Frequently Asked Questions

HOW LONG HAS NO STRINGS BEEN OPERATING?

No Strings has been going for five years.

HOW DID NO STRINGS COME ABOUT?

No Strings is the result of a chance meeting between emergency aid coordinator Johnie McGlade and Kathy Mullen and Michael Frith, two of the original leading names on The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock and many other favorite film and TV hits.
Johnie had frequently used an old puppet during his work in conflict and emergency zones around the world, and was always amazed at the reaction it had. With a puppet on his arm, Johnie found himself much more able to capture the attention of a crowd in displacement camps, for example, and share important messages - when people should expect to get food and water every day, where to find medical aid, and so on.
In New York, Kathy and Michael profoundly understood the educational value of puppets after decades of working in educational and entertainment children's TV, and for a long time they had been thinking up ways to use their skills to support the wellbeing and safety of children in the developing world.
Kathy and Michael now head up the Production Office in New York, and Johnie the Programmes Office in the UK and Ireland.

WHAT IS YOUR MISSION STATEMENT?

No Strings is dedicated to producing culturally-sensitive educational puppet films which deliver key messages in a highly engaging format to children and communities in developing countries at risk from poverty, disease, conflict, and natural and manmade disasters.

WHERE IS NO STRINGS BASED?

The Programmes Office, dealing with partner relationships and dissemination of the films, is based in Newcastle, UK, and Limerick, Irleland. No Strings is a registered not for profit company in the US, UK and Ireland. The Production Office and creative team are based in New York, USA.

WHY DO YOU SHOOT THE FILMS IN THE US AND NOT IN THE LAUNCH COUNTRIES?

For puppet films to be very effective, they have to be good. Filming in New York is the most cost-effective way of mobilising an exceptionally experienced professional puppet team.

WHICH COUNTRIES DO YOU WORK IN?

Afghanistan, Indonesia, East Timor, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and now East Africa.

WHAT ISSUES DO YOU COVER?

The core issues we address revolve around conflict and peace, natural and manmade natural disasters, poverty, and HIV/AIDS.

WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU MADE TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES?

• Afghanistan: landmine-awareness film ChucheQhalin. Loosely based on Pinocchio, Chuchi is a lifeless doll made of carpet who is magically brought to life. His grandmother, who has lost other grandchildren in landmine accidents, is desperate not to lose Chuchi to the same fate, so she calls on the village Headman to steer him in the right direction. If Chuchi is able to learn a series of life-saving lessons about landmines through his adventures, he will become a real boy. Of course, there are many temptations in his way. The film draws on local folklore to colour its characters and drama, and key beneficiaries are children who are in constant danger of injury or being killed in one of the most heavily mined countries in the world as they play, travel about and work.

• Sri Lanka: Interactive film and live puppet performance aimed at teaching children who, a year on from the tsunami, remained extremely anxious about it happening again. The programme looks at causes, preventative measures and exposes myths linked to tsunamis.

• South East Asia: A series of five disaster risk reduction films focusing on how to spot warning signs, and how to respond, in entertaining adventure format. Tales of Disasters is made up of Cyclone / Typhoon, Tsunami, Earthquake, Flood & Landslide, and Volcano.

• South East Asia: Peace-building film Two Gardens, which examines the speed at which tensions can escalate within a community.

• Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania: HIV / AIDS. Set of three films – gender equality, stigma and prevention – for eight-12-year-olds as well as teenage audiences. 

WHO DECIDES WHAT CONTENT FILMS SHOULD HAVE?

This information comes through experts  working in the target country who have a detailed and high level understanding of educational needs, and who have a proven history of working with our partner INGO. Information is given to Kathy Mullen, artistic director, who creates a number of concept ideas. These are approved and developed, as is all key message content, over a detailed consultation period. Scripts, puppet characters, sets and props are all fully approved and signed off by experts before filming begins.

HOW DO CHILDREN AND COMMUNITIES GET TO SEE THE FILMS?

