JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, July 11, 2025

Docudrama shows children in heroic light

by

20160417

Su­per Me, a docu­d­ra­ma film fea­tur­ing chil­dren and young peo­ple who took part in the char­i­ta­ble Sum­mer He­roes art ther­a­py pro­gram be­tween 2012 and 2014, is a poignant re­minder of what chil­dren are ca­pa­ble of, if giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­press them­selves.

Su­per Me was screened at Imax on March 21 to an au­di­ence of stu­dents and teach­ers from Maria Regi­na, Holy Name Con­vent, Dun­ross Acad­e­my, Rain­bow Res­cue and Good­will In­dus­tries.

The pro­gramme is the brain­child of Jaime Lee Loy, who be­gan it in 2012 with her daugh­ter Kay­la (AKA Nin­ja Girl), and ex­pand­ed it in­to lo­cal chil­dren's homes and cen­tres as a way of teach­ing Kay­la to be so­cial­ly re­spon­si­ble.

Lee Loy, an artist, writer and film­mak­er, said, "The chil­dren who par­tic­i­pate in the pro­gramme in­vent a su­per­hero iden­ti­ty for them­selves, based on them­selves and their tal­ents, strengths and self-per­cep­tion.

"We en­cour­age so­cial aware­ness, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and lead­er­ship skills. We hire art ther­a­pists, psy­chol­o­gists, artists and char­ac­ter de­vel­op­ment pro­fes­sion­als to ex­plore art as ther­a­py through a cur­ricu­lum." The pro­gramme has worked with homes such as Rain­bow Res­cue and cen­tres such as Good­will In­dus­tries.

The chil­dren fea­tured in the film, rang­ing from ages six to 12, share their ideas on is­sues that af­fect them: crime, pol­lu­tion, the en­vi­ron­ment, chil­dren's rights, as well as how their su­per­pow­ers will help them to fight these is­sues. They are seen do­ing every­day things like home­work, laun­dry and the dish­es, and then their al­ter egos ap­pear and say what they can do to change their world around them.

The imag­i­nary pow­ers they pos­sess run the gamut from the abil­i­ty to shoot lasers from their eyes or hands; to be­ing able to changes peo­ple's minds and at­ti­tudes; to freez­ing en­e­mies; to draw­ing or writ­ing things that be­come re­al.

Lee Loy said the film is pow­er­ful be­cause "it's young peo­ple talk­ing to young peo­ple, but about se­ri­ous things, so we still have the in­no­cence and the child­hood play­ful­ness but you al­so have them tack­ling is­sues that are per­ti­nent to them and their space in the world." The chil­dren shared wis­dom dur­ing the film. "If I grew up do­ing the right thing, I can teach the small­er ones to do the right thing. Peo­ple have to start with them­selves be­fore they could see about oth­ers," said one child.

"Art helps with imag­i­na­tion and vice ver­sa. If I'm mad, sad, an­gry, I can draw it out.It just makes me feel there's this whole new world that I nev­er ex­plored be­fore," said an­oth­er.

Po­et and writer Muham­mad Muwak­il, who was al­so part of the Sum­mer He­roes pro­gramme, said the film was amaz­ing. "A lot of times we ig­nore chil­dren. Some­times they say some re­al­ly pro­found things and some­times we just dis­miss it be­cause we think maybe they're too young to say that or they couldn't have meant that, it's too pro­found.

"But some­times chil­dren say some pro­found things and re­al­ly do mean and know what they're say­ing, and if we would pay a lit­tle more at­ten­tion to them we would see it." The su­per­heroes fea­tured were Su­per Five, Su­per Derek, Sun­flower Girl, Fire Man, Cap­tain Trinidad, Half Woman, Al­fa Freeze, Mighty Man, Su­per Atisha, Su­per Boy Light­ning, Su­per Sarah, Won­der Writer and Mood God­dess. Su­per Nin­ja is the nar­ra­tor of the film and the head of the Vol­un­teer Group. Oth­er su­per­heroes who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the film and are out­reach vol­un­teers for Sum­mer He­roes in­clude Su­per Mario Lo­gan, Su­per Son­ic Isa­iah, Su­per John Michael, Princess Krys­tal, Su­per Sa­hara, Princess Jade and Brave Bel­la.

Lee Loy said the chil­dren have told her the pro­gramme has helped with their self-es­teem and they be­come more aware of how they can ac­tu­al­ly make a dif­fer­ence in the world around them.

"I find that a lot of young peo­ple don't be­come so­cial­ly aware in terms of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty un­less their par­ents specif­i­cal­ly push that. It's not just some­thing we teach. So that's what the film was about, it's made for kids, for young peo­ple and the idea is to get as many schools as pos­si­ble to see it." Su­per Me can be viewed at Imax soon. In ad­di­tion to pub­lic view­ings, schools and groups can book a field trip to Imax to watch them film un­der the the­atre's At­lantic Ul­ti­mate Field Trip Ex­pe­ri­ence.

more in­fo:

Email: edu@imax.tt


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored