Rabid dogs and paedos. According to the documentary
‘Project Wild Thing’, their parents’ exaggerated fear of crazed canines and child molesters is keeping London’s kids from playing outdoors. That and grass stains. And those are just the psychological barriers, says filmmaker David Bond, who directs and stars – Morgan Spurlock-style – in this fun, action-rousing film. Traffic, the commercialisation of public space, schools that keep youngsters indoors when it rains, the seductive glow of computers and telly – they all contribute to a city of miniature couch potatoes, glassy-eyed and over weight, robbed of play and the great outdoors – of which London has plenty.
‘It can feel overwhelming,’ says Bond, a father from New Cross Gate who made the film after his two young children began to seem ‘strung out’. ‘I know that’s a vague term, but it just seemed like childhood’s a bit more full-on than it was when I was a kid. I started thinking about why that was, and that led very quickly to questions about the indoors and the outdoors,’ he says.
No wonder. The benefits of nature, enumerated in the doc, are myriad: patients with natural views outside their rooms recover faster than those with views of cities; plants reduce stress hormones; and kids with ADHD show fewer symptoms after spending time outdoors.
To Bond’s credit,
‘Project Wild Thing’ doesn’t feel didactic. Granted, there’s a scene where he implores shoppers outside the Regent Street Apple Store not to buy iPads – through a loudhailer. From a rickshaw. But there’s far less sermonising than you might expect, particularly of the ‘back in my day’ variety, and the film remains heroically upbeat in the crisps-stuffed face of some appalling statistics on childhood wellbeing in the UK.
‘Just by going outdoors, by giving up a tiny bit of telly time and taking children outside, barriers get eroded,’ he says. ‘The more kids there are outside, the more local authorities will have to protect them.’ Luckily, there are countless London spots to introduce sofa-bound children to (see the slideshow below). Though be warned: grass stains are all but inevitable.
To arrange a screening for your community group, see www.projectwildthing.com
