The 13th Panasonic Kid Witness News - seeing the real-life through the eyes of kids

Hanoi, 9^th November 2019 – Panasonic Vietnam organized the Kid Witness News (KWN) 2019 Award Ceremony to complete the 13^th film-making journey of nearly 500 students from 71 schools in Hanoi. The Ceremony had the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Education and Training, the Communication Center of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, non-government organizations together with teachers and parents of students.

As an interesting playground for Vietnamese students, the KWN 2019 has received the attention of thousands of students from 10 to 18 in Hanoi since its kick-off, with 154 submitted scenarios with several topics including Environment, Communication, Sports and Sustainable Development. In which, sustainable development is a new topic this year encouraging students to better understand the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that everyone enjoys peace and prosperity. 

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thanh Minh – representative of the Ministry of Education and Training sends her congratulations to students in KWN 2019

This year, the scenarios reflected innocent views of students about life. Together with careful investment in the script, filming context and different genres such as short film, reportage, and image quality also showed professionalism thanks to Panasonic’s advanced audiovisual products and equipment. The students were captivated by the 7^th art and invested a lot of time, effort and passion during summer-time to complete their works. In the film of “Redcaps team”, the members of “Talent girls” group had to come to the pool at 4 or 5 am to film the real swimming class. Or in the film “Life under the bridge” by Greenie group depicted a part of the difficult lives of people living under Long Bien bridge in Hanoi through realistic footage and stories. 

Mr. Kazuhiro Matsushita – General Director of Panasonic Vietnam delivers his opening speech of KWN2019 Award Ceremony

“Each film tells me a different story and shows the student’s deep care about the earth, environment, family, friends and various matters they observe. Their views are clear, and the way of expressing is unique. By learning to make films, they can better understand what is happening around in daily life and express their opinions about those matters.” Said Mr. Kazuhiro Matsushita, General Director of Panasonic Vietnam.

Attending the KWN 2019, the students participated in not only professional making-film class in studio, but also the field trip to practice out-door filming skills and enjoy team-building activities as well as survival skills training class. Besides, the students had an exciting time studying and discussing about the United Nations’ sustainable development goals at the United Nations International School Hanoi to raise awareness and action to contribute to the implementation of these goals in Vietnam.

Fully convincing the judges with attractive storylines and high-quality images, the First Prize of 10-12 year-old-student level belonged to the Flames group with the film “Other families’ kids”. The content reflects a social issue that many parents often compare their children with others’ and always want them to achieve high performance. This accidentally pressures their child.

Flames Group with a film of “Other families’ kids” – the winners of 10-12 year-old-student level 

The First Prize of 13-18 year-old-student level belonged to the Emmanuel group with the film “Playground”. The content was inspired by the true story of students in the group about their difficulties in finding a basketball court, a legitimate need but still hard-to-have for many young people today.

Emmanuel Group with a film of “Play-ground” – the winners of 13-18 year-old-student level 

KWN is a film-making program around the world that has been organized by Panasonic since to improve communication, creativity and promoting cooperation through the films made by students.

For nearly 7 decades in Vietnam, Panasonic has accompanied with the young generation through many activities that contribute to the sustainable development of Vietnam such as the development of Panasonic Risupia Vietnam, Panasonic scholarship program, global eco-learning classes.