Ready, steady, go. Locarno Kids could not miss out on the rendez-vous with the future, and through Locano 2020 it is ready to ignite an explosion of creativity with the HomeMade Movies project, welcoming the new main sponsor la Mobiliare, into the family. The younger Locarno viewers, to whom the Festival has been devoting special screenings and workshops for years, have been called upon in this year of the industry being on hold, to restart things by creating a stop motion short film. Will it be hard? Not with Claude Barras as mentor.
In the beginning, there was a Zucchini
Remember My Life as a Zucchini (2016), the Swiss animated film that made its way to Oscar night in 2017? Well, Claude Barras is the filmmaker who thought of it, crafted it and brought it to life on the big screen. And for the next few weeks, up to the beginning of Locarno 2020, he will assist the children in their stop motion endeavor with video tutorials, available on the Festival's YouTube channel and this page. Here are the first one and here the second one. Off we go, then.
Make way for the young ones
First the masters, then the stars. For the next few weeks, the spotlight will be on Barras and his team, unveiling the secrets of animation step by step. Then it will be up to the children who, having discovered the techniques of stop motion, will get to create their own short, recounting their relationship with the environment, perhaps with some assistance from family, friends and classmates.
Towards Locarno 2021
Thanks to the support of the project's new main sponsor, La Mobiliare, Locarno Kids HomeMade Movies will be a cornucopia of ideas, characters, adventure and animation. The theme is environmentalism, and the rules consist of stealing Claude's ideas and having fun with them. The results will be unveiled in 2021, with the shorts being part of the official program of the next Locarno Film Festival. In fact, starting next year, the kid-friendly screenings will increase, and become a proper official section.
Lili Hinstin, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival: “I have always thought of the Locarno Film Festival as an event that can give a voice to all parts of society. Together with Swiss Mobiliar we will be supporting a fundamental step forward: to transform Locarno Kids, from next year, into an official section of the Festival, with meetings and screenings in theaters, introducing even the youngest viewers to the magic of the cinema and bringing them closer to the surprises of different gazes and narratives.”
Selection committee member and curator of Locarno Kids, Daniela Persico: “After last year with Lorenzo Mattotti in attendance, we’ll be continuing our journey through cinema’s world of images to break down the walls that have risen up around us and our families during the pandemic. We are grateful to the great director Claude Barras for agreeing to be the figurehead for HomeMade Movies, endorsing a project that puts young people’s creativity right at the center of things, showing us the world as they see it.”
Dorothea Strauss, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Swiss Mobiliar: “Helping young people get a hold on their future creatively and sustainably is of special importance to us. That’s why, for example, we started the youth workshop Atelier du Futur in 2018. So, when the Locarno Film Festival asked us to join in expanding Locarno Kids, we accepted straight away. This is a project that brings together everything we believe in: creativity, concern for the environment and willingness to take on responsibility. That’s the reason why the HomeMade Movies concept was an inspiration for us from the start.”
Locarno Kids is an initiative which is also made possible by the support of the Guastalla Foundation and with input for school and audiovisual education from partners such as the Dipartimento formazione e apprendimento (DFA), the Locarno parents group association Cinemagia (ggl), Castellinaria – Festival del cinema giovane, LAC Edu, the Lanterna Magica Association and LernFilm Festival.
