A multinational group of educators who are members of the World Forum Foundation community
have embarked on a journey to create a documentary called Voices of Children.
The documentary aims to expand on the Convention on the Rights of the Child by advocating for
a more inclusive view of children's rights from the perspective of the children themselves.
The first part of the project, we travel to India and Singapore.
What would it look like for videographers and social scientists from Brazil to come together
with educators from the United States and Singapore and come to India and Singapore
where Bhashma knows the cultural context and think about not only how do we listen, how
do we speak about rights, but how do we document and make it visible.
In that process, we really experimented with a lot of ways in which children could open
door up to us and give us some little entry points to start conversing.
So children were engaging with cameras, they were looking at the pictures they had taken.
They became documentaries of our process and of each other, of their environment.
We gave them the opportunity to use drawing as a language.
We looked at movement as a language.
We looked at food as a language in a way, even play.
What was amazing to me was that children wanted to talk.
They wanted to be heard one and a half hours.
The more energy that we had, despite all the obstacles we had around filming, it wasn't
like we were trying to hide the camera.
Children became aware of that, that this was sort of an affirmation, you're listening to
me, I'm going to be visible in this.
This project has become much more than the creation of a powerful documentary.
As teams of international educators and videographers travel to carefully chosen locations in the
world, working together and working with various groups of teachers and community advocates,
a profound understanding of how to listen to and honor children's thoughts and ideas
is emerging.
Schools that participate are changed.
Educators who are part of the planning and logistics teams are changed.
A powerful tool is being created that will effectively demonstrate children's understanding
of what connects us all as human beings.
I think this is going to be a documentary that's not going to be exploiting children.
That's really going to be an honest attempt to present, to enable, to give them voice.
That's what's called voices of children, right?
That's right.
That's how I do.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you!
Thank you very much.
