A movie trailer as seduction for historical learning about the Middle Ages

Abstract

This article discusses the use of a movie trailer as a stimulating resource for learning about the Middle Ages. The movie trailer suggested here was developed through extensive research on a festival of reenactment of medieval history called Epic Festival, which is considered as a “medievality” (Macedo, 2011), that is to say, as a commonsense appropriation of the medieval past. Discussing the movie trailer as a still little-explored resource in academic research, the text highlights its educational  potential as it can entice children and young people in primary and secondary school grades to engage themselves in learning about the appropriations and uses of the medieval age operated by people living in the present. The investigation on the Epic Festival was based on the analysis of a variety of primary sources, such as journals, images, publicity material, meeting scripts, and oral narratives of organizers and the public of the event.