Journal of Geography

ISSN: 0022-1341 (Print) 1752-6868 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjog20

Teaching Geography Using Films: A Proposal

Maria Teresa di Palma

To cite this article: Maria Teresa di Palma (2009) Teaching Geography Using Films: A Proposal,
Journal of Geography, 108:2, 47-56
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221340902967325

Published online: 17 Jun 2009.

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ABSTRACT
Films are often used in schools to
illustrate geography, but doing so
may favor mainly passive learning.
An experiment with twenty-eight
pupils aged thirteen years (a whole
class) had the aim of using cinema to
promote active geographical learning.
First, it was ascertained what the
dominant geographical stereotypes
were among the pupils and the films
that conveyed these stereotypes. Then
a traditional lesson using textbooks
was given but this proved inefficient
at removing stereotypes. More creative
work was needed. Since film planning
forces students to actively apply
their geographical knowledge to solve
technical problems (locations,
screenplay, sets, etc.), making a movie
was planned.
Key Words: geographical teaching, film,
stereotypes, fiction, terrestrial
environments
Maria Teresa di Palma teaches in an Italian
secondary school and at the Post Graduate
School for Teaching at the University of
Pavia, Italy. She also conducts research in
the history of geography and explorations at
the same university. Her areas of research
in- clude history of cartography of the XV–
XVII centuries, history of geographical
representa- tions, and stereotypical
interpretations. The relationship between
film and geographical imagery is a new field
of research for her.
Journal of Geography 108: 47–56
Teaching Geography Using Films: A Proposal
Maria Teresa di Palma
INTRODUCTION
This article reports on an experiment carried out in a secondary school class
with thirteen-year-old pupils involving the use of cinema to teach geography in
an active way. By doing so, I sought to transform the way films are viewed into
active teaching where “students can learn to be intellectually flexible” (Birdsall
2003, 29). The work (excluding the video shots) was carried out over ten weeks,
two hours of lessons per week for a total of twenty hours, in the 2003–2004
school year, in a class of twenty-eight students (twenty boys and eight girls).
In this experiment, I dealt with the theme of terrestrial environments, a key
topic that lies on the boundary between geography, natural sciences, and
ecology. In particular, geography considers environments in relation to human
presence, and by using a variety of approaches including the study of the
physical characteristics (physical geography), landscape (regional geography),
people distribution (human geography), and the study of the subjective
perception of the environment (perceptual geography) (Corna Pellegrini and
Bianchi 1992). The experiment took into account a number of these approaches
and assumed as its fundamental guideline that teaching geography must ensure
that students are able to think independently and critically (critical learning). In
other words, if
. . . for most of the history of this discipline, geographic knowledge
has been descriptive, in the latter part of this century there has been
a change towards the creation of knowledge generated by the need
to understand not only the what’s and where’s, but also the why’s and
how’s. (Golledge 2002, 1)
In the classroom, given that terrestrial environments are doubly inaccessible
— due to both their location and their partially abstract quality—teachers can
benefit from the use of the indirect perception of the environment transmitted
by cinema and television, different media that both achieve similar results in
describing environments. In fact, in the construction of geographic imagery
relating to places, if we have not experienced the place directly then indirect
sources dominate the perception of place (Zerbi 1993). Gibson (1986, 441) has
shown how cinema, as pictures in motion, is closer to the perception processes
of reality and through it “the spectator experiences a reawakening and intense
empathy, a feeling that he or she really is in the places described.” Therefore, it
appears very useful to work with movies, a “warm tool” having a double
emotional impact (Tan 1996)— one pertaining to the medium itself and the
other created by the storyline— to give an effective environmental education,
able to change human behavior (Kirman 2003). In addition, rather than reading
a book teenagers prefer watching movies or television (Aitken 1994), and this
may favor the use of movies in the classroom. However, it should be noted
that there are also some negative side effects of watching television or movies,
such as superficial, limited, or stereotyped knowledge, inhibited imagination,
or information overload. To minimize these possible disadvantages, it is
important to carefully scrutinize the various problems before using movies for
teaching, such as: Can teachers transform viewing into knowledge? Can pupils
learn something about geography as a science through fiction? How can a
teacher teach that a world environment is not a simple, unchanging, and eternal
fact that begins and ends with what we see? Movies create many stereotypes;
how can teachers control and overcome them? How can movies be used to
make pupils the key actors of the learning process and favor the growth of their
critical awareness?
ⓍC 2009 National Council for Geographic Education 47
Maria Teresa di Palma
VIEWING VS. KNOWLEDGE
“The use of visual teaching material alone is not
