By Jodi Bustos
Eagle News Service
Delegates from the 10-member nations of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam — gathered for the first-ever Southeast Asia Prix Jeunesse (SEA PJ) at the Peninsula Manila from November 27 to 29, 2017.
SEA PJ is a prestigious international video festival for children’s media, spearheaded by the Anak TV Foundation, an advocacy organization that promotes television literacy and pushes the agenda for child-sensitive, family-friendly television in the Philippines.
Twenty finalists from the ASEAN countries were to be presented during the event, 10 of which came from the Philippines.
Short films featuring issues affecting or confronting kids and other films and documentaries for children which represented the best ASEAN youth-themed films were on the spotlight.
Elvira Yap Go of Anak TV Foundation said the jurors studied all the entries very carefully.
There were more than 40 film and documentary entries submitted for Prix Jeunesse. From these, the entries were trimmed to just 20 finalists.
Highlights of the event included inspirational talks from experts from Asia on educational content for children, and learning sessions on creative and visual story telling for kids and creative film making for the youth, hands-on activities for kids, group discussions, and film screenings.
On Monday, Nov. 27, the first day of the event, Dr. Hyunsook Chung of the EBS Korea talked about success stories in children’s entertainment in Southeast Asia.
On Tuesday, Nov. 28, the second day of the event, Mr. Mizuto Tanaka, Secretary General of Japan Prize, NHK will share his thoughts about the latest trends of the world’s educational content.
EBS Korea is a children’s educational television and radio network covering South Korean territory, while NHK is Japan’s national public broadcasting organization.
After the scheduled talks, screening for the top two competing films per category followed.
For the learning sessions for children, there will be two: visual storytelling using ordinary gadgets to capture images; and series of visual storytelling.
Children will also get to practice what they learned from their learning sessions through capturing images at the SEAPJ and around the festival venue on the first day which will be presented through photo gallery on the following day.
Another main event for the second day is the Heart Award where delegates and attendees will be given a piece of heart which they can use to cast one vote from the array of photos shot by the children during the festival.
Announcement of winners per film category and for the awarding of the Best Photo by children will be on Nov. 29, Wednesday, the last day of the event
(with video report from Jerold Tagbo, Eagle News Service)
