Alike: A Short Film About the Importance of Creativity
Alike is a short animated Spanish film that the entire world needs to see. Raga Cano Mendez and Daniel Martinez Lara created this film, which has won countless awards. These include the Goya Award for the best short film in 2016.
These great acknowledgments are due to the excellent way in which the creators describe the importance of creativity and how it begins to fade over the years. They blame this fact on a monotonous and dull society.
In this article, we’ll provide a brief synopsis of this wonderful film. But the truth is, you need to see if yourself to truly appreciate and understand it. Have you seen it yet? What are you waiting for?
“The creative adult is the child that has survived.”
–Ursula K. Le Guin–
What is creativity?
Before going into detail about the importance of creativity, we need to define the concept itself. According to psychologist Joy Paul Guilford, being creative implies the presence of three aptitudes:
- Fluidity: The ability to find a wide array of solutions to one problem.
- Flexibility: The ability to see situations from different angles and propose original solutions.
- Originality: To think in a different and unusual way.
So, it’s important to allow and encourage children to express their imagination through:
- Music.
- Painting and drawing.
- Play.
- Dance.
- Writing.
- Crafts.
- Drama.
“Creativity involves running away from what is obvious, safe or predictable in order to create something new.”
–Joy Paul Guilford–
Alike: A short film about the importance of creativity
Alike shows us a sad reality by describing, in a visible way, a somber and boring society. A society in which citizens simply carry out a mundane and repetitive daily routine. The young protagonist in the story tries to go along with this colorless and monotonous life, but his way of understanding the world just doesn’t fit it.
As a result, his creativity is penalized and punished until he finally loses his hopes and dreams. He accepts the present norms and becomes one more sheep in the flock. Fortunately, this boy’s father realizes that something is going on: His child is no longer as lively and joyful as he used to be.
Therefore, the father proposes a solution to this serious problem. In doing so, he allows his son to see that he needs to be creative in order to enjoy a life full of color. He teaches his son that this is the path to a happy life.
“Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society… but for me and no one else, education means making creators… You have to make inventors, innovators—not conformists.”
–Jean William Fritz Piaget–
Conclusions from the film
Thanks to this film, as parents and educators, we can appreciate the importance of creativity in our children. It’s our duty to encourage this creativity and make sure it never dies.
Teachers, in particular, should strive to make sure going to school is about more than just developing academic abilities. Rather, it should also include developing creative, social, and emotional abilities, etc.
At the same time, at home, we must allow our children the freedom to express their thoughts and ideas through art and imagination. Therefore, we must keep our little ones from losing their essence and unique personal identity.
We need to understand that every individual is different and that this is necessary and enriching when it comes to building a healthy and balanced society. After all, a world without creativity is boring and useless.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Curtis, J., Demos, G. y Torrance, E. (1976). Implicaciones educativas de la creatividad. Madrid: Anaya.