sufficient enough to enhance visual thought. . . . Simply
presenting photographs, drawings, models or practical
exhibitions as aids for study is no guarantee that the
subject will be understood deeply” (Arnheim 1969, 361).
In particular, when we watch a movie our focus goes from
the scene to the characters and concentrates on the
storyline, “forgetting” its location unless the director
decides that the landscape should become the subject of
the film. Seeing does not mean perceiving; perception
needs specific work mainly when we consider the
background, or scenario. First our gaze takes in the
background and then it distinguishes the different objects;
when the latter are focused on the background is
ignored (Arnheim 1969, 333). In this experiment, my goal
was to make the background the foreground; in other
words, make the environment more prominent through
an active method.
It is true that everybody has a personal mental map
of the world (Downs and Stea 1972a), but not everyone
has a geographic knowledge of the world, rather “he/she
who attentively observes the world around him/her is in
some manner a geographer” (Lowenthal 1961, 242). The
primary aim of a teacher is therefore to find a way to
transform a student’s personal visions and experiences
(often superficial and incomplete) into attentive
observations. For the study of terrestrial habitats through
movies, the first step was to pass from the initial
observation of locations by students (steps 1a and 3b) to a
more structured geographic knowledge of terrestrial
habitats.
FICTION VS. REALITY
The second problem posed by the use of movies for
teach- ing is their virtual nature: they are actually fictions,
manip- ulations of reality. When one works on landscape,
there are no mediators; the starting point is the landscape
itself and hence it can be explored. By choosing suitably
from the different modes, one can decide what
information should be considered fundamental and what
is secondary. In addition, the feeling a certain landscape
transmits in a specific mo- ment enhances the
environmental perception and promotes a consequent
personal consciousness and attitude. In the direct
experience of the landscape, there lies all the potential for
the transactional qualities that the landscape itself
possesses (Ittelson 1973). Instead, in an indirect
experience, the landscape is filtered by the representation,
which in any case cannot “duplicate” the landscape as it
really is and there is no guarantee that all its qualities will
emerge. Even if the image can record views, sounds,
movement, provide multidirectionality of information,
and somehow convey the mood, it cannot enable the
observer’s participation (Zonn 1984).
Representation implies a director’s deeper subjectivity.
This happens in all types of films, including
documentaries (Aitken 1994). For documentaries, it
should be remembered that they are even more difficult
to use due to their supposed
4
objectivity. As early as 1965 Norman Graves advised
teachers to use documentaries sparingly and, in any case,
to turn off the sound, which greatly influences the
viewing of images. The students involved in my
experiment, when asked “What is the difference between
a movie and a documentary?” immediately responded
“the out-of-field narrative,” which confers to
documentaries a major effect of reality. Therefore, when
deciding what type of film to select as teaching material, I
excluded documentaries as it would be more difficult and
time-consuming to counteract their “objectivity,” to be
clearer, and to reveal their fundamental nature of fiction.
Nature in cinema, even when the
locations, in other words the sets, are
natural, is always mediated by the artificial
nature of cinematographic language. Every
film uses specific lenses, filters and camera
move- ments, editing techniques and
sight-sound associations to give the
landscape, the lo- cation, the environment
a particular mean- ing by investing it with
symbolic values. (Castelli 1989, 9)
Special effects can make a movie hyper-real just in the
attempt to convey a credible message (Canova 2000). In
particular, the geographer’s interest is focused on how
cinema contributes to conveying the “feeling of a place”
and identity; in other words, how it can become “a
forceful determinant of cultural norms” (Aitken 1994,
293). Some geopolitical studies have used movies to
highlight the archetypal roots of various national cultures,
for example, how the American national identity was
formed by the Western genre. (For a review of different
types of geo- graphic interpretation of movies refer to
Kennedy and Lukinbeal 1997.)
In film the fundamental elements are the
people and environments. Thus in a novel,
for instance, written words that constitute
a narrative are organized so as to recreate
people, places and events, but in narrative
cinema the world is there, very recogniz-
able, from the beginning. (Aitken 1991,
105)
To use a movie as a tool for reflection regarding how
students behave and see themselves (Aitken 2003), the
teacher has to analyze a movie without separating its
form from the content (step 3b). This way, a movie is not
reduced to being solely narration or purely linguistic
(frames, close- ups, foregrounds, fields, editing,
viewpoints), or simply a view of beautiful landscapes or
settings (Aitken 1991, 105). Therefore, the teacher has to
highlight how filming techniques and editing affect how
the message of the film is conveyed (step 2). If there is
no“expert in image education or cinema educator” in the
school, the teacher can refer to manuals regarding the
topic (Jackson 1998; Bettetini 1973; Newcomer 2006;
Goldfarb 2002; Vinson and Ross 2003;

