The First Class

Permission to Exist

In just sixty years, South Korea went from being one of the poorest countries on the Asian continent to having the 12th largest economy in the entire world. Every year, it is measured that Korean students have some of the highest test scores and a higher rate of acceptance into Ivy League schools compared to all other nations. But on the flip side, South Korea also has one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world, the highest gender pay gap of all developed countries, and the highest plastic surgery rate per capita. Always expected to receive top scores and constantly bombarded by media and messages that seem to demand nothing short of visual “perfection,” how do these individuals come to accept and learn to love themselves as they are?

Girl Culture

how to sneak candy into school (gone wrong)

What starts as a high school vlog turns into a sour beef between bros.

Here We Go Again!

Students auditioning for their high school's production of Mamma Mia! go head to head to secure a spot in their coveted spring musical.

American Teenager

A young woman reflects on her high school drug addiction on a weekend trip to her hometown in Pennsylvania where it took place.

American Cheerleader

Follows the journey of two high school teams vying for the coveted UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship title.

Homs - Syrie, la vie d’après

After twelve years in exile, Syrian journalist and filmmaker Daham Alasaad returns to Homs, devastated by the war in Syria. Once the city of his childhood, it is now a relic of an authoritarian regime, where different communities (Sunnis, Christians, Alawites) are trying to rebuild their lives together after terrible years of division and destruction. Thanks to Daham Alasaad's close relationship with the city's inhabitants, the director highlights some very moving characters, torn between grief, fear, the need for justice, and the desire for peace and reconciliation. By opening up naturally to the camera, they allow viewers to experience what Syrians of all backgrounds are going through today. "Homs-Syria, Life After" is a personal and political investigation into the ability of this symbolic city to rebuild hope on the ruins of a Syria ravaged by more than fifteen years of war and facing an uncertain future.

We Did It on a Song

This film tells the stormy tale of a group of friends from Boulogne-sur-Mer, a French town hit by the financial crisis. A year between dreams and disillusion, imagined by teenagers from a working or middle class background, with songs that regularly add poetry, laughter, and emotion to reality.

22-17

A narrator embarks on a retrospective journey into the final months of school with their best friends. Over five chapters and an epilogue, they reflect on friendship, yearning, and the fears of losing contact with these individuals who are so significant to them. They were 17, more or less.

1999

In the late 1990s, Moncton's Acadian community was forever marked when death struck an high school. In a sweet impressionist film, Samara returns to the city she fled as a teenager to immerse herself in memories that are still buried there, in various places and in dusty boxes containing diaries, photos and VHS tapes. 1999 is not a ghost story, although it is populated by ghosts. The snow-covered streets, corridors and locker rooms of the school are intact, as in a dream, but the absence left by the wave of teenage suicides still resonates with unanswered questions, trauma and regret. Samara meets inspiring people who carry with them great pain and who, 16 years later, can finally comfort each other by breaking a long silence. In the end, the film interweaves different voices and gives rise to a collective reflection on the internalization of mourning and the need to learn to affirm one's desire to survive.

TIME TO DIE

Future Ruins

In a boarding school, legend has it that a time capsule has been hidden in the walls. They say it could change the world. Today, the new students fall in love, play cards, dream and laugh in their rooms, which in turn become their own time capsules, like snapshots of a generation at 20 years old.

More than a Game

This documentary follows NBA superstar LeBron James and four of his talented teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Ohio and James' journey to fame.

Touched

Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, in rural Alsace. A vocational high school. A class of year 12 ASSP (Assistance, Care and Service to Person) pupils experience contemporary dancing based on improvised contacts for the first time.

The Age of Transitions

The cutting edge group known as transhumanists see a beautiful future brought about by artificial intelligence, life extension, and cybernetics. What one must realize before getting carried away with such utopian dreams is that transhumanism was born out of the elitist pseudo-science eugenics. This documentary provides vital information on the history of eugenics and its new cutting edge transformation.

National Diploma

In Kisangani, a group of high-school students who cannot afford to pay the teachers' "bonuses" organized themselves to prepare the State exam together.

Pressure Cooker

A committed, passionate teacher tries to make all the difference in the lives of disadvantaged students.

Rachid: Filme-Anuário

2040: Possibilities by Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono literally sketches out the future in a 90 minute lecture filmed in Copenhagen. He explains 2040 as seen by someone frozen cryogenically in 1997.

Freakonomics

Some of the world's most innovative documentary filmmakers will explore the hidden side of everything.