Teaching through Film

Abstract

Film can be used for multiple educational purposes in the support of students’ learning. It can be used at the beginning of a unit to generate avenues for discussion or exploration, at the end of a unit to illustrate ideas that have already been studied through other formats, or to integrate multiple themes that have been considered across the curriculum. Some of its functions are to encourage the exploration of multiple perspectives, to teach specific histories, to provide guides for action, and to illustrate complex concepts. This chapter explores the ways these different functions can advance learning by focusing on one particular scene in particular. The scene is “The Decision” in Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom, a dramatization of the Republican forces’ struggle against General Franco’s coup in the Spanish Civil War.