Watson 1990) in order to accustom themselves with the
characteristics of cinematographic language.
STEREOTYPES VS. COMPLEXITY
The third problem posed by the use of movies for
teaching is that
. . . media is principally to blame for the
production and permanence of
stereotypes because they create an
extensive cultural matrix in which the
image can develop and maintain itself
without respecting the reality which it
seeks to represent. (Burgess and Gold
1985, 10)
At times, stereotypes can assist teaching, especially in
the initial stages, because they can help to communicate
new information. However, it is important that students
understand that they are only stereotypes and that levels
differ, are rigid and static, and everything is reduced to
the here and now. Stereotypes transform into fact what
in nature is a process because of the constant changes
that occur caused by a whole range of factors, together
with the diversity and complexity of the relationships
these imply. To overcome the risk of conformity and
defeat the stereotype regarding different environments,
the teacher has to demonstrate that complex relationships
lie behind each landscape and that terrestrial
environments are processes in a constant state of change.
To obtain these results teaching must be multimedia,
making use of all types of media, including written texts
(step 3a). Each form of media has characteristics that can
be useful for different purposes. The way that books are
printed, for instance,
. . . privileges the linear articulation of
knowledge, its subdivision into indepen-
dent blocks, demonstrative logic, deduc-
tive hypothetical reasoning etc. Instead
the post-Gutenberg media stimulate other
forms of knowledge: contemporaneity,
con- tamination, demonstrative logic,
analogical reasoning, articulation of
networks, connec- tive processes
(Maragliano 1999, 37)
Engaging in multimedia teaching means using the
different media to maintain and possibly extend the
variety of learning mechanisms and the plurality of
thought.
PASSIVE VS. ACTIVE LEARNING
The last problem associated with the use of movies
in teaching is that movies are fundamentally a passive
tool. Good teaching with audiovisual material involves
showing good quality films, possibly in sufficient number
to give an ample range of viewpoints on the same theme
(Ansell 2002) preceded and followed by comments and
questionnaires. When the project began, the idea was to
Teaching Geography Using
compile an anthology DVD as a final product that
collected together footage from films grouped according
to the world environments portrayed. For this task, the
students’ role was fundamentally passive. However, my
aim was to create a workshop that began with images
with the objective of transforming them into scientific
knowledge, ensuring that the students continued to be
protagonists in their own learning processes. It therefore
became necessary to adopt an operational teaching
methodology based on practical work, following the
students’ own interests (Dewey 1916). If watching a
movie is a passive experience, its planning is a creative
act. Planning movies forces students to become actively
involved in solving practical problems by applying their
geographical knowledge (step 4b). The construction of a
film by students was often proposed not only as a form of
cinematic education in general, but in particular as a
means to enhance critical awareness in the spectator
whose knowledge of the tricks of the trade makes it more
difficult for him or her to be captivated and mesmerized.
THE EXPERIENCE PATHWAY
Step 1. The Start
In teaching projects there are two preliminary stages:
motivation and sharing (step 1a), and awareness of “what
we already know” (step 1b).
My proposal to the class to imagine a trip to faraway
places immediately attracted the cooperation of the stu-
dents and the first task was to create a concept map of
“Journeys in faraway countries” (step 1a). For step 1a, I
did some “brainstorming” with my pupils regarding their
ideas on trips to overseas countries. Then, with the
students, I grouped all the concepts together to form a
concept map (Novak 1998) of travels, trips, and journeys:
how people travel, how people prepare for a journey,
what kind of environment people may encounter, reasons
for traveling, and what people may already know (Fig. 1).
Now following step1b an investigation into dominant
stereotypes and subconscious notions about the subject
(in this case knowledge of habitats and climates) is
