UN to hold film festival for children

JAKARTA: To mark the International Year of Biodiversity, the UN and its international partners plan to kick off the 1st Science Film Festival Indonesia on Monday.

The two-week film festival, which would take place simultaneously in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand, would screen 28 international films featuring various themes including the origins of black holes, human genes, rainforests and long space voyages.

“The main target group is youngsters between the ages of 9 and 16, yet the range of films is large and other age groups will enjoy the films too. The festival approaches schools in the wider Jakarta area to send classes to the venues,” the Goethe-Institut Indonesia, the festival organizer, said in a press statement.

Children attending the screenings will not only be able to watch films, though. With experiments and quizzes on the content of the films, children will immediately become a part of the world of science and will be encouraged to think about what they have just seen, the organizers say.

The festival began in Bangkok in 2005. Since then it has grown significantly with more than 110,000 visitors last year. — JP