What Educators Can Learn from Filmmakers

Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are and wherever you're watching from. My name is Matt Pearce, host of the Visual Lounge. And today we're going to be talking about trep. And if you haven't heard of Tref, you should, because it's an educational film fest based in Troms, Norway.

And I have a great opportunity to go and be part of the conference to hear and watch these great films and learn from other educators about film. So we're going to be talking to some of the organizers today about the conference, about things that we can learn from watching films and ideas that come from opportunities of gathering. And so let's go ahead and jump in today and introduce our guests. So welcome everybody.

We've got a full house today. We're going to have just you introduce yourselves real quickly. Tia, would you be willing to go first? My name is Tia Kren and I work at the at UiT, the Arctic University of Norway, as a senior counselor and video producer.

And I make video videos and films and other multimedia for teaching purposes here at the university. Fantastic. All right, Natalie, would you go next? And if I say your names wrong, I'm trying really hard.

No worries. It's not wrong to say Natalie like that. My name is Natalia Blomstrang. I'm a senior advisor at the research here at the university, the uit, the Arctic University of Norway.

And I also work as a learning designer here where I make multimedia for educational purposes, amongst other things. Yeah, fantastic. Well, thank you. And Terje?

Yeah. My name is Tarje Vargli. I'm also a colleague of Natalia and Tia. I work as an ed tech advisor here at the university.

I've been here for 17 years, I think, so I work with producing educational content for our students. Fantastic. So I'm so thrilled to have each of you here to talk about Tref. So maybe if one of you would be willing to tell us what is tref?

What's the idea behind it? Why is there a film fest, Educational film festival in Northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle, which seems not like a place of high cinema necessarily. So it's kind of an interesting. Not only location, but interesting idea.

Well, I can start. Some years ago, we were looking for a festival because we work with the educational film and we felt that there was not giving credit for the work that we do and that the faculty staff does to create and promote educational films. So we started looking for festivals or places that. Where we could.

That we could find, that we could show off what we are, what we are making. But we Couldn't find any festivals. There was one in Finland that we visited and there was one in Iran. I think that was one of the most.

One of the festivals that had been going on for, for quite a while, but Iran is probably not the place to go to right now. So we started working four years ago with, with our own idea of what a film festival should be. So in 2024, we, we establish or we held the first Tref Film Festival. Yeah.

Oh, go ahead, please. Yeah, yeah, I was, I thought I could just tell what TREF is and Trump's Education Film Festival. And it's a place where we want to connect filmmakers and educators and to promote film as a teaching tool to see how you can use film in the pedagogical way. So it's both the film festival where we watch educational films, but also a conference where we discuss the potential that the films have or learning and teaching.

Yeah. I will say one of the things that really impressed me is that. And obviously if you're going to a film festival, you expect kind of really high quality. But the amazing.

The thing was I was just blown away by what educators were creating. It's pretty fantastic. So tell us a little bit, like, because it can seem like, I think that there's film that, that is, you know, really well produced. It's very cinematic, it's beautiful.

And then there's education. We. And we see a lot of it. I see a lot of education films that are, you know, it's like a lecture style or it's not necessarily using film techniques.

So what are some of the challenges of finding these pedagogical kind of pieces that actually bring together both film and kind of learning? Is that challenging? Is there lots of it out there, do you think? Yeah, I believe so.

I believe that there exists a lot of films that are educational films, but I think that many people believe that educational films is like this talking head with a PowerPoint behind. But actually educational films is much more than only that. It's like co creation between the educator and the filmmaker where we make films for a pedagogical framework. So the film is supposed to exist within our framework.

Yeah. So it's a small field yet, but still an important field in education. Well, so let me ask this as. As you think about that, because it is small and it does seem like there's lessons to be learned.

What is something that. Now you've done two of these conference film festivals, you've watched probably. Well, you probably all had to watch all the selections. So you've probably watched hundreds of films, but we watched 25 this year during the conference.

What. What's a lesson you wish educators would take away from film that they could apply more readily? Because I know working with the educators, I do sometimes, again, it's just the talking head. Is there a lesson you think to be learned that you wish all educators would apply or many educators would apply?

One thing that we can mention is what we often see is that educators try to. Like Natalie says about the talking head, they try to fit every subject into one video, every lecture into one video. But we often try to fragment and get them to create the video in smaller parts. And educational film often requires some kind of activity connected to it.

So it's important to have something. Whether you see the film first or whether you. Whether you have the activity during the film or if you have the activity after the film. It's very important to have some kind of active measures taking place before, during, or after the screening so that you can anchor the learning objective in some way.

So that's kind of important. We feel. Absolutely. And also we said that the educators that come to the festival that they will be inspired and to see.

For instance, I talked to some participants and in advance they had been thinking like, oh, I don't know how interesting the films will be because they are not about my professional field. But when they attended the festival and saw those films, they were really surprised because they were actually interesting for them in the sense that they got new ideas of how to. How. What kind of forms you can use.

For instance, when you make educational films, different types of films and different types of tools that in the productions, like, we wish that the educators see that film is a different kind of tool than lecture or other learning resources and that they actually utilize those possibilities that that form of communication gives. So that's been nice to hear that it's because it's not the content of the film that is important in this setting, but more the content of the film that is important, but the way that it's made to enhance learning.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I noticed that because there was a wide variety of topics and discussions that happened around each of the films. And I'll be honest, I think I was part of that. Like, oh, gosh, am I going to be interested in.

In what's being this topic or is going to be shown? And it was so amazing to hear from all these different disciplines too, like that. And I think that's maybe another takeaway is that the. It felt like this film wasn't just for one maybe area or discipline.

It, it really did cover so many different topics and it was really amazing to see what, what these filmmakers were doing, the styles and approaches, you know, everything from things for, for children to, you know, we call them grade schoolers, middle schoolers in the, in the U.S. you know, those kind of middle ages of school and then even for college students and frankly many adults could benefit from some of the topics that were covered. So I just so fascinating.

So I appreciate that your approach that, you know, film, it's great to watch and look at. Oh, it's a good topic, but it's also about how did they approach that topic, which I think is an important lesson. So as you're, as you're working through festivals and you're looking, you all, like I said, watch all the films before it goes to the jury, you're kind of selecting and I don't want you to give away any secrets or anything that you shouldn't say. You don't want to tip the scales to people doing things to get into the festival or whatever.

But are there things that particularly that filmmakers and these educators are doing that catch your eye that say, oh, that, that's something we're looking for in the films that we're going, we want to screen and show. Is there an element about them that you know, stands out? Or, or is it maybe it's always different depending, depending on the film? Yeah, I can say that of course we look for some diversity.

We want to show that educational films can be a lot of different things. It don't have to only be a film, standalone film, documentary. It can be a case that is used for reflection. It can also be a project with VR or 360 videos.

So we want to show the diversity of films also as well as some high end films. But also we want to show that educators can make films themselves also. So therefore we try to implement some more low budget films that educators also can make themselves. So they can see that it's not that difficult.

I don't have to be a Hollywood filmmaker to make films kind of. Yeah. And we also experienced that at the festival that some, some of the teachers or who teach at the university that they came to us and told that they had got really inspired by the films that they have been seeing because they had maybe previously also thought about making films for the teaching and for, about their research. But now they were kind of thinking to throw those ideas out and they were full of new ideas.

And that's really nice for us to hear because that's one of our goals to inspire the educators to see that film can be used in so many different ways. Yeah, I, I will say I was impressed also just some of the diversity. I know there was. We screened a film from the Norwegian Police Department that was, I mean, probably couldn't have been super high budget, but I, it just was memorable because it was.

They used humor very effectively. But it was a great. To me that was a great example of how a film didn't have to be super high budget. But it was also amazing on the other end to see what some of these truly moving, you know, heart wrenching pieces that also were educating about, you know, what was happening in the world.

So I'm glad that educators are getting inspired. So for you all, what's next for Tref? Because Tref is obviously it's a. Well, maybe not obviously.

So every year. It's not every year, it's every two years. So next one is 2028. What's the hope for the next festival?

Any dreams, goals, aspirations? Well, we have had an evaluation of this year's festival and the feedback has been very positive. So we are extremely glad that people that came had benefited from the, from being there. And we are, we are keen to go on in 2028 to, to try to recruit even more people from.

