Scaling the Heights™ A Film Clip Library

Using a mixture of media can enrich learning in lots of ways:

By engaging the learners
By stimulating other ways of thinking, and new perspectives
By demonstrating how life experiences can inform our learning

These are some film clips which we have used in teaching and learning activities. We have indicated the kind of resonances we have seen - you may see others, of course.

Film	Which bit?	What is it good for?	Where can it be obtained?	Recommended by?
Dead Poets Society	· Carpe Diem at the beginning · “Rip” section · Jumping off the desk · Funny walks in the quadrangle	· Seize the day, What is education really about? · The principles of assessment. Good teaching · seeing things from a different perspective · Everyone is different	Commercially	Roland, Jonas
La vie est bella (Life is Beautiful)	· Beginning, a Jew in Rome · 1/3 way in, prison barracks	· Absence of prejudice · We hear what we want to	Commercially	Roland
Educating Rita	2/3 way in, Rita comes back from her course	The learner outgrows the teacher	Commercially	Roland
JoHari Window	All the way through	Intro to the concepts and use of JoHari	From Jonas, Roland	Roland Jonas
Master & Commander	2/3 way in, conversation between Doctor Stephen and the Master	The nature of Leadership (one view!)	Commercially	Roland
Lord of the Rings 1	Council of Elrond	At the beginning of meetings, courses, etc, people come together with their own stories and journeys	Commercially	Roland
Full Monty	½ way, an attempt to teach them to dance	Recruit the learners themselves, and their ideas, if you want them to learn something	Commercially	Roland
Creature Comforts	The first scene, of animals in the zoo talking about their experiences	Fun, light-hearted. Everyone is different	Bitty, and commercially	Roland Bitty
Chicken Run	The bit in the shed where they are trying out the catapault with the turnip.	Trying different ways of doing things and not giving up if it doesn't work at first	Commercially	Katharine
Ground Hog Day	Choose any scene that shows repetitive nature	metaphor for how we can live our lives day to day with no significant change	Commercially	Jonas
Don Juan de Marco	Scene near start where psychiatrist talks Juan off roof top by pacing him (entering his map of the world)	whole movie is marvellous comment on the map is not the territory.	Commercially	Jonas
Truly Madly Deeply		Romantic comedy that also conveys in metaphor how the mind holds onto the deceased loved one	Commercially	Jonas
Good Will Hunting	Second meeting of psychiatrist and Will	Explains the difference between a ‘declarative’ and a ‘functioning’ knowledge of life and love.	Commercially	Jonas
It’s a Wonderful Life	Where Clarence, George Bailey’s Guardian angel, jumps into the river to save George from suicide.	Living an ‘ordinary’ life to your values and principles has a ripple effect. Jonas	Commercially	Jonas
The Doctor	Scene when surgeon has his students undergo themselves the investigations they order for their patients	Insensitive surgeon changes perspective when he develops cancer.	Commercially	Jonas
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest	Whole movie	Abuse of power	Commercially	Jonas
The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist, Grand Canyon	Films of Lawrence Kasdan	Human relationships	Commercially	Jonas
A Horizon programme	Richard Fenyman describing visual perception followed by Marvin Minskey’s comments:	· How going back to a childlike simplicity facilitates creativity · map and territory (there is no one correct way of representing things’) · flexibility of approaches	From Jonas from BBC	Jonas
David Copperfield	Scene when David is told of Mother’s death	Stimulus to discuss the who, when and where of breaking bad news.	BBC Films Jonas	Jonas
Obedience	Any scene that demonstrates the ‘teacher’ going on to administer a potentially lethal electric shock when given permission by the ‘scientist/experimenter’ in charge.	Shocking, in at least two senses of the word, portrayal of how most of us are capable of committing terrible acts against our fellow men	British Universities Film & Video Council & Jonas	Jonas
Five Steps to Tyranny	BBC Documentary	As above, a warning about our tendency to obey figures of authority in an unthinking way - as a step towards serious human rights abuses	Jonas	Jonas
Don’t Move	ITV Documentary. Out-take from ‘It Will Be Alright on the Night’ Director requests/demands/implores actor to say lines without moving his head.	About deep and surface structure to communication	Jonas	Jonas
The Beginning	A Wiggleman Video - a 10 mins cartoon	Creativity	Jonas, Shake	Jonas
The Wee Kirkudbright Centipede	by "Singing Kettle” !!	Demonstrates unconscious competence		Eileen
Mr Deeds Goes to Town	A bit at the end of the original film	About personal responsibility and integrity		Eileen
Bambi	There's the bit where Bambi learns to walk with the aid of "thumper"………	…..his mentor		Eileen
Galaxy Quest	There's a bit in Galaxy quest where people "act as if" and …	….prove themselves heroes.		Eileen
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin	First and last 5 minutes, esp the scene with the pea in the ear	A sideways look at communicating and getting the best out of people	Commercially	Veronica
Amelie	Where she turns to water as her chap leaves the restaurant without knowing who she is	recognising insecurities, non verbal communication	Commercially	Veronica
Iris	Funeral scene	Different perspectives of illness – viewed by the individual, spouse, family, friends, etc	Commercially	Veronica
Four Weddings & a Funeral	Wedding scene when deaf brother has to speak for groom	Facilitation and articulation of our thoughts may be needed to take action	Steve or any video shop	Steve
Rock School	2/3 of way through when one of the pupil gives ‘too’ honest feedback	Requesting and receiving feedback	Commercially	Steve
Rain man	Half way through when Raymond counts toothpicks dropped on floor	Making assumptions – not all talents are immediately obvious	Commercially	Steve
Regeneration	Interview technique used by Capt. Rivers with Billy Prior or Siegfried Sassoon	Art of facilitation in bringing self-awareness; how to use reflective questioning	Commercially	Steve
Amadeus	Scene 10 – Austrian Emperor tells Mozart that his work is almost perfect but has ‘too many notes’	Value judgements about ‘good’ and ‘bad’	Commercially	Steve
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	As they ride back to their Wyoming hide-out (the infamous 'Hole in the Wall' concealed in rugged canyons) before rock formations, the film slowly becomes full-colour. When they reach a valley floor and guide their horses through a small stream as they draw near to the entrance, Butch exclaims: “Boy, y'know, every time I see 'Hole in the Wall' again, it's like seeing it fresh for the first time, and every time that happens, I keep asking myself the same question, 'How can I be so damn stupid as to keep comin' back here?'”	The cycle of experience and learning	Commercially	Mark
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	In the “knife fight” between Butch and Harvey. All in the negotiation - and Butch tricks Harvey	Importance of honest contracting, in appraisals, mentoring, and any learning situation	Commercially	Mark
Annie Hall	The monologue at the very beginning… Woody speculates on his life, what he’ll be like when he’s older, and reviewing his experiences… “And I keep asking myself – where did the screw-up come?”	Learning is about finding meaning in our lives	Commercially	Mark
Saving Private Ryan	58 minutes in when they "Break Bad News" to Private Ryan - straight to the point- "all your brothers are dead" - and to the wrong Private Ryan.	Example of Breaking Bad News, spectacularly badly done.	Commercially	Michael