PERHAPS IT IS not surprising to find a documentary film featuring the efforts of young Egyptian video animators being screened at Lebanon’s International Film Festival for Children and Youth. It is surprising, however, that the young animators are school students of one of Egypt’s poorest provinces who make Cairo’s children seem privileged in comparison.

Rebellion of the Canes documents the work of 25 Minya children who spent five days making a series of short animation films on topics relating to children’s rights. “We saw the potential of producing this film for children’s rights and we were interested in making a combination between children’s animation and their rights,” says Simon Ingram, a communication officer from UNICEF, which financed the film. “We are trying to give the children the right to have a voice and to have a say as provided in the United Nations Children’s Rights accords,” he adds.

The documentary features an animated story about the corporal punishment of children common in schools, in which the cane that the teacher uses to punish the students comes to life. The film also highlights another tale in which an uneducated, poor father forces his daughters to work at an early age and gives their brother the privilege of going to school and studying. “We did this animation because we are children like them and feel what they are going through,” says one of the participants.

According to the British film director Oliver Wilkins, the animated films’ five-day process succeeded because the Egyptian children were enthusiastic and willing to work even after their bedtimes. “Egyptian kids have proven to be extremely creative and they saw the animations as a way to express themselves,” Wilkins stresses.

Rebellion of the Canes, said Wilkins, was the idea of Swedish animation producer Erling Ericsson, who encourages students to express themselves by allowing them to illustrate the topics of their choice. “He knew how it is difficult for children to stand on their own and wanted to show that children can do this through animation,” he adds.

Ericsson has spent some 20 years teaching film animation to children in Sweden and other countries. He has changed the face of Western-style animation work in Sweden, while simultaneously becoming the most famous producer of simple animation in Egypt and other Arab countries, thanks to his method of teaching children to make their own simple cutout animations.

He uses a simple animation rostrum-camera screwed into the ceiling of a studio box that is illuminated by four fluorescent lamps. The floor of the box is where the pictures and the cutout figures or characters are placed. The box, which is a kiosk-like worktable, has everything children might need to finish their project. “People do not know that I don’t use a computer or any advanced technology. They don’t even know that this simple camera exists,” laughs Ericsson. “But all I have with me are just colored papers, a box, camera and the children.”

The children then do the rest of the work on their own with a little guidance from Ericsson. They write a script, narrate it in pictures, cut out the pictures, animate it and then add voices to the animation. “In each group of children there is always a kid who writes, a kid who draws and others who can do the voices, just as simple as that,” he explains. “Despite being provided with very little information about film in schools, I found out everywhere I have been to that filmmaking and animations are things children knew about and are able to produce very creatively.”

Ericsson, the educational broadcasting producer, is now touring public schools in Egypt trying to convince them that animation is a very special learning project that provides a profound comprehension of class lessons, exposure to a variety of artistic styles and methods and a two-way education process. He holds classes for both kids and teachers so they can see their simple animations come to life very quickly. Later on, teachers can use the same method to teach geography, history or foreign languages.

Egypt, in particular, remains a great challenge for Ericsson because of its overpopulation and the difficulty of adapting to the traditional educational system that has been in place for decades. He has to make organizations like UNICEF, local NGOs and the Ministry of Education interested in his work and aware of its value in developing the educational process. “Of course it is hard to go to a teacher in a classroom that has 60 children and tell him/her to use animations for teaching, especially when it is a poor school,” says Ericsson. “Private schools are easier to deal with, but also, I’m not paid and funded by the Swedish government to give away this project to well-educated kids because they can afford that,” he explains.

However, he is planning to continue his project in Egypt for at least the next three years since the model for Egypt can be applied to the rest of the Arab world. He hopes that animation in Egypt will gain publicity and support, especially after last September’s showing of Rebellion of the Canes on the Children and Family satellite channel.

According to Ingram, UNICEF is currently documenting a hard-hitting animation concerning street children. Ericsson’s famous book about making animations, entitled Animate It, will soon be printed in Arabic in Egypt.