We are an international film festival, but Scandinavia and, and we also have. Maybe Tion or Natalia can correct me. We have had contributions for I think. How many countries were there?

Do you remember when it's seven. Well, in, in the submissions we had like films from 20 over 20 different countries. And in the program. I, I don't remember, but it was.

So we tried to. Yeah, we tried to make it so. So like we can get different cultures and different inputs on what educational film is throughout the world. And not just.

Not in Norway but in Scandinavia and in Europe and in Africa. We had last year very excellent films from Africa as well. So we try to make it a worldwide contribution for, for educational film and also. Yeah, that's, that's, that's one of our focuses to, to expand.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, that would be wonderful. So if anyone's listening to this and they're saying that sounds interesting, obviously it's not time to submit yet. Got some time to keep working on the films.

What, what does that process look like? Because I'm, I'm curious for. So, you know, my guess is there's people out there who are working on stuff and maybe they're not even. They're thinking about their educators.

They're Thinking about the process, or maybe they're an educator, they're like trying to create something. What does that process look like for just submission, just out of curiosity, to have someone thinking about, like, hey, do I have something that I could submit to to a festival like Tref? Yeah. So we.

We will open the submissions, I think 2027, early in 2027. And we use Film Freeway for. As a platform for the submissions, so anybody can go there and create the profile and submit their projects to us. And what they should think about is if they can describe how they think this film can promote learning and if they even have the project is a part of some kind of teaching program, or if they have thoughts about the pedagogical use of that film, then they can be sure that it's the right place, that Ref is the right place.

And yeah, we hope as many as possible want to send their films to us. Just. And the more films for you all to watch. We love to watch film and we love to get inspired by films that we see.

And it's not always about the technical part of the film because we value the film in different categories. And it's always a great mix between pedagogical focus and also the context around the film, but also the film itself that it's a good film, but also it doesn't have to be the technical best film, but if it's serves a purpose in an educational context, it's definitely a film to submit to us. Yeah. I just also wanted to say that we also want films that show innovative ways of using educational films in a teaching setting.

So we welcome all kinds of films and projects that are trying out how to use educational films. Yeah, I'll mention that on a previous episode, I did interview Time Daewoo, who was at the film festival, and he's a YouTube creator. And I think that's the nice contrast, right, is you've got people who are educators, professors working in university. You've got like the Norwegian Police Academy, which is an educational institution, but then you had this youtuber who was there to create educational content.

So I do think that's. It's nice to see the variety and hopefully that continues. So maybe that's just my encouragement. Excuse me.

That's my encouragement to anyone listening that if you've got a film that you think is educational, you've got some video that you think is unique or takes a unique approach. Maybe this is an opportunity to showcase it. Does that. Does that sound fair from the group?

Is that. Is that appropriate? Good. Well, as we get close to wrapping up here, obviously as you watch the films, there's always things to learn.

I'd love to hear from each of you, what's something from this year's festival that you were inspired by or learned that you either are going to apply, hope to apply or try? Is there something that you took away from this year's festival? Now granted, I understand you're also all very busy during the festival and you weren't maybe locked in at watching. You were doing all the behind the scenes things.

But I know you, you've seen those films. So was there something from this year that you took away from, from the films that we watched that you would like to share? For me there was. I also like the keynotes and this year was an excellent keynote or two excellent keynote speaking.

So the keynotes for me are essential for the film festival in addition to the films, of course. So we have a couple of keynotes every year. It's a nice mix, right, because you got films and you've got some educational content to mix in there. For me, I think it was cool that we had several different filmmakers that also was educators.

So I really want that we want for us to continue with giving them also an arena to show their work kind of. I actually there was one, there was a film this year about ethics and that has stuck with me. In fact I went out and found because it's on one of the Norwegian website platforms because Norway has these amazing educational resources available. And I watched other videos from that creator because I think he did the series that was about the ethics question about abortion and then he did one about ethics, like how to disagree and have conversations.

And like I actually sought that out. That's how impressive I thought that that feature was that at having this really great dialogue. So I think that's one thing that for me is a couple things. Norway has an amazing educational system that is supportive of film, which is amazing.