necessary. Current practice is to elicit this knowledge by
asking questions. Once I had decided to use films based
on fictional stories (narrative cinema) as a tool, I thought
that the best place to start would be asking students to
take their pictures from these; visual language, albeit
incomplete compared to the other sense channels that
filter our perceptions, allows us to evaluate the mental
image an individual may hold of a certain environment
independently of specific knowledge and language
aptitude. Considering that the objective of this stage of the
project was to ascertain what knowledge the students
already had, the teacher must not supply information.
The students themselves must submit their images. The
teacher’s task is to ask questions and to set limits to the
choices that the students make.
4
Maria Teresa di Palma
Figure 1. Concept map, step 1.
Step 2. Searching For and Presenting Film Clips
Where Landscapes Are Characterized
The second step of the project concentrated specifically
on the different terrestrial environments: tundra, taiga,
for- est (coniferous, hardwood, broadleaf), prairies,
savannas, shrub lands, glaciers, desert (hot or cold), but
also temperate (cultivated) lands and urban landscapes.
The pupils were asked to bring a videotape with a new
film clip—two or three minutes—illustrating, for
example, a rain forest or a hot desert. They also were
asked to record the film data (title, director, country, year
of production) and to explain the reason for their choice.
To facilitate reflection on stereotypes, I allowed the
students the widest choice of material from what they
normally watched (if it was not inappropriate). Much of
the imagery and footage that students presented was
taken from B-rated movies which had been very
successful at the box office, with some pleasant exceptions
(possibly suggested by other family members).
With a cinema educator I analyzed the clips in the
classroom, while listening to the pupil’s explanations
about
5
his or her choice. Then I illustrated
the main technical features of film
language (e.g., time-phasing by el-
lipse and transition; cross-fading to
symbolize the crossing of territory).
Finally the students classified all the
fragments according to the themes
(Table 1 and Table 2). Many interest-
ing things emerged, for example, no
student brought films with prairies,
maybe also because they do not
watch westerns. In addition, some
students stated that they were
unable to find film footage with
temperate (cultivated) land and this
was further proof of how one can
lose sight of the landscape a film is
set in when watching it. After
exploring and eliciting the students’
conceptualization of imagery, other
tools were necessary to overcome
stereotypes.
Step 3. Classroom Study
At this point (step 3a), traditional
teaching using textbooks and atlases
can help to correct mistakes and ex-
plain how and why there are differ-
ent environments (e.g., relationships
between climate, position). For the
students, texts are provided with the
role and garb of objective and
reliable
scientific authority; therefore I used
the manual to explain the different
terrestrial environments and to
study their characteristics. Verbal
language becomes necessary when
students
must organize their knowledge, not because this is the
most logical way to do it but because our brains have
become accustomed to this method over the course of
history. A continuous consultation and manipulation of
atlases is necessary to help form or improve upon our
mental maps (Downs and Stea 1972a, 1972b). So, working
in parallel with texts, film footage, and atlases involves
creating a network of cross-references that engages
different skills, including the capacity to draw inferences,
by providing greater amounts of source material for
comparison, and allowing students to choose the method
most appropriate for them. The use of textbooks is only
an intermediate step in an active learning process,
important yet not sufficient. To reverse the dogmatic view
conveyed by films and inscribed in the pupils’ mental
landscapes, the ipse dixit both of teachers and textbooks is
not enough. It is better to go back to movies as emotional
and checking tools.
On completing this step 3b, rather than giving an oral
test on what had been studied, I requested students to:
“Choose another short movie clip—even from the
 Teaching Geography Using
previous films— but this time including an event or an
episode as well, for

