Friends of Skelton Grange are delighted to be able to screen ‘Project Wild Thing’ at the award winning Skelton Grange Environment Centre in South Leeds at 7pm tomorrow (Wednesday 13 November 2013).
Filmmaker David Bond is a worried man. His kids’ waking hours are dominated by a cacophony of marketing, and a screen dependence threatening to turn them into glassy-eyed zombies. Like city kids everywhere, they spend way too much time indoors – not like it was back in his day.
He decides it’s time to get back to nature – literally.
Bond believes we are raising a generation of children who don’t play outside any more. Time spent playing outdoors is down 50% in just one generation.
Inactivity and obesity mean children born today have a lower life expectancy than their parents, for the first time ever. Meanwhile, evidence overwhelmingly suggests that natural environments have restorative physical and mental health effects, as well as specifically promoting child development. So children not playing outside, and not engaging with nature, is a big deal.
But David Bond has a solution. And it began with a film. Project Wild Thing premièred at the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival in June and starts a nationwide run in PictureHouse cinemas in the autumn. In it Bond is compelled to act when realising his young daughter (aged five) and son (four) spend the vast majority of their time indoors in front of screens. He appoints himself the “marketing director of nature” to take on the big brands that vie for children’s attention and beat them at their own game. So begins a tour of the UK talking to academics, branding experts, parents and children to understand how we can reconnect with nature.
“This film will change your life” Patrick Barkham, The Guardian
Tickets are free, but we would love you to make a donation to Friends of Skelton Grange, which supports the charitable work of The Conservation Volunteers at Skelton Grange Environment Centre.
Refreshments will be available for sale on the evening.
For further information and to book tickets please visit https://projectwildthingatskeltongrange.eventbrite.co.uk/
