FNA- It’s been years since we discussed that the Ministry of Education should have opened up an opportunity for kids and cinema.

Talking about the importance of the 30th International Film Festival for Children and Young Adults in an interview, Pouran Derakhshandeh, an Iranian film director, said, “Such festivals provide families with an opportunity to get to know their kids’ problems. This festival helps us to perceive the fantasy world of children. So it is very important.”

“If we want to have a generation who can make the country’s future, we should consider that their abilities are rooted in how we as a society care about them. Someone who makes kids’ films should know children and their different life styles so as to produce proper and influential materials,” Derakhshandeh added.

The director of “the Relationship” added, “In my opinion, people who are into making children’ films should be in love, motivated, searching and personally up-to-date. Having a creative mind, they should have the ability to understand the children’s special world so as not to make movies for them as an adult. Filmmakers should match themselves with children’s mind-sets.”

Derakhshandeh finds adding cinema lessons at schools a great idea. She said, “It’s been years since we discussed that the Ministry of Education should have opened up an opportunity for kids and cinema. Nowadays, having a cinema or music lesson at schools is very common all around the world but unfortunately we do not pay enough attention to such important matter.”

The director of “the Little Bird of Happiness” added, “When children are left out of collective works, they get more isolated and alone. If they have a chance to watch movies along with their classmates and teachers, and also comment on them, their creativity will grow to a larger degree.”

Talking about the interaction among countries for producing kids’ films, she pointed out, “Having a good relationship with other countries to produce kids’ films is very beneficial since on one hand, they have a lot to share with us and on the other hand we have a great history in story-telling that has a considerable potential. Then we can have a fruitful interaction with the world.”

At the end, insisting on the importance of planning systematically for kids’ cinema, she said, “We should increase our activities in kids’ cinema nationally and internationally and take the best out of our own stories, culture and rituals so as to make our cinema more fun for children.”