CHARLIE GOES TO SCHOOL (Peter Wyeth, GB 2009)
Regia/dir., scen., f./ph., narr: Peter Wyeth; mont./ed: Angelica Landry; mus: “Easy St.” soundtrack extract; canzoni/songs: “Smile”, “The Lambeth Walk”, “Any Old Iron” (performed by the schoolchildren); cast: Alan Parkinson (tutor), Rene (Junior’s mother), John & Jean (Luke’s grandparents), Tony Merrick (Chaplin guide), Ilse Mikula (artist), Kay Walsh (community artist); HD video, 25', col., sonoro/sound; fonte copia/source: Peter Wyeth.
Versione originale in inglese / English dialogue and narration.
How can you interest children between the ages of 5 and 10, in a poor Inner-London area, in history, specifically in the history of Victorian London? That is the task that Alan Parkinson, tutor in education at London South Bank University, gave to his student teachers. Every year he tries to give his students an opportunity to experiment with creative teaching. He’s also a Chaplin fan, who has written a book, Chaplin’s South London.
Alan sent his students into the Kennington and Walworth areas, where Chaplin grew up in the 1890s, to teach local primary-school kids about Victorian London through Charlie’s story. Chaplin moved over 30 times as a child, with spells in the Workhouse when he was only 9 years old. He was thrown out on the street by a drunken stepmother and left to fend for himself at the age of 10.
The students went into Walworth schools in April, and at the end of June the project culminated in a show, staged by the 300-plus children who had taken part, at the Unicorn Theatre, on the South Bank of the Thames, and attended by Charlie Chaplin’s youngest son, Christopher. This documentary follows the student teachers as they introduce 21st-century children to the most famous local boy in South London – born in the 19th century.
Walworth today is still a poor area, less than a mile from the Houses of Parliament, and home to new generations of multi-ethnic Londoners. Can Chaplin appeal to children born a century later, with very different cultural backgrounds, and – behind the laughter – how could their young lives have anything in common with that of the world’s first movie superstar? – Peter Wyeth
