Editor

The Finnish documentary film event for children and youth, DOKKINO, has yet again broken its attendee record. The tour that ended in November 2014 attracted more than 13 000 children and youth around the country to come and experience documentaries. DOKKINO has raised its popularity significantly over the last few years, and it has grown into the largest nationwide documentary film event designed for children and youth in Europe.

DOKKINO is a nationwide tour organized by DocPoint-elokuvatapahtumat ry (DocPoint Film Events), which introduces viewers under the age of 18 to the world of creative documentary filmmaking. Annually the tour exhibits two programmes, which contain international high-quality documentary films for students of primary and secondary schools. In addition to the tour, DOKKINO also produces a package of versatile educational material, which supplements the screening events. DOKKINO organizes film workshops as well, where students get to try documentary filmmaking.

Promoting media and social education, DOKKINO has been popular for all of its history, spanning over the last 12 years. The viewership and scope of the event have been purposefully expanded during a three-year development program, which began in 2012. The event has succeeded in expanding its viewership into a new record every year. In 2014, a total of 13 100 children and youth attended DOKKINO, when the previous year had attracted only 8 550.

A major goal for DOKKINO has been to develop into a forum for children and youth’s own ideas and activity. During the event the students will get to make their own short documentaries in workshops led by professionals, which has proven to be an excellent way to augment media education. Another goal has been to add new locations to the tour by at least two cities every year. In 2014, the tour visited a total of 13 cities in Finland, which were Helsinki, Oulu, Kuopio, Mikkeli, Pori, Jyväskylä, Turku, Tampere, Vantaa, Espoo, Vaasa, Lappeenranta and Kuusamo. New locations for 2015 will be Rovaniemi, Kajaani and Kotka. In 2015, DOKKINO will run for the 13th time.

DOKKINO website: http://docpoint.info/en/info-2/dokkino-documentary-film-event-children-young/