5
 Teaching Geography Using

Table 1. Main technical features of film language.

Title Director Sequence/Episode Transports Things

French Kiss Kasdan, Lawrence The protagonists meet each other on a

plane to Paris Airplane
Home Alone Columbus, Chris The departure of the protagonist’s family
from Chicago’s airport Airport
Home Alone 2 Columbus, Chris The protagonist leaves alone from New
York’s airport Airport
Nati con la camicia Clucher, E. B. The protagonists check in under a false
name at the airport Airport Tickets
Psycho Hitchcock, Alfred Escape of a female clerk after she steals
$40,000 Car Money, luggage
Vacanze di Natale Verdone, Carlo In a winter tourist village the Car Luggage
2000 protagonists unload the luggage
Viaggio di nozze Verdone, Carlo Luggage ready, a newly wedded couple Car, ship Luggage
gets by car to the ship on which they’ll go
on a cruise
Lord of the Rings, The Jackson, Peter Frodo, a hobbit, packs and hides a magic Foot Luggage
Part 1 ring
Harry Potter and the Columbus, Chris Magic allows Harry Potter to go on the train Magic, railway station
Philosopher’s Stone for Hogwarts
Fra’ Diavolo Roach, Hal Laurel and Hardy go across the country on Mule
the back of a mule
Forrest Gump Zemeckis, Robert Forrest runs for three years across the Race
U.S.A. accompanied by people
Titanic Cameron, James Passengers of different social classes leave Ship, harbor
on a ship for New York
Space Jam Pitka, Jo Michael Jordan gets on a spaceship Spaceship
to reach the baseball ground
A spasso nel tempo Vanzina, Carlo The protagonists leave by a time machine Time machine
and they go into prehistory

Ritorno di Don Duvivier, Julien The main character, a priest, takes a train Train Luggage
Camillo, Il
Harry Potter and the Columbus, Chris Harry returns home by train from Hogwarts Train
Philosopher’s Stone

102 Dalmatians Lima, Kevin In a Paris railway station, some dogs are put Train, railway station Luggage
on the train as baggage
Don Camillo Gallone Carmine Meeting of two old friends on a sleeping car Train, sleeping car
Monsignore . . .
Jingwu men Wei, Lo A Chinese funeral and a martial arts fight Culture

example, a kiss in a rain forest or a battle in a city square,

or an escape through a desert” (Aitken 1991, 106). The
intent was to maintain the people and environment link
as shown by Aitken (1991). The clips were watched once
again and were put in a new table (Table 2). This task was
helpful to check whether pupils had understood what
they had studied in the textbook and to retain the
emotional impact of the plot. Moreover, this approach
was useful for the next step.
Step 4. The Creative Work
In any project the goal is the product emerging from the
work carried out. The products’ planning and making is
creative work needed both for long-lasting learning and
for critical awareness of the students. Students gathered
a large number of images and sequences, after which each
was commented upon and analyzed. Together we covered
a variety of themes, especially the difference between
location and place of reference. I had to work on these
issues with a good measure of “grandmother” practicality
—never throw anything away—but also in a literary and
professional man- ner (Calvino 1979; Eco 1992 [1963]), by
a selected reading to fish out the concepts on which to
work on (Brusa 1985). This stage of the project was
further subdivided into two steps. I formed seven groups
(step 4a), each with four pupils (homogeneous in gender,
not in terms of ability). Each group received the
complete list of themes from the film clips (Table 1 and
2). The groups were to choose seven clips, which they
then used to develop a new story, located in at least three

5
Maria Teresa di

different habitats. There were more than

5
 Teaching Geography Using

Table 2. Classification of film fragments.

