* The History Channel UK is set to be launched by BSkyB next week as a new documentary and education satellite channel, specialising, as the name suggests, in programmes with a historical interest. The service begins broadcasting on November 1, with series including History Alive (documentaries focusing on political and social history); Our Century (a television biography of the century) and Biography (portraits of historical figures).
* Cable news channel CNN is inviting entries for a “Young Journalist of the Year” competition. Students are being asked to send in a news report in either print, audio-cassette or video form on international current affairs, business or sport. The prize is five days at CNN’s United States’ base in Atlanta, Georgia with camcorders for nine runners-up. Details from CNN House, 19-22 Rathbone Place, London W1P 1DF.
* Film Education, the media education group, is publishing a series of free study guides in November to “The Ten Films That Shook the World” - as chosen by teachers earlier this year. Aimed at GCSE and A level English and media studies, the titles will include Citizen Kane, Psycho, Battleship Potemkin, Schindler’s List and Gone With the Wind.
There are also study guides for films now screening. Land and Freedom, set in the Spanish Civil War, and the Disney blockbuster, Pocahontas, with classroom exercises based on the movies. A guide for the new James Bond movie, Goldeneye, will be published, supporting a Film Education television programme about Goldeneye, to be broadcast next month on BBC2‘s night-time education service, the Learning Zone. Further details from Film Education 0171 637 9932.
* The British Film Institute’s magazine, Sight and Sound, has produced a guide to 100 Essential Films on Video, containing 100 short reviews of what are claimed to be the best and most influential films ever made (and available on video). The guide comes free with the November issue of Sight and Sound, price Pounds 2.70. Sight and Sound, 21 Stephen Street, London W1P 1PL.
* “Animation Plus”, an exhibition of art work from animated films of the 1940s to the present day, opens at the Museum of the Moving Image, on London’s South Bank, on November 28. There will be work from 70 animators on show, with examples of sketches, working models, storyboards and the finished image.
* The museum is also running a children’s category in an animation award, to be nominated by London primary schools. Children are being invited to nominate their favourite animated series, for a children’s category in the British Animation Award.
Along with the nomination, children are invited to send in a review of their favourite work, with the winners receiving a free trip around the museum. Details from Yvette Burrows at MOMI on 0171 815 1331.
* The future of vocational media qualifications, such as GNVQs, is one of the issues addressed in the November issue of 20:20, a termly media education magazine. For more information, ring Sandy Colwell on 01273 382020.
* The Northern Ireland Film Council is holding its annual Cinemagic international film festival for young people on December 7-16, with screenings of 65 films from around the world (including several premi res) in venues across Northern Ireland. There will also be training workshops and special cinema events for children. For more information ring Cinemagic on 01232 232444.
