Secondary school students seek out witnesses to times past, question them about their youth and produce and publish oral history short films based on these interviews. They visit people over 60 in their own homes. They use the project-specific software “Z-moviemaker” to edit the audio recordings of these memories into short clips, too which they add visual film material based on their subject’s private photo albums during a second visit. They then publish these short films on project websites and on Zeitmaschine.TV.

Oral History, School Curriculum 21 and Public Presentations

The school project is based on the methods of oral history and corresponds to important goals of the national curriculum 21. It can therefore be undertaken as a project week or as a multi-week scenario within the existing curriculum. The final event is often a clip show presented to the films’ narrators and the general public – when there isn’t a pandemic. The media game also generates wide press coverage.

An Intergenerational Game during the Pandemic

Since early 2020 the game has been adapted to the safety measures and restrictions required by the pandemic. Thanks to online sequences, telephone interviews, and working with younger “contemporary witnesses” it was able to continue. The shifts in content are illustrated for example by the film collections to the 2021 projects in Bern-Breitenrain and in Biglen in Emmental.

Expanding the Time Machine for Old and Young

During and after the pandemic the game was further developed. For example the website Zeitmaschine.TV was re-launched and the film app Z-moviemaker expanded. In the winter of 2021/22 digital Z-Games for old age institutions and kids over 4 will be created, based on photos and the 1’000 short films from the “Time Machine”. Besides this collaboration with the Institute of Data Science of the FHNW, University of Applied Sciences, the best clips will be edited into thematic dossiers for use in schools.

The Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation supports the implementation of the school project in the Canton of Bern.