Title Director Episode/Sequence Environment

Vita e` bella, La Benigni, Roberto On a trip with a friend, the protagonist crosses
Tuscany by car Fields (temperate belt)
Spider Man Raimi, Sam Spider Man, using a spiderweb, flies over the
skyscrapers of New York Big City
Peacemaker, The Leder, Mimi Two American secret agents meet a Russian
colonel in Vienna Big City
Armageddon Bay, Michael The shuttle explosion gives rise to meteorite
rain on New York Big City

Non c’e` due senza Clucher, E. B. An aerial view of Rio de Janeiro and the Big City
quattro explosion of a Rolls Royce
Little Buddha Bertolucci, Bernardo Siddhartha comes out of his palace and for the Big City
first time sees his country and people
101 Dalmatians Herek, Stephen A Dalmatian drags his owner around the town Big City
Men in Black Sonnenfeld, Barry The skyline of New York Big City
Independence Day Emmerich, Roland People escape from New York Big City
Out of Africa Pollack, Sidney In the course of a safari, a Danish baroness Damp savanna
falls in love with a young Englishman
Mission Joffe, Roland A missionary goes into the Amazonian Equatorial forest
forest
where he meets South American Indians and
a slave hunter Equatorial forest
Gorillas in the Mist Apted, Michael Into the forests of Central Africa, a scholar,
Diane Fossey, studies the gorilla’s habitat
Ace Ventura. When Oedekerk, Steve Ace Ventura takes a shortcut to the village Equatorial forest
Nature Calls across the forest
Anna and the King Tennant, Andy The King of Siam meets an English teacher Equatorial forest
Lord of the Rings, The Jackson, Peter Frodo, a hobbit, goes with a friend into the Field (temperate belt)
Part 1 fields which surround his village
Ciclone, Il Pieraccioni, Leonardo The protagonist goes across Tuscany by Field (temperate belt)
motorcycle and meets grape farmers
Horse Whisperer Redford, Robert A ride across the hills of Montana Field (temperate belt)
Secret Garden, The Holland, Agnieszka The spring season and the change of the Field (temperate belt)
environment
Lord of the Rings, The Jackson, Peter The characters cross icy mountains where Glaciers and polar deserts
Part 1 there is a blizzard
Antarctica Kurahara, Koreyoshi Some inhabitants of Antarctica move out using Glaciers and polar deserts
the traditional sledges
Smilla’s Sense of August, Bille An Inuit fishes between the ice, when Glaciers and polar deserts
Snow an avalanche sweeps him away
Berg ruft, Der Trenker, Luis Competition between two groups to reach the Glaciers and polar deserts
peak of a glacier
Cliffhanger Harlin, Renny An unsuccessful attempt to save a girl on a high Glaciers and polar deserts
mountain

Aladdin World Part, Michael Passage across a sandy desert on camels Hot desert
Mummy, The Sommers, Stephen Passage across a sandy desert to look for Hot desert
treasure
Mummy, The - The Sommers, Stephen The desert is changed into a luxurious forest by Hot desert
Return witchcraft
Last Sunset, The Aldrich, Robert A meeting in a desert Hot desert
Ewok Adventure, The Korty, John A shuttlecraft crashes in a forest of an unknown Northern forest - conifer trees
planet (Endor’s Moon); two parents look for
their sons, but find giant monsters
Tutta colpa del Nuti, Francesco The meeting with an ibex in a forest Northern forest - conifer trees
paradiso
(Continued on next page)

5
 Maria Teresa di

Table 2. Classification of film fragments. (Continued)

Title Director Episode/Sequence Environment

Far and Away Howard, Ron The pioneers competition to get a field in the
West Prairies
Cos`ı e` la vita AAVV Three men in a forest believe they are dead
and ask "Where are we now?" Temperate forest- Large-leaf trees
Unendliche Petersen, Wolfgang The protagonist, Atreyu, is pursued by the Temperate forest- Large-leaf trees
Geschichte, Die Nothing in a foggy forest
Jurassic Park Spielberg, Steven A family visits a Pacific island inhabited by Tropical forest
vicious animals
Forrest Gump Zemeckis, Robert In the course of the Vietnam War, Forrest Tropical forest
Gump saves all his comrades
Instinct Turteltaub, Jon A man is walking across a forest and he looks Tropical forest
at the gorillas

