How can cinema can used as a learning tool to engage students and address sensitive topics

I was sitting in a cinema hall last year, watching a film with a group of 15 year olds. The story followed a boy going about his morning routine, entirely alone at home, quietly trying to brighten his own day. No dialogue for the first three minutes. Just images. Afterwards, a young girl said, “I never knew how to talk about what happens at home. But, watching this, I felt someone understood.” That sentence stayed with me.

We live in an age of information overload, yet our classrooms are quiet about the subjects that matter most: mental health, grief, bullying, identity, failure... The topics that shape who a child becomes are precisely the ones we are most reluctant to address directly. We talk around them. We distribute pamphlets. We invite counsellors for a 40-minute session once a year. Then we wonder why students don’t engage.