My good old friend Mike Tidd, Curriculum Leader at Cove School, Hampshire had a nice little article in SecEd last month about using Film in Geography. In the article Mike talks about his experiences of using film with his geography classes and also lists some of his favorite geography films.
You can access the full article here.
Mike lists his top ten geography films as:
- Slumdog Millionaire – Life within shanty towns of Mumbai
- Brassed Off – Industrial decline in the UK
- The Day after Tomorrow – Climate change has never been so traumatic
So, what would your top three Geography films be and why? Leave your answers below…
My top 3 would be:
1. Touching the Void - great for conveying a sense of place about mountain environments
2. West Side Story for exploring push and pull factors and starting an investigation into migration and how communities are built
3. Over the Hedge, for urbanisation and effects of development on habitats
Although I could be a little skewed as these are also the films I have used recently!
Posted by: David Rogers | May 14, 2009 at 07:33 AM
My top 3 would be:
1. Dante's Peak - resources on using it here: http://www.geographyalltheway.com/year9_geography/hazards/tectonic_hazards/volcano_facts_fiction.htm
2. The Day after Tomorrow - always starts quality discussion.
3. Bend it like Beckham - great at looking at social integration.
Richard Allaway
Posted by: Richard Allaway | May 14, 2009 at 10:37 AM
My top 3 films that I used...
1. Wall-E: giant corporations and recycling...
2. The Full Monty: sweary Mary after the first scenes though...
3. Ice Age - short film at the end which explains continental drift as being caused by acorns
Posted by: Alan Parkinson | May 14, 2009 at 07:13 PM
In no particular order!
1. Falling Down - a great illustration of how LA is divided through cultural and social geography.
2. Dark Days - a documentary about the "mole" people of New York. Illustrative of an alternative geography.
3. Waltz with Bashir - a great depiction of the effects of a man's struggle to understand conflict
Posted by: Andy Wallis | May 14, 2009 at 08:35 PM
1. Again 'The Day after tomorrow' especially looking at the Larsen Ice Shelf
2. 'The Constant Gardener' making of sections great for life in LEDC and also case study on Kibera in Nairobi
3. 'Baraka' - has it all and should be compulsory for all pupils
Posted by: Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop | May 14, 2009 at 08:49 PM
I would dispute that "Depute" Headteacher is the correct spelling ;-)
Other than that I would feel a bit uneasy about using films that have been produced by the entertainment industry since -like the film rendering of any novel- will never be quite the original. That said, there are still a lot of matter-of-factual films to be had, q.v. http://cambridge.films.com/Subject.aspx?psid=0&SubjectID=967 et al.
Posted by: Franz | May 14, 2009 at 09:39 PM
Blood Diamond
Brassed Off
East is East
Posted by: Mark Ollis | May 14, 2009 at 10:32 PM
One Giant Leap (music/geography/culture)
Gran Tornino (2nd/3rd generation familes in America)
Star Trek IV (Urban culture changing with technology and environmentalism)
Posted by: Stephen Thomas | May 15, 2009 at 11:56 AM
1 - Babel
2 - Blood Diamond / Hotel Rwanda
3- The Day After Tomorrow
Posted by: Pedro Damiao | May 18, 2009 at 12:41 AM