(Re)Viewing European Stories: the activities are going live!

(Re)Viewing European Stories is an educational project that aims to encourage and promote historical-critical thinking among high school students and teachers. As the main project’s results, the partners conceived three interactive learning activity ideas ((Re)Viewing European Stories | EUscreen - EUscreen), which are intended to widen students’ perspectives on European history and provide better context and explanations of the events covered in many curricula. The activities investigate the history and dynamics of European borderlands where remembrance is linked to a difficult past and the political and social changes that have resulted from the dramatic historical processes of the 20th century, incorporating local narratives as well as visual documentation.

Activity 1 - Same time, different place

Activity 1 | EUscreen - EUscreen

In this activity, students are introduced to three individuals who witnessed and experienced life in borderland regions. They are asked to find out more about each of the individuals and learn more about their social, political, economical and cultural backgrounds. The archival films tell borderland stories from three different parts of Europe: the Polish-Lithuanian borderland, Mostar, and the Cross-catalan region. These stories come from different time periods but are connected through the same keywords: mobility, neighbourhood, borderland.

Activity 2 - Borders that save, move & divide

Activity 2 | EUscreen - EUscreen

This activity aims to show three different roles a border can play in a specific historical context: in Mostar, a bridge sharply divides and defines who is who in the conflict. In the Catalan cross-country region, the border between Spain and France is the one and only way out and is recognised as a destination for refuge. In the Lithuanian-Polish region, the border itself moves, while people remain in place, as they try to find and define themselves in a new political situation.

Activity 3 - Now and then

Activity 3 | EUscreen - EUscreen

The authors of the three films focused on the past and memories, but the fact that the movies were made in the present gives the viewer the chance to compare the “now and then” perspectives. The task is primarily designed to help students realise that everything they hear and see is a narrative someone created to show and comment on the world (either the present or the past) from a particular perspective. Students will have to study not only the contents of the film, but also the way it was edited by the authors: What is pictured in the film? What words are used when describing the past and present? What pictures were selected to illustrate those words.