Operation Stop

OPERATION STOP is a project in the area of ​​training, in which students participate in all stages of making a documentary that reflects on the school reality.

The image gains more and more importance in the contents of communication in contemporary society. Knowing how to read the image – knowing its’ mechanism of production, manipulation and construction of meaning – should occupy an important place in learning strategies, similar to what happens with the word and the language.

OPERATION STOP project joined groups of teachers and secondary school students around a video workshop to reflect on the school reality and build from it, short documentaries with contradictory messages. Thus, the identification of factors that influence the school environment – facilities, equipment, respect between teachers and students, extracurricular projects, involvement of parents, partnerships with other local agents, etc. – both those who are constituted as factors inhibiting innovation as that on the contrary, can be regarded as an incentive to modernization and development, serve as the basis for the construction of opposing views of the same reality: my school YES / my school NO .

By involving students in all stages of the production of the documentary – script, storyboard, choice and preparation of scenarios, conducting interviews, texts, filming and editing – the project uses the process of production of a documentary video as a learning strategy.

The project was developed by Vende-se Filmes for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Descobrir Program, in partnership with the Municipalities of Mondim de Basto, Óbidos, Paredes and Vila Nova da Barquinha and the Group of Schools of Mondim de Basto and Group of Schools of Josefa de Óbidos, Secondary School of Vilela and the Group of Schools of Vila Nova da Barquinha.