Bib For Kids – No Seven Year's Itch This Time
Bib for Kids. Zagreb Film Festival's special program for schoolchildren. Seven years ago it was our new asset – something unknown. Today? It is one of ZFF brands, named after Bib – the pinkheaded mascot of the festival. I am in permanent contact with the teachers who take their classes to watch the Bib for Kids program because my activities in the area of children's film are not limited to Bib for Kids only. I discuss other issues with them, too. Nevertheless, in early September, they all start asking me: "So, what can we expect from Bib for Kids this year"? This means we are doing a good job. The marriage between Bib for Kids and Zagreb Film Festival has been working fine for seven years in a row now, despite the superstition. Bib for Kids has a wider variety of films than ever. Last year we introduced Bib for Kids Creative Film Workshop for the first time. The fiction film Apparitions, made during the workshop, was included in the official program of the 51st Review of Croatian Children's Films. It is an excellent motive to take part in this year's workshop that will take place on the two weekends preceding Bib for Kids (12-13 and 19-20 October), from 10.00 to 16.00. It will be conducted by Jure Troje, a teacher from Ivan Goran Kovačić Elementary School. The film that fifteen or so participants between 9 and 14 years of age will make at the workshop will be shown as a warm-up program of a sort at one of the Bib for Kids screenings. The film will be thus immediately rated by approximately 500 young film critics that watch every screening. More than 18,000 schoolchildren have seen Bib for Kids films so far. Some of them come every year and the program has been an integral part of their growing up. Like every year, Bib for Kids has prepared something for everybody:
Tom Sawyer And His Friends – the timeless story about Tom Sawyer and his friends has been relocated from the banks of the Mississippi to the post-WWII Germany. Another place, another time, but the story works better than ever.
Death Of A Superhero – Although he is only 15, Donald is slowly fading away due to advanced cancer. However, he doesn't give up. He finds hope in comics in which he creates a superhero – his alter ego of a sort. This moral tale about how an end can be a new beginning is ideal for elementary-school kids who are about to become teenagers and think that everything has conspired against them, not knowing that life for them is just beginning.
Short but sweet children's films – Once again Bib for Kids presents a program of short films. They come from all over the world: Belgium, Croatia, Brazil, Vietnam, Denmark and Sweden. Regardless of the part of world we are in, the subjects intended for young audience are universal: childhood friends, family relations, encounters with different cultures… This is not just an entertainment program – it's educational, too! I am particularly pleased with the fact that Croatian film Jona's Arc by Stanislav Tomić will have its premiere at Bib for Kids, when all the film crew will be presented to the audience.
Forever Yours – For the first time, Bib for Kids will present a documentary film. Awarded at numerous festivals, the film takes us to the world of foster children. They are neither adopted nor totally abandoned – they are always somewhere in between. It is a film about search for love – love which, sadly, is not something that goes without saying for all children.
The Secret In The Old Attic – A children's hit film from the childhood of our parents: two boys, Miro from Zagreb and Pepek from Prague, both amateur radio operators, are spending summer holidays on the island of Hvar. They discover a strange invention of Miro's late great-grandfather from the First World War – the antigravity cannon. It attracts attention of international spies… The film crew will attend the screening. It will be interesting to see Mario Mirković and Rene Bitorajac, now popular actors, as kids who are making their first steps in acting.
Saturday is reserved for the grand finale that will also include BAFTA British short films.
As in the past two years, Bib for Kids will be taking place in two venues in Zagreb, on both sides of the river Sava: Cinema Europa and the theater in the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art. Besides good movies, the morning and afternoon screenings there will offer children and their parents and grandparents numerous other surprises. But this is not all. Our goal is to extend Bib for Kids program in Cinema Europa throughout the year. In addition to excellent films for young film lovers, various workshops would be organized. For why should Bib for Kids last only five days a year? What's with the remaining 360 days? It is up to you, dear and faithful audience, to help us achieve this goal.
Marija Ratković Vidaković, Bib for Kids Coordinator