Une place pour eux

Pecking at the Window

Entire generations lost. We can't change the world if we teach the same things we were taught. Let's start a revolution in school! But how? A high school takes on the challenge: to form good people, not just to think about forming good workers.

Sylvie à l'école

Sylvie Giroux doesn’t have kids, but every year, from September to June, about 10 teenagers aged 16 to 21 add a bit of magic to her life. These youngsters suffer from autism, Down syndrome, dyspraxia, severe anxiety and intellectual handicaps.

Il Centro per i Giovani - volti, racconti ed esperienze sotto la mascherina

Comprehensive School

The joys of 1960s modern education - as seen at a not-exactly-typical local comp.

The Colonel's Playbook

In 1969, in order to bolster its shrinking student body, Fort Worth Country Day School recruited retired Marine Corps Lt. Colonel, R.C. "Rocky" Rosacker to ignite participation in athletics. No one was prepared for the Colonel's expectations of maximum effort and execution. Not only did the Colonel create a dynasty of championships but his teachings continue to inspire many generations after he taught.

The History of EDS

Follows the rich history and traditions of the English Language School “Plovdiv” in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Bitter Sweet Ballad

This is a story about youth with music. It all happens at the Dandelion School, Beijing’s first middle school specifically established for the children of migrant workers. Every year when new pupils arrive, Ms. Yuan Xiaoyan, who has worked in the school choir for eight years, would choose a group of music-loving first-years with solid musical foundations to join the choir. A new group of children join the choir while those who have advanced to the second year have to discuss with their families their future choices. For choir members, their music career in middle school will eventually stop due to the pressure of high school entrance examinations and the inevitable parting. But along this journey accompanied by music, they have been savoring the joys and sorrows of their youth, burying them deep in their hearts, and transforming them into growth-promoting nutrients.

Lessons from the Air

Behind-the-scenes documentary about the making and broadcasting of pedagogical radio shows on the BBC.

The ABCs of Book Banning

In recent years, more than 2,500 books have been removed from school districts around the US, labeled as banned, restricted, or challenged, and made unavailable to millions of students. By no accident, the themes targeted are the usual scapegoats of the American Right—LGBTQ+ issues, Black History, and women’s empowerment—impeding the power of future generations to develop their own thoughts and opinions on critical social issues. By weaving together a lyrical montage of young readers and authors, THE ABCs OF BOOK BANNING reveals the voices of the impacted parties, and inspires hope for the future through the profound insights of inquisitive youthful minds.

Pick up the Wind

A short film following Anthony, a young child from the small, rural town of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. We see him in different moments of his daily life as he interacts with different forms of environmental, familial, and social influences. While Anthony displays contradictory traits of creativity, destruction, rigidity, and tenderness as he interacts with his external and internal worlds, we see a story built from the the multidimensionality of Anthony's layered personality as a young man.

First Case, Second Case

A documentary about a teacher who sends a group of pupils out of the classroom when one of them does not own up to talking behind the master's back.

Let the Child Be the Guide

As a young father, watching his daughter go through her life experiences, film director Alexandre Mourot discovered the Montessori approach and decided to set his camera up in a children's house (3 to 6 years of age) in the oldest Montessori school in France. Alexandre was warmly welcomed in a surprisingly calm and peaceful environment, filled with flowers, fruits and Montessori materials. He met happy children, who were free to move about, working alone or in small groups. The teacher remained very discreet. Some children were reading, others were making bread, doing division, laughing or sleeping. The children guided the film director throughout the whole school year, helping him to understand the magic of their autonomy and self-esteem - the seeds of a new society of peace and freedom, which Maria Montessori dedicated her life work to.

Ultimo giorno di scuola

During his stay in Italy, Harlan accepted a commission from Rai and created a ruthless portrait of society through an archetypal setting. This film, set in a Roman school and filmed inside a classroom during a lesson, is a ruthless portrait of students and Italian society after the end of the protest movements of previous years.

On the Way to School

One year in the life of a Turkish teacher, teaching the Turkish language to Kurdish children in a remote village in Turkey. The children can't speak Turkish, the teacher can't speak Kurdish and is forced to become an exile in his own country. On the Way to School is a film about a Turkish teacher who is alone in a village as an authority of the state, and about his interaction with the Kurdish children who have to learn Turkish. The film witnesses the communication problem emphasizing the loneliness of a teacher in a different community and culture; and the changes brought up by his presence into this different community during one year. The film chronicles one school year, starting from September 2007 until the departure of the teacher for summer holiday in June 2008. During this period, they begin to know and understand each other mutually and slowly.

Waiting for "Superman"

Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Waiting for Superman is an impassioned indictment of the American school system from An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim.

Teaching War

This episode from the Czech Journal series examines how a military spirit is slowly returning to our society. Attempts to renew military training or compulsory military service and in general to prepare the nation for the next big war go hand in hand with society’s fear of the Russians, the Muslims, or whatever other “enemies”. This observational flight over the machine gun nest of Czech militarism becomes a grotesque, unsettling military parade. It can be considered not only to be a message about how easily people allow themselves to be manipulated into a state of paranoia by the media, but also a warning against the possibility that extremism will become a part of the regular school curriculum.

Deux Cancres

A father films the daily efforts and struggle of his son to do his homework. Completing the school tasks is an agony that oppresses the creative passion of a restless, imaginative boy. His father gets deeply involved so he can understand what the problem is, and spends an hour every day to help him with his homework. Days, weeks, years go by, and we observe how the eagerness to learn clashes with the ghost of school dropout. The endearing relationship between father and son, a real rollercoaster of emotions, reveals with a sense of humour the contradictions in the French education system.

A, B, C... Z

Children get ready to start the first grade. They start learning the first letters.

Eine geschlossene Gesellschaft

Follows the lives of students and their teachers based on the director's childhood memories. The events of the film take places in the actual boarding school called "Gymnasium Canisianum", founded in 1946 by a German catholic priest.

High School Radical

At 16, Max left with dreams and a GoPro slung over his shoulder for an exchange program at a high school in Oklahoma. Since then, Donald Trump has become president, the Capitol has been stormed, and abortion bans have gained ground. On the eve of Trump’s second term, Max goes back to see his friends to understand what their journeys reveal about the evolution of American society