Tomorrow Never Spottiswoode, Roger Two secrets agents make preparation for a Tropical islands
Dies mission in the Phi Phi Islands (Thai)
Grinch, The Howard, Ron A green monster holds his friend, a little girl, in Tundra
a sled for a run on the snow
Ours, L’ Annaud, Jean-Jacques The life of a young bear in a forest Tundra

fifty movies on the list, but the same few titles were
Atacama Desert, the students had to change this part of
nearly always chosen. Some examples: Armageddon—the
the plot.
scene of meteorite rain on New York; Forrest Gump—the
scene in the Vietnam forest or Forrest Gump running
Step 5. The Movie
across the U.S.A.; Lord of the Rings Part I; Harry Potter; and
Although we ran out of time at the end of the year, here
Titanic, in which the ship is always present. These films
is what we did accomplish. The students, with a great
are all well- known internationally, but some less popular
deal of help from the director, worked together to decide
titles were also chosen, for example: Der Berg ruft” 1938
the type of cinematographic technique to adopt. Some
(Germany), Director Luis Trenker; or Don Camillo
groups chose to reuse film sequences by telling the story
Monsignore 1961 (Italy), Director Carmine Gallone.
via an out-of-field narrator. Others instead made a cartoon
Each group wrote a plot and incorporated it into a brief with simple special effects by preparing little models of
script (step 4b). I was concerned that this task would be
terrestrial environments (a tropical island with fake trees
too difficult for the students because they had to mix
or the Sahara Desert by taking fine sand to school) in
together fragments from movies with different
which puppets were made to move slowly to create the
protagonists, times, locations, historical periods, and so
desired effect in the editing phase. Others decided to
on. Contrary to my fears, all groups finished their plot
become protagonists in a film shot in an area near the
creation within an hour. After putting their plot on a
school while ensuring that no elements that were
story-board with the sketches of the single scenes, the
extraneous to the environment in which the episode was
students were asked to place the locations in a world map
supposedly taking place appeared in the frame. Finally,
according to climatic belts. The most important aspect
one group simply envisaged telling the story over the
from the viewpoint of geographic knowledge was the
course of a number of phone calls between classmates
invention of a coherent story in terms of the places where
who had been given the task of making a film. In each
the action took place. This involved keeping in mind the
case, each different solution allowed the students to
location and the portrayal of the settings where the story
reveal some of the tricks, both great and small, which
unfolds and what can be seen. The use of an atlas and
make fiction in cinema believable.
geographic knowledge are vital, not as abstract objectives
(as when one is preparing for an examination), but as
tools necessary to create a concrete and examinable RESULTS
product (Bertocchi 1999, 56). For example, one group At the end of the experiment, I carried out a final check
decided to mix two movie scenes, one located in to confirm that the students had clearly understood the
Amazonia and the other in the Sahara Desert. This meant char- acteristics and co-location of the different
that they had to transform the Sahara Desert into the environments dealt with. This was a standard test in
Atacama Desert (nearer to Amazonia). However, as which pupils had to draw, without using models, an
camels (the transport in the latter scene) do not inhabit the entire world map with terrestrial climates and
environments, and explain their features; out of twenty-
eight pupils, only two tests were

