THE FILM
NaturePlay - Genre: Documentary, Shooting Format: RED 4K, Intended Length: 60 min and 90 min
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The high stakes testing virus infects US schools, damaging kids with HYPER TESTING and HYPER STRESS. The Nordic North, opens the door to a playful path of escape - OUTSIDE.
In the USA rampant testing is a virus, a disease not in alignment with how children naturally learn. As an issue driven Documentary, the goal of the film is to enlighten parents, educators and legislators that what we are currently doing in the US is not right. It is a diseased system of child abuse. We need a cure.
TAKE CHILDHOOD BACK
NaturePlay film finds a cure - a way to take childhood back - in Nordic ”Udeskole” - concepts in outdoor learning and playing in nature. Featuring the different ways Udeskole is practiced in Scandinavia through forest kindergartens, adventure playgrounds, teaching outdoors, increased recess, afterschool clubs, and nature-based play areas - the film investigates the Nordic research and cultural NaturePlay attitudes behind it all.
Filmed in Denmark, Norway and Sweden and the US, it portrays the Scandinavian method of teaching, living and enjoying nature that is juxtaposed with the high stakes/high stress American testing culture.
Watch the trailer and ask yourself - What's truly at stake? Our Children.
"The greatest advantage the United States has is innovation. As a country, we were born, raised, and launched to prominence due to our spirit, creativity, and thirst for newness and adventure. We can regain all this by simply changing the vision of education." Joshua Katz -Teacher
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To quote Martin Luther King Jr - Any movement will fail if it cannot paint a picture of a world that people will want to go to. We are painting it in 4k film with Red Epic cameras.
The Team
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Director’s Biography: Daniel Stilling D.F.F, an award winning Director of Photography from Copenhagen, Denmark. Worked in Los Angeles many years working on major features for Warner Bros, Lions Gate, Fox, Disney, Paramount and MGM and Emmy nominated TV shows Criminal Minds, Scrubs, Burn Notice, Graceland, most recently the US unit DP on Ridley Scott's new film "The Martian". DP on two upcoming US features in New Mexico this September and again in January. www.danieldp.com
Producer: Aimie Stilling - Production services The Missing, In Plain Sight, The Flock, The Astronaut Farmer, Seraphim Falls, Beerfest. Prior National Park Ranger and Biological Researcher USFWS at NASA Kennedy Space Center.
Founding Story
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We decided to enroll our daughter in a Danish Forest Kindergarten to develop her Danish language skills and the film grew out of that experience. Exposed to the Scandinavian edu/play philosophy we realized it's uniqueness and success in producing healthy, innovative, happy adults. Denmark is consistantly rated as one of the Happiest countries on Earth.
Upon arrival back in the USA we were dismayed at the high stakes testing and lack of recess time in most schools. Everywhere we heard about children stressed, hating school, vomiting on the tests, parents desperate. Having a child at school start age, we detoured, exploring forest kindergartens and alternative education models like Montessori for our daughter at the same time as making this film - a parents journey of discovery and the struggle to rescue their child and all children from the horror of the USA's de-formed education system.
We Need to...
Begin it's Journey to Release
Our humble THANKS to you all for supporting this film. Your contribution will reach millions globally and with your help, inspire people to improve the lives of the children around them.
The Impact
Offering a multi-tiered approach to this issue:
NaturePlay the Film is the primary platform.
Reinforced by a nationwide network of NaturePlay inspired groups. This is child-led inquiry based learning in the spirit of a forest school type environment inspired by the film experience.
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Online social media outreach and support for Parents, Educators and Legislators facilitating Partnerships with Governments, Corporations, and Organizations.
Providing creative learning experiences for teachers, parents, working professions and others that empowers them to drive change in all parts of the learning ecosystem.
Distribution of NaturePlay kits on the films webpage so parents and educators can be their own self automated facilitators of NaturePlay.
Overall we hope to inspire improvement in key outcomes for children: Whole Child Development, intellectual vitality, sentiency, gross motor skills / core balance and body strength, attuning of fine motor skills, proprioception and exteroception, pro-social skills, empathy, use of outdoor learning / experiential education methods, restoration of recess in the USA, free play, child-led-inquiry based learning, creation of nature playgrounds and backyard kid habitats, screen time guidelines, removal of high stakes testing, awareness of the Opt-Out movement, regular outdoor scheduling, public/private school policy change, and reassessment of rules that restrict children’s access to nature.
Motivation
PLAY - The original spark of intrinsic motivation for the love of learning is missing. That spark, that has always been the foundation of creativity, innovation and the root of human culture, is the amazing WORLD around us.
It is so important that we recognize the true way in which children learn - through all of their senses in relationship with the world. Unnaturally, children are being denied play and learning in the outdoor world, causing an underdeveloped “second nature” in mind/hand/body connections. Those basic human connections are being deadened in our children due to the demands of rote learning, screen time, excessive homework, and high stakes testing,
