Conservation Conversations: Archive Film and Environmentalism

Conservation Conversations is a new short film (rated PG) that uses archive footage from the Yorkshire and North East collections of the Yorkshire Film Archive. The subjects in these films capture and reveal the shifting concerns regarding issues which radically impact on our environment over the decades.

Protecting the environment is one of the major issues of our time and is a subject that provokes debate and action across all generations. The job at the Yorkshire Film Archive is to protect, preserve, and create access to the way these issues have been documented over time,  and collect and conserve contemporary footage to continue to build a collection that reflects a range of perspectives from people today. The video, Conservation Conversations, can be viewed above.

In conjunction with the film, we at Into Film, we have created a new resource that can be used in the classroom to generate conversations about environmentalism and our changing world.

Whilst this film guide is intended for use in Secondary classrooms, we also have a number of questions that can be utilised for Primary students as well, in order to get them thinking more deeply about the various archive clips they have just been shown. Some questions to get the discussion going could include:

• What do you think the big trucks were doing at the start of the film?
• What are some of the things you saw in the film you think are bad for the environment?
• What are some of the children doing in the film?
• What do you think can be done with the large amounts of plastic shown in the film?

Be sure to keep a look out for Conservation Conversations being played before all of Into Film's Spring Screenings, our U.K.-wide series of free screenings that will explore the theme of 'changing times' through a host of vibrant films.

We hope you enjoy both the film and our resource and look forward to an inspiring new decade of environmental conservation.