Primary Schools: Grades IV–VI

During the workshop with artist and director Jaśmina Wójcik, the documentary film “Listen” will serve as a pretext to discuss places of support for children and youth. Helplines and “Children’s Gazette” are spaces where young people can express themselves and share their problems. We will talk about difficult situations that we might encounter in life and how to cope with them. At the end, we will paint emotions to discover an artistic form of their expression.

“Listen”, directed by Astrid Bussink, Netherlands 2017, 15 min, 10+

Life can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially when you’re growing up. It’s not always easy to talk to parents or friends about your problems. Fortunately, the Kindertelefoon (Children’s Helpline) in the Netherlands provides a listening ear. One girl tells that she was practically home alone all week, another is sad because her parents are divorcing. A boy in a refugee center worries about the future, and another boy does not want to be gay and hopes these feelings will pass. Phone call recordings are accompanied by images that add color and beautifully reflect their tone—sometimes in a funny way, but more often sad or heartbreaking.

Topics covered in the film: helpline, conversation, psychologist, emotions, trust, support, parental divorce, separation, loneliness, violence, bullying, alienation.

Jaśmina Wójcik

A visual artist, director, and author of listening-oriented, participatory socio-artistic actions. She focuses on involving and giving voice to communities deprived of visibility and the opportunity to speak out. Co-editor of the book “Art with the Community” (2018) based on her most widely known project—a multi-year action with the community of former workers of the Ursus factory, culminating in the award-winning feature-length creative documentary “Symphony of the Ursus Factory” (2018). For several years, she has been engaged in empathetic education, developing original practices of artistic expression for children. She empowers children, treating them as co-creators and inviting them to dialogue. Currently, Wójcik mainly focuses on grassroots educational practices, which will result in her new film based on Janusz Korczak’s novel “King Matt the First.”