimonials, European Jews’ testimonials, old photos), educational projects, projects made by other teachers and short films based on some survivors’ testimonials and their own pictures. 

As a teacher who is passionate about teaching Jewish history I have used these films many times, them being based on some visual and oral historical documents. In spite of that I have observed the fact that not always were my students interested or observant when they were watching these films. That is how I came up with the idea for ”Centropa Movies Remake” project. The students of class 11 E (aged 16/17) were divided in groups of four and each group had to recreate one of the Centropa films as a task. The students chose to remake the following short films:

- Centropa 10 Years in 4 Minutes!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oihjpoyAVI0)

-  Juci Scheiner Love - On A Motorcycle      (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWiswwByDE)

- Judit Kinszki - Love on a Paper Airplane  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDVTXib6p4Q)

- Max Uri - Looking For Frieda, Finding Frieda      (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPZcFMA8oq4).

The students involved in this project created the short films by following the original storyline and adding their own personal experience. By participating in this project the students have learned how to make films by using different kinds of editing programs along with discovering Jewish history from Central Europe, also being directors, scriptwriters and actors at the same time. 

The films created by these students will be shown at the Students’ Film Festival of Hasdeu – the 5th edition (FF5EH).