It’s important that children are able to fully explore and discuss the message content of the films to maximise their educational impact. Films are shown to children and other members of the community by local facilitators who work for our named local partners (these are organisations developed within the launch country and who deal with this specific subject matter). The films are thus an additional educational tool for them, one which has proven extremely effective.
No Strings leads week-long workshops to train these facilitators in the content and background of the film, in fun and learner-focused ways of delivering them, including hand puppet training by some of the leading names in the puppet film and TV world, and provides hand puppets made in country, handbooks, and lesson plan activity guides.
In the Philippines, the Department of Education has committed to using them as part of the elementary school national curriculum.
Where electricity supplies and equipment are not guaranteed, No Strings donates cinema bikes, as with Afghanistan, to the local partner. These are off-road bikes with sidecars containing generator, projector, microphone and a screen big enough to be seen by large groups.
Films may also be shown on local television channels. This happens regularly in Afghanistan, for example.

HOW MANY CHILDREN SEE YOUR FILMS?

In Afghanistan, around 1,000 people can be shown the film there per week per media bike, of which there are four, and many thousands more through weekly television broadcasts.
With an estimated population of 238 million, Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world after China, India and the United States. The country has a very high incidence of natural disaster, and our local partner facilitators are reaching ever increasing numbers of children and communities in regions threatened by flooding, landslides, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes, as well as communities in East Timor. The target between now and 2010 is to extend this programme to every province in Indonesia and East Timor through outreach work and national television broadcasts.
Similar results will be achieved in the Philippines, where the films were launched in February 2009. As well as this, the Department of Education there aims to reach all 47,000 elementary schools in the Philippines over the next few years by implementing the programme through the national curriculum.
In Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, we hope to reach a similar numbers, and then roll out the programme into additional regions of sub-Saharan Africa.
Programmes are highly sustainable and DVDs cheap and easy to reproduce. We encourage facilitators trained through our workshops to train others, so that increasingly greater numbers can be reached.

WHAT LANGUAGES ARE THEY DUBBED INTO?

Once the full production process is completed in New York, the films are sent to dubbing studios in the launch country (in Afghanistan, where no such facilities existed, ChucheQhalin was the first film dubbed in such a way in Kabul’s history).
Afghanistan: Dari and Pashtu
Sri Lanka: Sinhalese
Indonesia and East Timor: Bahasa Indonesian, Timorese, Acehnese
The Philippines: Tagalog, Bisaya, Ilocano, and Waray
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania: East African English, Luganda and Swahili

WHO DO YOU WORK WITH? 

Currently, our main international partner is Trocaire, the leading Irish development organisation, and we have recently worked with agencies such as Plan, Save the Children, Unicef, Caritas, World Vision, etc.
In most cases, it is these lead international organisations who recommend local partners who will provide facilitators to deliver our films.

HOW DO YOU FUND THE PROGRAMMES?

Most No Strings films are co-funded through a partnership between No Strings and leading international non government organisations. These INGOs are able to bring local partners to the table with a huge amount of local expertise in a given issue, and who will be able to provide a network of local facilitators to disseminate the films on completion.
This means that No Strings is continuously seeking to raise funding so that more and more children are able to benefit from our programmes. In addition, we are currently seeking to raise additional funds for future programs and developments. All projects are highly sustainable, with DVDs very cheap to replicate, and partners committed to rolling out implementation on a long term basis.

HOW DO YOU ENSURE YOUR FILMS ARE OF THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE PROFESSIONAL QUALITY?

The crew who work on No Strings films represents one of the biggest assemblies of puppet and related film talent in the industry, and is led by Kathy Mullen (former principal puppeteer with The Muppet Show, co-creator of Fraggle Rock and Between The Lions) and Michael Frith (former executive vice president and director of creative services at the Jim Henson Company, co-creator of Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies, Dog City, and The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, as well as many of TV and film’s best loved puppet characters).
Other members of the crew include cinematographer Luke Geissbühler, whose credits include Borat, Mail Order Wife and Acts of Worship, as well as master puppeteers, builders, producers, directors, costume and set designers Heather Asch, Jim Kroupa, John Orberg, Tim Lagasse, Rob Graydon, Ronald Binion, Amanda Maddock, Pam Arciero, Lisa Buckley, Anney Fresh McKilligan, Polly Smith, Sharon Lerner, Laura Brock, who have taken leading roles in shows like The Muppets, Sesame Street, Johnny and the Sprites, Allegra’s Window, Between the Lions, Blue’s Clues, Bear in the Big Blue House, Romper Room, Book of Pooh, Lazy Town, and many more. 
Through their commitment to the aims of No Strings work, much of the crew is prepared to work at well below their usual commercial work rates.