But two, these creators are doing stuff that is really impactful. Like I saw so many videos that I'm like, like really impacted by. Like I've thought about, you know, we're. We're a month past over a month away and I still think I'm thinking about what I saw and what I felt and the impact that has.

So I'm just going to say for me that was. That's incredible to have that kind of impact as a, as a creator, to have someone still thinking about your work even well after the time maybe they had to. And I'm not required to Take that professor's class. But if I was a student, that's what I would want.

That would be a fan. That was a fantastic piece for me, at least. And there's so many educators out there making exceptional educational films. That deserves a broader audience or at least a recognition for.

For making those films for the students, because they're a very good educational. They are. They deserve to get a broader audience. So it's nice for you to acknowledge that or to see that, and it's nice for us to hear that you went back and saw more of.

Of this creator's film. And also, I also. When looking back at the festival, what hits me also is that it's allowed to have fun with education films is a way of expressing education in a different way and make education fun in a different way. So a lot of the filmmakers and educators at TREF 2026 just had fun with the education, and I think that also inspires for students to learn.

Yeah, that's true. And I also was surprised by some of the films, like how they used interactivity in a way that I haven't seen before, because we talk about that the films should be a part of a context with the other learning resources or learning activities. But there was, for example, one film that was really. Did it really well integrated in the film, the interactivity.

So the learning activity was done while you watch the film. And that was quite inspiring. Yeah, the learning. It's interesting because learning from a kind of.

I think. I think the other day you even said this earlier. Learning. Learning doesn't happen in the film.

It happens in your head. It happens, you know, during and after the, The. The viewing of these things. And so I, I love that point.

Well, thank you all for taking time to be with me here on the podcast to talk to me about Tref. And, you know, it was really a highlight of experience for me to be. Be able to be part of that and to. To view it.

And I hope our list, my listeners, those folks out there, will consider this as something that they should put on their bucket list to do for whether it's a 2028 or a future one, because it really is a fantastic experience if you're serious about learning and about video and film. So as we wrap up, if people want to learn more about Tref about any of you, how do you want to do this? One of you want to be a spokesperson here and talk about how people can learn more. If you want to learn more about educational films and TRAFF and what we do, you can Visit our webpage.

We have also an Instagram and we have a Facebook where you can reach us and we're very active. So if you send us a dm we can, we will answer you. So yeah, feel free to take to contact us. Yeah and we will make sure links are in the con the descriptions below so people can easily.

What's your final take? I don't know, maybe for the we working with sometimes old faculty members and stuff or staff learning how to do video. But what we see now is there's a new generation arriving from that where video is practically their primary medium of communication. So it's important that they treat video as a functional cog in a pedagogical wheel and not just another swipe in the doom scrolling.

But I think the generations that's coming, they are aware of this and we see a shift now where the videos are being treat it as fragment in what I talked about before. Fragment of educational. Educational context. So that's my input now.

I'm just really happy and thankful for the opportunity to create this festival to make it happen and everyone who came and all the people that we have met. And I'm really happy about that because we work with this every day. But it's not a lot of networking possibilities. So it's been really nice to see this year that same people came back and we also got new friends and I'm looking forward to the next time already.

Yeah. My final take is that it's allowed to have fun with education and I think that is something that we are doing. We have fun with films and education and it's a really fun crew that meet up at ref and learn from each other and share experiences and get inspired from educational films. So educators shouldn't be afraid to try to use films and be inspired by others that is doing the same and just have fun with it.

It's not scary to make movies. You can't do anything wrong. I love it. Well, thank you each for joining me in the Visual Lounge.

Appreciate you guys so much. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. All right everybody, as we wrap up here, just again a shout out to the crew at Tref and all the great things that they're doing over there.

And I, I, I seriously, if it's not on your list of things to do, consider it because it's a fantastic experience, one that I will treasure and looking forward to going back for sure. So with that said, one of the goals of the Visual Lounge, of course is we want you to get better. We want, we want you to think about using film and video as for an educational purposes. We want you to get better at your skill sets.

We want you to get better at thinking about learning and pedagogy and all those types of things that make you more effective at helping to educate and teach, train and do all that good work. And with that said, we know you got to keep working at it, and we hope you take a little time to level up every single day. Thanks, everybody.