Alike: A Short Film About The Importance Of Creativity

Alike is a short, animated Spanish film that the whole world has to see. Raga Cano Mendez and Daniel Martinez created the film, which has won countless awards. This includes the Goya Award for Best Short Film of 2016.

These amazing accolades are due to the excellent way in which the creators describe the importance of creativity and how it begins to disappear over the years. They blame the monotonous and boring society for this.

In this article, we give you a brief overview of this wonderful movie. But the truth is, you have to see it with your own eyes so that you can really appreciate and understand it. Have you seen it yet? What are you waiting for?

What is creativity?

Before we go into detail about why creativity is so important, we first need to define the concept itself. According to psychologist Joy Paul Guilford, creativity implies the presence of three abilities: 

• Fluency: The ability to find a wide range of solutions to one problem.
• Flexibility: The ability to see situations from different angles and suggest different solutions.
• Originality: Being able to think differently and in an unusual way.

Howard Gardner, the creator of the theory of multiple intelligences, postulates that each of the eight intelligences expresses creativity in its interior. Therefore, it is essential for proper cognitive development in children.

It is important to allow and encourage children to express their imagination through:

• Music
• To paint and draw
• Play
• Dance
• Writing
• Needlework
• Drama

Alike: A short film about the importance of creativity

Alike shows us the sad reality by describing, in a visible way, a gloomy and boring society. A community where residents simply perform everyday and repetitive routines. The young protagonist in the story tries to keep up with this colorless and monotonous life, but his way of understanding the world just does not fit.

As a result, his creativity is punished until he finally loses his hopes and dreams. He accepts the current norms and becomes yet another sheep in the flock. Fortunately, the boy’s father realizes that something is going on: his child is no longer as lively and happy as he used to be.

Therefore, the father suggests a solution to this serious problem. He lets his son see that he needs to be creative so he can enjoy life to the fullest. He teaches his son that this is the way to a happy life.

Conclusions from the film

Thanks to this film, we as parents and teachers can appreciate the importance of creativity in our children. It is our responsibility to encourage this creativity and make sure it never dies out. 

Teachers in particular should strive to ensure that going to school is about much more than just developing academic skills. It should also include developing creative, social and emotional abilities.

At home, we must also give our children the freedom to express their thoughts and ideas through art and imagination. We need to keep our children from losing their unique, personal identity.

We need to understand that every individual is different and that this is necessary and enriching when building a healthy and balanced society. A world without creativity is, after all, boring and useless.