5
 Teaching Geography Using
which the film was set, recognizing the habitat
Table 3. Assessment levels for final check. and placing it on the correct geographic
collocation. Students from the other classes
however (who had covered the same topics but
Assessment Scale Percentage Number of Students in a more traditional manner) were not able to
Poor 50% 2 make the same observations.
Moderate 70–60% 7 2. This working method can be adapted to other
Good 80% 4 geographic purposes. One may change the con-
Very Good 90% 5 tents and subject. For example, one can focus on
Excellent 100% 10 a particular continent instead of the environment
(a complex theme, here considered only from a
poor, seven were moderate, four good, five very good, physical, geographical, and ecological point-of-
and ten excellent (Table 3 and Fig. 2). view). In this case, the first step would be to
Benefits for the students were: they acquired a good build a concept map of the chosen continent and
knowledge of terrestrial environments and their the homework could be: “Bring me a film clip on
collocation and distribution, as documented by a American physical features (mountains, people,
comparison of the scores in the two tests carried out; they cities, countries . . . ), or on the United States, its
focused on film locations, for example, on geographic peoples, traditions, cultures. ”
sites and related habitats; they improved their ability to 3. It is adaptable. It is possible to change the steps,
connect facts and ideas; they practiced a new and creative their order, or omit some of them. The reasons
writing process. Last but not least, they enjoyed may depend on various factors: tools available,
themselves a lot. time constraints, and field of investigation. For
In general: ex- ample, with older students—sixteen- to
eighteen- year-olds—we may also opt to work on
1. This teaching method facilitates longer-lasting their emotive perceptions of landscape. In this
learning; the following year, after watching a case, one could start from a concept map based
film on the French Resistance, the students of on the emotions evoked by the landscape in the
this class immediately made reference to the film or directly by the stu-
environment in dents’ choice of film clips.
Later, the students would be
asked to tailor their emotions
to the story they put together
from the chosen landscapes.
The aim can be changing
stereotypical imagery about
certain cities or some neigh-
borhoods. In fact, this is ex-
actly what film directors
often do.
4. It is feasible and inexpen-
sive. No particular techni-
cal instruments are required.
Videotapes or DVD players,
monitors, and televisions are
easily found in all schools
and most families, and most
teachers would be able to ex-
plain the main features of
cin- ematic language. If a
student should not have this
equip- ment, he or she could
work with a classmate or at
school. Video forecasting
and filming would remain
an option. If there are
Figure 2. Example of student map for the standardized test. limitations because

5

no one is able to shoot, frame, or edit, or there is
no camera, simply writing the plot and creating
the story-board would be sufficient for the
purposes of this work.
5. It is a very effective way to encourage students
to research and study imagery and stereotypes.
Three steps are particularly significant: (1) the
initial choice of film clips; (2) the choice of film
clips to be used in the plots; and (3) the plots
themselves. For example, the meteorite rain on
New York City from Armageddon appeared in six
plots out of seven. This point highlights the extent
to which the television scenes of September 11th
affected collective memory. All further comment is
redundant.
Teaching Geography Using
While carrying out this work, certain technical
problems can arise that are easy to resolve. For
example, using DVDs (instead of videocassettes) with
a double speed option DVD player so that particular
scenes can be easily found. When using parts of films,
there is also the issue of copyright to consider, which
depends on the length of the sequence shown (in
Italy films can be used for didactic purposes with no
copyright complications). Then there is the
educational problem relating to the suitability of the
film proposed by the students; the teacher can give a
negative score (or a different piece of work) to
anyone who should choose an unsuitable film. In my
experiment, however, nobody brought an
“inappropriate” film to school.

APPENDI
X

“Fugitives’ lives” (a plot).

The explosion of a shuttle causes meteorite rain on New York City. It is necessary to escape! [from Armageddon—
urban landscape].
We get on a ship that is sailing to the Caribbean Islands. Here we go through the equatorial forest, but the
meteorites reach here too. [from Forrest Gump—equatorial forest].
One of us takes a jeep and goes to a harbor. [from Ace Ventura—equatorial forest].
Again we get on a ship, this time going to Lima, Peru. From there, we cross the Cordillera on foot, we go across
the Titicaca Lake and we get to Nevado de Llampu` , a peak higher than eight thousand meters. [from Der ruft
berg—glaciers].
A magician stops us with his powers. [from Lord of the Rings—Glaciers].
We win the game and we go down, but we make a mistake and we go on for a hundred kilometers until we see the
sea. We begin to go down, but we find ourselves in the Atacama Desert. [from The Mummy—hot desert].
While crossing it, we run out of water and one of us dies and so there are three of us. On reaching Antofagasta, a
little town on the Pacific coast, we know the meteorite rain has stopped and we decide to go home by car. But in
Rio de Janeiro the last meteorite fell from the sky and hit our car. [from Non c’e` due senza quattro—travel by car].
We think we have survived because we are in a wood, but an angel explains to us the terrible reality. [from Cos`ı e` la
vita—temperate forest].

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