Combined Output Portfolio: Colours of the Alphabet & article
- Submitting institution
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University of the West of Scotland
- Unit of assessment
- 34 - Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
- Output identifier
- 21178912
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
- February
- Year
- 2016
- URL
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http://beta.uws.io/2020/03/01/ref-practice-based-research-portfolio-nick-higgins/
- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This combined output portfolio submission includes 3 research outputs: the practice-based output/feature length documentary, Colours of the Alphabet, a journal article that discusses the nature of the collaborative project and an impact report that tells the story of how we collaborated with UNESCO to release the film in 30 languages across 54 countries in Africa.
Colours of the Alphabet employed the methodology of creative documentary filmmaking to explore the reality of being educated in a foreign tongue. The film has received 56 international festival screenings, secured an audience of over 200,000 and recently screened globally as the key event for the United Nations International Mother Language Day celebrations.
UNESCO have calculated that over 40% of the world’s population are not educated in their mother tongue and that the failure to do so seriously limits a child’s prospects as well as leading to a lack of confidence and pride in their own culture. Colours of the Alphabet successfully captures the process of linguistic acculturation in a mono-linguistic educational environment and makes this process and its affects visible for the first time.
The experience of children in rural Zambia was captured during a period of 9 months fieldwork and the film follows the progress of three children and their families as they encountered school for the first time. In Zambia there are over 71 indigenous languages but all children are educated in English, a language ultimately spoken by only 2% of adult Zambians.
With over 100 hours of footage and several indigenous languages involved, the edit process lasted several years with input from several editors including the Oscar nominated Danish practitioner Niels Pagh Andersen. In May 2018 the film was awarded the Best Children’s Rights Film Award at the UNICEF sponsored Children’s Rights Film Festival.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -