Lower V visit the British Film Institute

A day of Spanish

Katherine Flynn and Helena Trickey, Lower V Alpha, report on the visit to the British Film Institute on Tuesday 10^th May for a day discovering Hispanic cinema.  First, we hear from Katherine Flynn:

‘Hola! On Tuesday, the Lower V Spanish class took a trip uptown to the Southbank for an interesting workshop based around the theme of Spanish films or, as the Spanish say: “las películas”.

We started the day by taking the tube to the Southbank after registration. When we arrived, we went into the BFI Southbank. Despite the rain, the atmosphere was buzzing and the auditorium was packed with other students.

After taking our seats in the cinema, we watched a presentation which began with an introduction to Spanish film vocabulary. Part of the presentation included watching trailers for Spanish films, which we then discussed as a group. We took part in a number of interactive activities, and Katya and Rossy even went on stage to perform a conversation which they had written from the perspective of two characters from the film.

After a fun-filled morning, we took a lunch break and when we returned to the cinema, we watched the film: “Instructions not Included”. This was a humorous film that explored family relationships and had many plot twists which kept the whole class entertained.

Once the film was over, we headed back to school on the tube. Gracias Señor Alejandro y Señorita Gandi, fue muy divertido.’

Helena Trickey adds:

‘On Tuesday 10^th May the Lower V GCSE Spanish students went to the BFI in London to participate in a Spanish film presentation. In the morning we received booklets, which were used throughout the day to gain an understanding of the different aspects of films although they were in a different language. We watched trailers and short films and then participated in different activities based on them, which allowed me to broaden my Spanish film vocabulary. My favourite moment was when people went up and performed their role plays based on one of the short films, as I heard everybody else’s pronunciations and ideas.

In the afternoon we watched a film called ‘Instructions not Included’. In my opinion I thought it was a very engaging and uplifting film, comedic at times. Despite there being English subtitles in the Spanish film, as a class we managed to pick up some of the dialogue and what the meaning was behind the film.

Overall, we all thoroughly enjoyed this day as it incorporated education and fun. Not only did I gain a deeper understanding of Spanish language used in films I also found the whole day really interesting and very enjoyable.’