ReCreating America

The first in a series of documentaries on creativity in America.

View the full film at OETA On Demand here.

For much of its history, the word “America” has stood for the brightest ideas, the most resourceful solutions and the most provocative insights. Is this still true today? Americans are waking up to a newly globalized world, where they no longer have special rights to great creative “aha”s.

Today, the best ideas in software, technology, management, manufacturing, lifestyle, education or music are just as likely to be coming from Bangalore, Shanghai, Osaka, Dublin or Helsinki as they are from Chicago or San Jose. And what of tomorrow? To maintain their originality and competitiveness in the future, what will Americans have to do, to re-think, re-engineer and re-create their priorities?

The First Film: Creativity and Learning

The first film of ReCreating America explores the importance of creativity in education: how can parents and teachers assist the creative growth of children, and what do they often do to stifle it? “When we’re six or seven years old,” Picasso once said in old age, “We’re all artists. It’s what happens in school and at home that determines who remains an artist.”

The film takes the State of Oklahoma as a test-bed, and visits four schools (across the age range) to assess the ways in which they are attempting to teach and promote creativity:

The Educare Preschool in Tulsa, OK: a low-income, at-risk community
The “A+ Schools” initiative at Flower Mound elementary school, Lawton, OK
The “Odyssey of the Mind” competition, as taught in Middle School at Piedmont, OK
The Santa Fe South Charter High School in Oklahoma, OK: desperate measures?

The program asks teachers, parents and national experts: what appear to be the most effective ways to promote creativity, while still teaching the three Rs, and even improving test scores?

Produced by InCA Productions for OETA and national Public Television.

InCA Productions

Independent Communications Associates, better known globally as InCA, is an award-winning television production company with offices in San Francisco, Toulouse (France) and Nairobi (Kenya). For 25 years, productions by InCA and its co-founder and president, David Kennard have won numerous awards, including national and international Emmies, the International Science Film Festival Jury Prize, the Peabody and Dupont Columbia awards, and the National Educational Media Network Trophy. From The Ascent of Man to Cosmos and Connections, from The Heart of Healing to The Promise of Play, each project has been a milestone in its field.